Below is a list of all the places Elsie has traveled to to show the film since 2000:

2000
Sundance Film Festival, Park City, UT
Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock, AZ
Arizona International Film Festival, Tucscon, AZ
American Indian Center, Chicago IL
Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, IL
Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago, IL
NAES College, Chicago, IL
Durango Film Festival, Durango, CO
Smithsonian’s Native American Film Festival, New York City
Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC
US Geological Survey, Reston, VA

2001
Manchester, England
California State University, Fullerton, CA
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Albuquerque Public Library, NM
Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ
Mesa Verde National Park, CO
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL
Living Treasures Awards Ceremony, Chicago, IL

2003
Crow Canyon Archaeology Center, Cortez, CO
Sedgwick Cultural Center, Philadelphia, PA

2004
Finger Lakes Film Festival, Ithaca, NY
Arizona State Museum, Tucson, AZ

2006
Galleria Mistica, Tucson, AZ
Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA

2008
Congress of the United States, Washington DC

2010
Rough Rock Trading Post, AZ
Salt Lake City Public Library, UT

2011
University of Idaho
American Society for Environmental HIstory, Phoenix, AZ
Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
Phil Thomas Performing Arts Center, Shiprock, NM
Farmington Public Library, NM

The New York Times reports on the hundreds of abandoned uranium mines still contaminating the Navajo Nation:

The abandoned mine here, about 60 miles east of the Grand Canyon, joins the list of hundreds of such sites identified across the 27,000 square miles of Navajo territory in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico that are the legacy of shoddy mining practices and federal neglect. From the 1940s through the 1980s, the mines supplied critical materials to the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

For years, unsuspecting Navajos inhaled radioactive dust and drank contaminated well water. Many of them became sick with cancer and other diseases.

The radioactivity at the former mine is said to measure one million counts per minute, translating to a human dose that scientists say can lead directly to malignant tumors and other serious health damage, according to Lee Greer, a biologist at La Sierra University in Riverside, Calif. Two days of exposure at the Cameron site would expose a person to more external radiation than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers safe for an entire year.

Read the full article to learn more.

The Grand Junction Free Press published an article on an upcoming screening of The Return of Navajo Boy in Colorado.

The 27,000 square mile Navajo Nation, encompassing parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, contain the largest uranium deposits in the United States, and more than 500 abandoned Cold War era uranium mines, according to the EPA.

The internationally acclaimed film demonstrates environmental racism and the struggle a Navajo grandmother goes through to attain justice.

Perry Charley, director of the Uranium Education Program at Dine’ College in Shiprock, New Mexico, will present the film and lead a discussion of the lasting impact of mining on Indian lands.

Read the full article here.

The Oxford Journal of Environmental History ran a cover story on uranium mining in the Navajo Nation, using The Return of Navajo Boy as a major source. Marsha Weisiger of New Mexico State University writes in her article:

The camera pans across the vermillion mesas and buttes of Monument Valley that John Ford and John Wayne made mythic. Here, near the border between Utah and Arizona, lives the most famous family you have never heard of, the family of Happy Cly, pictured again and again in Arizona Highways, the portfolios of photographers Josef Muench and Ray Manley, and postcards sold at Goulding’s tourist lodge. Dissolve. The next scenes introduce Cly’s great-grandson, Lorenzo Begay. He leafs through old black-and-white pictures of his family, stills from a movie he has never seen: a smiling girl in a velvet- een blouse studded with silver conchos, a grinning boy with a bandana tied across his forehead. “I never thought that pictures would change anyone’s life,” Begay narrates. “But that was before the return of the Navajo boy.”

To read the full article, visit the Oxford Journals website.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Navajo Boy Film and Media Campaign Guides EPA to Environmental Justice

Navajo Activist and Filmmaker Present their Story Today at EPA Headquarters

      WASHINGTON DC — A documentary film and decade long media campaign by Groundswell Educational Films and a Navajo family opened eyes in Congress and paved the way this summer for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) first ever cleanup of a Cold War uranium mine on Native American land.

