Hollywood is thrilled with the $80.5 million blockbuster oppenheimer Brought in on opening weekend Variety reported.Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheusthe film is about the so-called “father of the atomic bomb”.
Hollywood may be overjoyed at the long lines to see Oppenheimer, but Navajo President Boo Nigren has spoken out about the devastation caused by uranium mining and nuclear testing on the country’s largest Indian reservation. I think there is still a lack of coverage in Hollywood.
“The Navajo cannot afford to be erased from history again,” Nygren said. write and time Journal article on July 21, 2023.
“Hollywood has a lot of work to do,” Nygren wrote.
Nygren, 36, is serving his first term as Navajo president and is the youngest ever elected president of a tribal state.
According to Nyglen, the film marks the 44th anniversary of the Church Rock uranium factory spill that dumped 94 million gallons of radioactive waste into the Puerco River, which straddles the Navajo Nation’s northern states of New Mexico and Arizona. It was released five days later.
“what came nextCancer, miscarriages, and mysterious illnesses are the direct result of America’s race for nuclear supremacy. It is an achievement built on the remains of Navajo men, women and children and a living experience of nuclear weapons development in the United States. But as usual, Hollywood chose to ignore them. ’” Niglen writes.
Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) in 1990, but the Navajo problem persists.
“For Navajo families who have suffered the devastating and long-term health and environmental effects of the uranium mining industry on Navajo lands, despite the passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) in 1990, Justice remains elusive,” Nyglen wrote.
on the other hand, oppenheimer Although the film deals with history, the Navajo still deal with the long-term effects of spills and uranium mining that are affecting the lives of its people.
Read President Nygren’s op-ed.
About the Author: “Levi \”Calm Before the Storm\” Likert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Likert is the 2021 Native Media Awards Print/Online Winner. Received Best Column Award: “Member of the Native American Journalists Association. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. You can contact him at levi@nativenewsonline.net.”
Contact: levi@nativenewsonline.net
