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UNITED STATES: Navajo receive Nuclear-Free award

The Navajo Nation received the 2005 Nuclear-Free Future Award at the Nobel Institute in Norway for its efforts to keep Navajo Indian Country free from all uranium mining.

The award was presented September 24, according to a press release at Navajo.org. The Navajo Nation became the first tribal government to prohibit uranium mining on their reservations in April when it passed the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005.

Uranium mining began on the Navajo reservations in the 1950s, and from 1979 through 1991 the largest uranium mine in the world operated on Navajo land. The mining not only caused radioactive material to infiltrate both the water and air, but also caused the Church Rock disaster, the largest-ever radioactive spill in U.S. history in 1979.