Tournament: Grapevine | Round: 1 | Opponent: x | Judge: x
Uranium mining and radioactive waste dumping are the latest stage of the American genocide of Indigenous populations
Endres ’09 Dr. Danielle Endres, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Utah “The Rhetoric of Nuclear Colonialism: Rhetorical Exclusion of American Indian Arguments in the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Siting Decision,” March 2009, CPSZD
Before attending to the rhetorical nature of nuclear colonialism, it is important to emphasize the scope and material effects of nuclear technologies on indigenous peoples and their lands……Even now, the legacy of over 1000 abandoned mines and uranium tailing piles is radioactive dust that continues to put people living near tailing piles at a high risk for lung cancer.10
Talking about nuclear power without talking about Indigenous communities only perpetuates this cultural and physical destruction – the Church Rock Spill proves
Brugge et. al. ’07 Dr. Doug Brugge, Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts School of Medicine, Jamie L. DeLemos, M.S. from Tufts, Cat Bui, B.S. from Tufts “The Sequoyah Corporation Fuels Release and the Church Rock Spill: Unpublicized Nuclear Releases in American Indian Communities,” 2007, CPSZD
In 1968, 27 km northeast of the city of Gallup in the town of Church Rock, NM …… Sequoyah Fuels Corporation and Church Rock had little or no effect on the regulation of similar activities beyond fairly localized responses, such as the as yet incomplete decommissioning cleanup processes.
Debate is the best space to find solutions to these problems because it uniquely teaches students to be advocates beyond traditional policy analysis. Giroux explains:
Giroux ’06 Henry A. Giroux, McMaster University Professor for Scholarship in the Public Interest and The Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. America on the Edge: Henry Giroux on Politics, Culture, and Education, 2006, Palgrave MacMillan, ZD
The National Association of Urban Debate Leagues (UDLs) represents a promising……crucial to act in ways that demonstrate political conviction, civic courage, and collective responsibility.
Thus it is the role of the judge, the educator, to endorse these solutions as transformational. Giroux 2:
Giroux 1 Henry Giroux. “Dangerous Pedagogy in the Age of Casino Capitalism and Religious Fundamentalism.” 29 February 2012. Truthout. http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/6954:dangerous-pedagogy-in-the-age-of-casino-capitalism-and-religious-fundamentalism CPS ZD
Ethically, critical pedagogy requires an ongoing indictment …..future in those forces within the present which are potentially able to transform it."12
Thus, the role of the ballot is to vote for the policy that best resists and challenges this genocide.
First, we must understand that the production of nuclear power includes what happens before and after the material produces energy in a reactor – otherwise we perpetuate the system that allows indigenous communities to bear the brunt of environmental problems
Endres ’09 Dr. Danielle Endres, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Utah “The Rhetoric of Nuclear Colonialism: Rhetorical Exclusion of American Indian Arguments in the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Siting Decision,” March 2009, CPSZD
Although much public debate over nuclear technologies has focused on the consequences …..their cultural survival and their self-determination.
Insisting on defining Indigenous nations as simply part of the United States a discursive strategy used by the USFG to justify nuclear colonialism – Topicality just replicates this discursive colonialism and supercharges the impacts of the aff
Endres ’09 Dr. Danielle Endres, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Utah “The Rhetoric of Nuclear Colonialism: Rhetorical Exclusion of American Indian Arguments in the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Siting Decision,” March 2009, CPSZD
Nuclear communication criticism has focused on examination ……..inherently sovereign entities whose national interest may not include storing nuclear waste on their land.
Indigenous communities have been specifically targeted by the USFG for waste disposal
Endres ’09 Dr. Danielle Endres, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Utah “From wasteland to waste site: the role of discourse in nuclear power’s environmental injustices,” November 2009, CPSZD
As mentioned above, nuclear colonialism …… imposed upon Native American nations in the USA, particularly by Uranium mining and HLW disposal.