     A Sundance Film Festival and PBS selection The Return of Navajo Boy film, and the Navajo family in it, triggered a federal investigation of uranium houses. After ten years of activism — screenings, public events, media coverage and online advocacy — the innovative media campaign and strong Navajo community voices led to the EPA’s $7.5 million cleanup of the abandoned uranium mine adjacent to the homesite of the family in The Return of Navajo Boy film in Monument Valley UT. Skyline Mine is one of more than 500 abandoned uranium mines listed in the EPA’s 5 year plan to cleanup Cold War uranium contamination in the Navajo Nation. In 2007 Congressman Henry Waxman (D-California) introduced a congressional investigation by describing the situation as “a forty year history of bipartisan failure and a modern American tragedy”.

     To commemorate Native American Heritage Month the EPA is sponsoring a presentation today by Groundswell co-founder, Jeff Spitz, director of the film and Navajo environmental activist Mary Begay, whose family is featured in the film. Spitz, an Associate Professor of documentary film at Columbia College Chicago and Begay, an elementary school teacher in the Navajo Nation, will present film clips, websites, webisodes, science curriculum and social media that chronicle their campaign and the unfolding federal response. The presentation begins at 11:00AM, Nov. 16 in Rachel L. Carson Great Hall, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.

     ”Our work with Groundswell points to the urgent need for more education in impacted Navajo communities where radioactive waste contaminates houses, water, soil and livestock,” said Mary Begay.

     ”While the media flocked to Japan’s radiation crisis, the Navajo Nation struggles to secure a federal clean up of Cold War uranium contamination,” says director Jeff Spitz. “Stories and film are powerful tools to create empathy and communicate across cultures. Groundswell uses new media tools to give voice, public engagement strategies to advocate for environmental justice, and mainstream media to amplify stories.”

     Groundswell Educational Films, based in Chicago, has been actively booking screenings and presentations for 10 years, leveraging media coverage for the issue and creating a platform for the Navajo community to advocate for EPA cleanup. “Transferring media skills to community members continues to be a key to the success of this project,” said Spitz. Accomplishments include triggering the investigation of uranium houses; gaining compensation for ailing former uranium miners and helping the Navajo Nation to move Congress to authorize the five agencies–Nuclear Regulatory Agency, Dept of Energy, Indian Health Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs and EPA to work together to cleanup the contamination.

BACKGROUND

The 27,000 square miles of the Navajo Nation contain the largest uranium deposits in the US and more than 500 abandoned Cold War era uranium mines according to the US EPA, which continue to contaminate land, water and homes and impact the health of residents.

• 1950s-1970s: The US government failed to warn Navajos about the dangers of uranium mining and radioactive waste despite the fact that the United States government was the sole purchaser of all the uranium.
• In 1990 Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). RECA represents an official government apology to victims of America’s Cold War nuclear program. RECA expressly acknowledges the United States’ failure to warn three groups of victims: uranium miners, on-site atomic test victims and downwind communities exposed to fallout from the atomic bomb tests.
• In 2000 The Return of Navajo Boy premieres at the Sundance Film Festival, raising awareness of “uranium houses”. Later that year, the EPA removed these structures from Navajo lands.
• In 2005 the Navajo Nation became the first indigenous government to ban uranium mining and exploration on its lands.
• In 2006 and 2007 Congress, led by Henry Waxman (D-California, Chair of the Budget and Government Oversight Committee) sought direct testimony from Navajo officials and demanded a plan of action from the five federal agencies responsible for what Waxman described as a “40 year history of bipartisan failure and a modern American tragedy”.
• In 2008 Groundswell and Navajo family members screened the film and a new epilogue on Capitol Hill.
• In 2008, Congress authorized a comprehensive 5-year plan to coordinate the clean up of contaminated structures, soil and water in the Navajo Nation.
• In April 2011 US EPA began its clean up operation in Monument Valley at the abandoned Skyline Mine which contaminated the homesite of the Navajo family featured in The Return of Navajo Boy.

