Resource Exploitation in Native North America - (Native America: Yesterday and Today) by Bruce Johansen (Hardcover)
About this item
Highlights
- This wide-ranging survey of the environmental damage to Native American lands and peoples in North America--in recent times as well as previous decades--documents the continuing impact on the health, wellness, land, and communities of indigenous peoples.
- About the Author: Bruce E. Johansen is Jacob J. Isaacson University Research Professor of Communication and Native American Studies at University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he has been teaching and writing since 1982.
- 240 Pages
- History, Native American
- Series Name: Native America: Yesterday and Today
Description
About the Book
This wide-ranging survey of the environmental damage to Native American lands and peoples in North America--in recent times as well as previous decades--documents the continuing impact on the health, wellness, land, and communities of indigenous peoples.
Beginning in the early 1950s, Native peoples were recruited to mine "yellow dust"--uranium--and then, over decades, died in large numbers of torturous cancers. Uranium-induced cancers have become the deadliest plague unleashed upon Native peoples of North America--one with grave consequences impacting generations of American Indian families. Today, resource-driven projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline continue to put the health and safety of American Indians at risk.
Authored by an expert with 40 years of experience in the subject, this book documents the environmental provocations afflicting Native American peoples in the United States: from the toll of uranium mining on the Navajos to the devastation wrought by dioxin, PCBs, and other pollutants on the agricultural economy of the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation in northernmost New York. The detailed personal stories of human suffering will enable readers to grasp the seriousness of the injustices levied against Native peoples as a result of corporations' and governments' greed for natural resources.
- Exposes readers to complete and current information about the severe environmental and health concerns that American Indians living on reservations experience due to environmental degradation
- Encourages awareness of the issues tribal governments and Indian communities commonly face in balancing economic rewards and environmental and health consequences
- Provides important historical context to support readers' understanding of the present-day situation of American Indians and reservation life
Book Synopsis
This wide-ranging survey of the environmental damage to Native American lands and peoples in North America--in recent times as well as previous decades--documents the continuing impact on the health, wellness, land, and communities of indigenous peoples.
Beginning in the early 1950s, Native peoples were recruited to mine "yellow dust"--uranium--and then, over decades, died in large numbers of torturous cancers. Uranium-induced cancers have become the deadliest plague unleashed upon Native peoples of North America--one with grave consequences impacting generations of American Indian families. Today, resource-driven projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline continue to put the health and safety of American Indians at risk. Authored by an expert with 40 years of experience in the subject, this book documents the environmental provocations afflicting Native American peoples in the United States: from the toll of uranium mining on the Navajos to the devastation wrought by dioxin, PCBs, and other pollutants on the agricultural economy of the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation in northernmost New York. The detailed personal stories of human suffering will enable readers to grasp the seriousness of the injustices levied against Native peoples as a result of corporations' and governments' greed for natural resources.Review Quotes
"Compelling. . . . Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, professionals." --Choice
About the Author
Bruce E. Johansen is Jacob J. Isaacson University Research Professor of Communication and Native American Studies at University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he has been teaching and writing since 1982.