AND uranium mining and radioactive waste can be lethal for generations, Navajo mining proves.
Robyn ’11 Dr. Linda Robyn, Assistant Chair and Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northern Arizona University “State-Corporate Crime on the Navajo Nation: State-Corporate Crime on the Navajo Nation: A Legacy of Uranium Mining,” Fall 2011, CPSZD
The legacy of lethal mining continues today with contaminated water……. other cancers among very young women still in their teens. Rates for these types of cancers are reported to be 17 times the national average (Westra, L. and Lawson, B. E. 2001:66).
AND nuclear power production can lead to the destruction of Indigenous nations’ cultures – Yucca mountain proves land may hold spiritual or cultural value that the USFG has never taken into account
Endres ’09 Dr. Danielle Endres, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Utah “The Rhetoric of Nuclear Colonialism: Rhetorical Exclusion of American Indian Arguments in the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Siting Decision,” March 2009, CPSZD
In addition to claims of land ownership…… in favor of competing corporate or national interests.
Regulations cannot solve – the USFG coopts or rejects every attempt at regulation. Only full-scale prohibition can work.
Endres 09 Dr. Danielle Endres, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Utah “The Rhetoric of Nuclear Colonialism: Rhetorical Exclusion of American Indian Arguments in the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Siting Decision,” March 2009, CPSZD
Although Western Shoshone and Southern Paiute opposition ……commission rulings that conclude that the US claim to Western Shoshone lands violates international human rights law.60
AND indigenous resistance to American paternalism key to discursively and materially deconstruct colonialism
Endres ’09 Dr. Danielle Endres, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Utah “The Rhetoric of Nuclear Colonialism: Rhetorical Exclusion of American Indian Arguments in the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Siting Decision,” March 2009, CPSZD
Colonialism in all its forms is dependent on the discursive apparatus ...exemplifies the potential for resistance to colonization through a constitutive redefinition of sovereignty that supersedes the political definition.
Thus, the plan: The United States federal government and affected Indigenous nations should prohibit the production of nuclear power on or near Native land.
The IANS explains,
IANS ’96 Indigenous Anti-Nuclear Summit, signed by Citizen Alert Native American Program Columbia River Education, Economic and Development Dine’ CARE Ejit Iep Jeltok Women Club International Indian Treaty Council Laguna Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment Nuclear Free Future Campaign – Indigenous Lands – Greenpeace Ohana Koa/NFIP Hawaii Chapter Rural Alliance for Military Accountability Sovereign Dineh Nation – Dineh Alliance The Seventh Generation Fund Tribal Environmental Watch Alliance Uranium Radiation Victim Committee U.S.-Japan Committee on Racial Justice Water Information Network Supporters (Organizations) Abya Yala Fund Amanaka’a Amazon Network Amerindian Research Unit – University of Guyana Citizen Alert Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping Community Action International Alliance Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety Duckwater Shoshone Tribe Energy Research Foundation Federal Land Action Group Healing Global Wounds International Forum on Globalization Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation Los Alamos Study Group National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans (NECONA) Native American Council of New York City Native American Journalists Association Native Arts Circle Peace Action Peace Farm Piscataway Indian Nation Rainforest Action Network Red Feather Production Company The Arctic to Amazonia Alliance The Healing Forest Conservancy Urban Habitat Program Western Shoshone Defense Project Wetlands Preserve Worldview Yakoana Supporters (Individuals) Nilak Butler Delphine Carter Jessie Deer-In-Water Lea Foushee Bob Fulkerson Tom Goldtooth Susan Gordon Donna House Gilbert Sanchez Virginia Sanchez Kim Townsend Jennifer Viereck Andrew Wheat Ian Zabarte “Indigenous Anti-Nuclear Summit Declaration,” September 1996. CPSZD
We, the Indigenous Peoples gathered here for this summit…... we encourage you to contact your representative to phase out nuclear power plants and implement sustainable energy production methods (i.e.. solar energy, wind energy, etc.).