About Groundswell Educational Films: Groundswell is a non-profit organization with a mission to collaborate cross-culturally in all facets of documentary filmmaking, transfer media skills into disadvantaged communities, and partner with stakeholders to stimulate local actions that address social justice issues raised in our films. Groundswell engages audiences through film, live performances and multi-arts programming and amplifies marginalized voices through new and traditional media.

Dear Friends of Navajo Boy, Groundswell is celebrating a few milestones with its Return of Navajo Boy project. EPA has completed the long awaited $7.5 million uranium cleanup in the community of Elsie Mae Begay, the matriarch in our film, The Return of Navajo Boy. Groundswell Makes Headlines
Our media outreach team prompted dozens of recent news stories about the uranium problems in Navajo lands, including two national feature stories published by the Associated Press: Navajo Woman Helps Prompt Uranium Mine Cleanup and EPA Wraps Up Uranium Mine Cleanup on Navajo Nation. Groundswell Keynotes EPA Event in DC The EPA has invited Groundswell and Navajo webisode correspondent Mary Begay, to present our model for documentary film, news making and advocacy in Washington DC on November 16th for Native American Heritage Month. Our presentation will be broadcast on EPA-TV. New DVD Edition
Groundswell is proud to announce the release of our new 15th Anniversary edition of The Return of Navajo Boy DVD. This edition includes features such as: webisodes, slideshow about Groundswell’s methods, behind-the-scenes photo gallery, 2011 epilogue and the original 1950s film Navaho Boy: The Monument Valley Story. Next up: We are raising funds to develop curricula and an education program with our Navajo partners. The project, led by Mary Begay, will empower other communities on the reservation with knowledge, tools, and skills to advocate for clean up of uranium contamination. We welcome all donations to this effort.
Groundswell turns unheard-of stories into social change. What’s your story?    – Jeff & Jennifer   Groundswell Co-Founders

Below is an article published by the Farmington Daily Times:

Below is an article from the Farmington Daily Times, published on October 20, 2011:

October 20 2011 Farmington Daily Times

The Associated Press reported on the clean up of Skyline Mine, which sits near Elsie Mae Begay’s residence in Monument Valley:

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — For decades, Elsie Begay and her family tied sickness and death to the contaminated uranium waste that sat at the foot of a mesa on the Arizona-Utah border and was scattered throughout an arroyo near their homes.

Now it’s gone, along with the threat of continued radiation exposure for the handful of families living on the valley floor. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wrapped up the $7.5 million cleanup project at Oljato Mesa this week, marking the first significant remediation of a mine site on the Navajo Nation.

“Our big concern was people going right up to the piles and being exposed to gamma radiation, and we’ve mitigated that threat,” said Jason Musante, who oversaw the cleanup of Skyline Mine for the EPA.

The SLT reports on a new health study to measure the impacts of cold war uranium contamination on the Navajo Nation:

Just as crews complete the cleanup of the Skyline Mine, a group of health scientists is preparing to launch a sweeping study of how the uranium legacy continues to affect the health of the youngest Navajos.

Toxicologist Johnnye Lewis said no other health study of its kind has taken place on the Navajo Reservation.

“It probably would have been nice to do this 10 years ago,” the University of New Mexico researcher said.

But it was only in 2008 that Congress held a hearing about the lingering problems of uranium on the reservation and adopted plans to deal with them.

Salt Lake Tribune reporter Judy Fahys delivers a new update about the work in Monument Valley to clean up the Skyline Mine near Elsie Mae Begay’s home:

In some people’s minds, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cleanup this summer signaled the federal government has at long last started owning up to its obligations to the Navajos. Next week dump trucks and dozers will be done stuffing the evil back into the redrock.

And the unseen demons will be vanquished from the mythic landscape.

Mary Holiday is happy the uranium has been returned to Oljato Mesa, out of sight from the cluster of family homes below Skyline.

“It’s better,” she said, her daughter Daisy translating from Navajo, “that it’s been taken back where it came from instead of putting it back in another place where it is a danger.”

Read the full article.

The Salt Lake Tribune published a front page article on October 10, 2011 about the clean up in Monument Valley. Read it below:

The Oregon Daily Emerald, the student newspaper at the University of Oregon, published a wrap-up of their recent campus screening:

The award-winning expose “The Return of Navajo Boy,” a documentary on uranium contamination of the Navajo Nation, was presented at the EMU Thursday night as part of a state-wide tour to broaden public discussion of indigenous rights.

“It made me more aware,” said Joanne Gasca, a University senior studying psychology. “I didn’t know this was going on, the uranium stuff. I had no idea. We have to do something about this.”

The film, produced by Groundswell Educational Films, was an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival and was widely promoted by PBS. Filmmaker Jeff Spitz and tribal elder and film subject Elsie Mae Begay have traveled nationwide promoting the film’s message, including a visit to Capitol Hill.

As the EPA’s clean up of uranium contamination in Monument Valley continues, Groundswell presents a new webisode documenting Navajo reactions. Groundswell correspondent Mary Helen Begay talks with neighbors and EPA site-coordinator Jason Musante about moving 17,000 cubic yards of radioactive soil. Where is the EPA moving it? Now you can see for yourself. And you can watch more than a dozen webisodes to follow this ongoing groundswell for environmental justice. The webisodes start in 2000 when Groundswell first exposed the existence of a house made out of uranium.

Groundswell’s media outreach team continues to amplify Navajo voices in this new Associated Press article which has appeared in over 150 news outlets nationwide. This month Navajo activist and grandmother Elsie Mae Begay, Navajo nuclear scientist Perry Charley, and Groundswell Co-founder, Jeff Spitz, travel to Oregon for a tour of three universities sponsored by the Tokyo Foundation. For more information about our upcoming events or to book a screening/discussion in your community visit us at www.navajoboy.com. Thank you for your continued support.    – Jeff & Jennifer   Groundswell Co-Founders

Southern Oregon Unversity Ashland, Oregon      University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon      Oregon State University Corvallis, Oregon      Phil L Thomas Arts Center Shiprock, New Mexico      Farmington Public Library Farmington, New Mexico

The Associated Press recently reported on Elsie’s work to ensure that the abandoned uranium mine near her home is cleaned up:

MONUMENT VALLEY, Utah (AP) — The stretch of high desert on the Arizona-Utah border gives way to towering rock formations that resemble huge mittens, chimney spires and castles. But to the west of Monument Valley lies a reminder of what has been blamed for much heartache and tragedy in Elsie Mae Begay’s family: A mesa stained with a gray streak where uranium was mined decades ago.

Read the full article on the Houston Chronicle’s website.

Dear Friends of Navajo Boy,

Three recent articles help Groundswell leverage more pressure to clean up radioactive uranium hazards on Navajo lands. “Let’s call attention to all the other Navajo communities that don’t have a film and a media campaign,” says Groundswell’s Navajo Community educator Mary Begay. Today, a multi-million dollar EPA cleanup is happening at Skyline mine, in the family compound of Elsie Mae Begay, featured in the film The Return of Navajo Boy. Groundswell is making plans to educate, train and organize other Navajo families to advocate too. Thank you for your support and contributions.

           – Jeff & Jennifer
          Groundswell Co-Founders

Read full article

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jennifer Amdur Spitz (773) 771-7696 jennifer@groundswellfilms.org

Filmmaker and Navajo activist invited to teach tribal environmental leaders how to build new groundswells for action

GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN — An internationally acclaimed documentary film, The Return of Navajo Boy tells a Navajo family history involving Hollywood, houses made out of uranium, and a long lost boy. The film and public engagement campaign are credited with triggering a federal investigation into uranium poisoning, pressuring changes in federal legislation, and after a decade of persistence, inspiring the EPA to clean up uranium contamination at Elsie Begay’s home. Now, the Navajo activists and filmmakers are bringing their media justice experience to other tribal environmental activists at the Tribal Lands and Environment Forum in Green Bay, WI.

“While everyone is talking about Japan’s radiation crisis, the Navajo Nation is struggling to secure a federal clean up of Cold War uranium contamination,” says Spitz. “Navajos are dying of cancer at high rates, and we’re working with new media tools to fight for environmental justice.”

Since the film’s premier at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, filmmaker Jeff Spitz and Navajo grandmother and activist Elsie May Begay have criss-crossed the nation showing the film and telling the story. Spitz raises awareness through the media, websites, and live events by working through Groundswell Educational Films, the Chicago-based nonprofit he co-founded. Groundswell enables Navajo activists to film the clean up with video cameras and travel around the reservation educating peers on health issues surrounding uranium.

Sparked by the success of this advocacy effort, tribal leaders invited Groundswell Films and Navajo activist Mary Begay to present the keynote at the 2011 Tribal Lands and Environment Forum on August 23rd in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This special presentation of The Return of Navajo Boy, an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival and PBS will include a ‘webisode’ about the clean up taking place at this time in Monument Valley.

Navajo activist Mary Begay will introduce the film, its recent epilogue and new webisodes which she filmed. Groundswell co-founder Jennifer Amdur Spitz will share Groundswell’s methodology for media and social change. In addition, Groundswell is bringing attorney John Hueston, formerly the lead prosecutor in the Enron trials to discuss “Potentially Responsible Party” lawsuits involving major corporations and their environmental legacies. On behalf of the Navajo Nation Hueston successfully negotiated with GE and then pursued Kerr-McGee resulting in more than $20 million in new funds targeted for cleaning up Cold War-era uranium contamination in the Navajo Nation. Over 500 more abandoned uranium mines remain on the Navajo Reservation.

“Members of our tribal steering committee had seen this documentary at other venues and believed showing it at our forum would make a wonderful addition to breakout sessions and trainings,” said Todd Barnell, Program Coordinator at the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals. “They believed that showing a local issue that highlights community-level involvement would be exciting and thought-provoking for our attendees.” The Tribal Lands and Environment Forum brings together tribal and federal employees working in solid waste, brownfields, Superfund sites, underground storage tanks, and emergency response. The Forum convenes at the Oneida Tribe’s Radisson Hotel and Conference Center in Green Bay, from August 23rd – 25th.

BACKGROUND

The 27,000 square miles of the Navajo Nation contain the largest uranium deposits in the US and more than 500 abandoned Cold War era uranium mines according to the US EPA, which continue to contaminate land, water and homes and impact the health of residents.

• 1950s-1970s: The US government failed to warn Navajos about the dangers of uranium mining and radioactive waste despite the fact that the United States government was the sole purchaser of all the uranium.
• In 1990 Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). RECA represents an official government apology to victims of America’s Cold War nuclear program. RECA expressly acknowledges the United States’ failure to warn three groups of victims: uranium miners, on-site atomic test victims and downwind communities exposed to fallout from the atomic bomb tests.
• In 2005 the Navajo Nation became the first indigenous government to ban uranium mining and exploration on its lands.
• In 2006 and 2007 Congress, led by Henry Waxman (D-California, Chair of the Budget and Government Oversight Committee) sought direct testimony from Navajo officials and demanded a plan of action from the five federal agencies responsible for what Waxman described as a “40 year history of bipartisan failure and a modern American tragedy”.
• In 2008 Congress authorized a comprehensive 5-year plan to coordinate the clean up of contaminated structures, soil and water in the Navajo Nation. This summer marks the fourth year of the EPA’s comprehensive clean up plan.
• In April 2011 US EPA began its clean up operation in Monument Valley at the abandoned Skyline Mine which contaminated the homesite of the Navajo family featured in The Return of Navajo Boy.

About Groundswell: Groundswell Educational Films is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization with a mission to collaborate across cultures in the art of documentary filmmaking, transfer media skills into disadvantaged communities and partner with stakeholders to engage audiences in social justice stories.

About 2011 Tribal Lands Forum: Tribal Lands and Environment: A National Forum on Solid Waste, Emergency Response, Contaminated Sites, and USTS is hosted by The Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals, National Tribal Waste and Response Assistance Program (TWRAP) Steering Committee and USEPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER).

###

Check out our latest Navajo video dispatch from Monument Valley. It shows the US EPA’s cleanup in full swing. Groundswell correspondent Mary Begay follows US EPA project manager Jason Musante behind the scenes.

“This example and this project show that someone in Congress learned of the problem here and said go do that,” Musante says. “Now what’s been a really good way to bring that message forward is the documentary Navajo Boy.”

Groundswell continues to publicize the story through:

• Webisodes, shot on flip cameras by Navajo participants and edited by Groundswell — view the whole series at navajoboy.com/webisodes
• Generating media coverage for the issue (see headlines below)
• And creating opportunities to screen the film and for Navajos to tell their story.

In August, Mary Begay, who shot this webisode, and Jeff Spitz, producer of The Return of Navajo Boy will keynote The Tribal Lands Forum, a national conference for tribal environmental professionals. Their keynote will focus on cross-cultural media, advocacy and environmental justice. Check our website for a listing of other presentations or to book a screening of your own.

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On May 17, 2011 Kathy Helms of the Gallup Independent delves into details about the US EPA’s clean up of Elsie Mae Begay’s backyard and the former Skyline Mine in Oljato Messa, as seen in The Return of Navajo Boy.

Gallup Independent May 17 2011

Kathy Helms of the Gallup Independent reported on May 16, 2011 about the US Environmental Protection Agency’s ongoing clean up in Monument Valley. Read the full article below.

Gallup Independent May 16 2011

After thirteen years of film screenings, events, conferences, and relentless advocacy, clean up of Skyline Mine begins in Monument Valley Utah. The family living below the mine is the subject of Return of Navajo Boy, the streak on the mesa behind their family home piqued filmmaker Jeff Spitz’s interest to find out more about the old abandoned uranium mine overhead.

Click through to read yesterday’s front page article in the Salt Lake Tribune.

“The Return of Navajo Boy” was screened at the 2011 American Society for Environmental History conference in April. With support from Sylff, Linda Richards of Oregon State University and Shangrila Wynn from the University of Oregon presented the film. Filmmaker Jeff Spitz and Navajo participant Elsie Mae Begay were in attendance, along with Perry Charley, a Navajo nuclear scientist from Diné College.

From left to right: Perry Charley, Elsie Mae Begay, Jeff Spitz and Linda Richards.

Conference attendees enjoy lunch after discussing the situation on the Navajo Nation.

Kathy Helms of the Gallup Independent reported on Groundswell’s screening at the Department of Energy’s State of Environmental Justice Conference today. Read her article below:

‘Navajo Boy’ to be shown at environmental justice conference

April 28, 2011

By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

WINDOW ROCK – The award-winning film, “The Return of Navajo Boy” will be shown Thursday afternoon at the fifth annual State of Environmental Justice in America Conference in Washington.

Directed by Jeff Spitz of Chicago, the internationally acclaimed documentary that reunited a Navajo family and triggered a federal investigation into uranium contamination is a reminder of the legacy of Cold War uranium mining on the Navajo Nation.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began cleanup March 30 of the Skyline Mine on Oljato Mesa in Monument Valley and radioactive waste in Elsie Begay’s back yard. Begay, who lost two children to radiation-related cancers, is featured in the Groundswell film which introduces audiences to Native American culture, environmental racism and one Navajo grandmother’s struggle for justice.

“Groundswell along with Elsie and other Navajo family members have worked tirelessly over the last 11 years for this outcome,” Spitz said. “The U.S. Department of Energy under the present administration is proud of this environmental justice story.”

DOE invited Groundswell to come to Washington to present the film and epilogue. Friday morning, on the second day of the conference, Spitz and Navajo participants will discuss how they use media, live events, advocacy and persistence to leverage change in public policy.

But while they celebrate the victory for Begay’s family, Spitz said, many other Navajo families are dealing with radioactive contamination and grief that simply cannot be contained.

One of the premier authorities on uranium issues in Navajo Indian Country, Perry Charley of Dine College’s Environmental Institute and a panelist on environmental health issues in Indian Country at the 2010 conference, had hoped to attend this year’s event. However, Spitz said, “His doctors will not allow the travel. He has cancer.”

Instead, Charley wrote a statement about the “real state of environmental justice in Navajo lands” for Spitz to share with the audience. “Sorry I can’t be there, but tell the crowd I wish them well. And the federal government has waited too long to fund many remedial projects, education and research studies,” he said.

Among the points Charley highlights is the Navajo Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Department – which has so diligently monitored and performed remediation of abandoned uranium mines and mill sites on the Navajo Nation – is proposed to have its funding cut completely by the Obama administration, he said. “The program is desperately needed to perform continued surveillance and maintain reclaimed uranium mines and mills, some of which show signs of deterioration and exposing radioactive waste to nearby communities.”

Charley also expects a hard battle in Congress over passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2011, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico and a bipartisan group of senators. “Many of our Navajo miners and families face challenges in getting compensation due to the heavy documentation requirement of the process. The federal government still does not understand the implications of traditional and cultural sensitivity,” he said.

And while there is now a five-year plan for cleanup of legacy waste, there is “no funding to perform many of the issues we face” from past Manhattan Engineer District and Atomic Energy Commission activities.

Charley said he personally has been sampling and conducting studies of the impacts to Navajo water sources. “We have a well with uranium concentration of 760 parts per billion,” many times above the 30 parts per billion Maximum Contaminant Level allowable under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water standards, “and another a few miles away with 200 parts per billion,” he said. “These communities have no alternate water source and the Navajo continue to use contaminated sources for their domestic needs.”

Companies who once mined Navajo lands for uranium need to be made to come back and clean up their mess, according to Charley. “We have tons of radioactive materials scattered throughout Navajo lands. Our water is contaminated and our air is contaminated. Homes are built with radioactive materials.

“We need studies to determine the impact to our children and their future. There has never been a true epidemiological study done on Navajo lands to determine the true extent of exposure. Small-scale studies and research point to contamination of every segment of our lives and society.”

Navajo also needs educational funds for programs such as the Uranium Education Program which he once directed and had to cease due to lack of funding. “We need to educate our people and our young ones to be part of this process, to be self-sustaining and to dictate our own future and destiny. We literally have dozens of mining companies at our reservation doors waiting for the moratorium on uranium mining and processing to be lifted on Navajo lands. The companies and federal entities that continue to disregard our tribal sovereignty laws and rights need to recognize these.”

Education and research studies need to continue, Charley said. “Even for some of us who have been involved in being part of these activities to try to correct the wrongs of the past, we are affected as well. I don’t know what my future holds, but I am fighting for my very survival,” he told Spitz. “Feel free to tell them this, especially the feds.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Japan struggles to contain radioactive contamination, Groundswell is reminding Americans that over a thousand abandoned Cold War-era uranium mines still contaminate the American Southwest. The US Department of Energy will feature The Return of Navajo Boy project as a case study in film, media, public engagement and measurable impacts at its State of Environmental Justice Conference on April 28th and 29th in Washington, DC. This month, the US Environmental Protection Agency began clean up at Skyline Mine, the site featured in the documentary.

Since 2000, when the film’s cautionary tale stunned Sundance Film Festival audiences, Groundswell Educational Films has brought it and Navajo activists across the country to advocate for a clean up of radioactive waste in the Navajo Nation. The filmmaker, Jeff Spitz, and Navajo participants triggered a federal investigation into uranium houses. Many Navajos, including the grandmother in the film, Elsie Mae Begay, built their homes with uranium rocks from the abandoned mines. The US government failed to warn Navajos about the dangers of radioactive waste.

Decades after ceasing operations, the radiation from more than 1,000 abandoned uranium mines continues to impact homes, livestock, land, and water across the 27,000 square mile reservation. The Navajo Nation is home to approximately 200,000 people. It holds the largest uranium deposits in the United States and suffers from the highest cancer rates in the Southwest region.

Partially as a response to the Groundswell advocacy campaign, the US Environmental Protection Agency has now begun to clean up the area around the abandoned Skyline Mine, including Elsie Mae Begay’s yard spotlighted in the documentary. This month tractors and heavy equipment rolled into Elsie’s yard eleven years after the film’s debut.

“Americans have been rightfully horrified by the unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan. But we forget that there is highly dangerous radioactive waste poisoning communities right here in America,” said Groundswell co-founder Jeff Spitz, who directed the film. “This clean up of the Skyline Mine and Elsie Begay’s yard offers a ray of hope to other families living in remote areas hoping for the same attention. We show how to get it.”

Groundswell’s unique model of film and public awareness campaign empowers Navajos to get attention by equipping them with Flip video cameras, multi-media tools, and opportunities to speak at film events, conferences, on campuses, and in the media nationwide. Navajos upload footage and Groundswell edits short videos that allow thousands of followers to stay engaged in the story unfolding online at navajoboy.com/webisodes.

“Using our own video cameras to document what we are struggling with every day gives us hope that the world has not forgotten about us. It gives us a voice,” said Mary Helen Begay, Elsie’s daughter in law and creator of two recent webisodes. “Our hearts go out to the people of Japan. We hope that they won’t have to live with radioactive waste as we have for more than 50 years now.”

About Groundswell: Groundswell Educational Films is a nonprofit organization with a mission to collaborate cross-culturally in all facets of documentary filmmaking, transfer media skills into disadvantaged communities, and partner with stakeholders to leverage changes that address the social justice issues raised in our films.

The Activist Writer published an item about the success of The Return of Navajo Boy:

A film about the Begay family, The Return of Navajo Boy, went on to become an award-winning documentary as well as a successful outreach tool for environmental justice.

They’ve met with success and hope for more: late last year, the EPA has finally earmarked funds to clean up the contaminated area near the Begay home.

The film recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, but the filmmakers and community continue working to building awareness today. You can see the results of their work in specially-produced web series: watch the latest webisodes at the official site, and visit the action center to learn more about how to help affected Navajo families.

The story didn’t end after Groundswell released its film The Return of Navajo Boy in 2000. Groundswell’s series of webisodes documenting the struggle for cleanup of uranium contamination on Navajo lands carry the story forward.

Now Navajos are documenting the US Environmental Protection Agency cleanup with their own flip cameras. And the web video series has started generating attention of its own.

IndieWire’s film distribution guru Sydney Levine called the webisode series and Groundswell’s outreach efforts “a good case study” for mobilizing around an important issue.

NuclearFreePlanet.org writes:

“This is a good example of successful activist media. As the uranium mining debate heats up again, this film becomes even more pertinent. Watch the webisodes to get an idea of what this Navajo family, and the Navajo Nation, is dealing with. This film got a lot of people involved in this issue and shows that independent media and community members together can make a difference.”

You can donate to support production of more webisodes filmed by Navajos themselves.

Groundswell recently got word from Brazil that The Return of Navajo Boy is the first film selected for the inaugural Uranium Film Festival called Uranio Em Moviemento.

The director of the festival also invited Groundswell’s Jeff Spitz (director of The Return of Navajo Boy) and a Navajo representative to attend the festival in May and take part in panel discussions about the impacts of uranium mining on indigenous peoples.

The festival, which features films from around the world, will take place from May 21st to 28th in Rio De Janeiro and June 2nd through 9th in Sao Paulo. Films featured in the festival will also be donated to a new program called The Yellow Archives, which will subtitle them in Portuguese and provide them to schools in Portuguese-speaking countries.

For more information, visit the Uranium Film Festival website.
Uranium Film Festival website. View the invitation they extended to Groundswell below:

When The Return of Navajo Boy was screened at the Amiens Film Festival last year in France, festival organizers had it subtitled specially for the event. After the festival ended, the FILA 13 Subtitulacio S.L. of Spain made a special donation of the subtitles to Groundswell to help advance the film and outreach campaign in francophone countries.

“This is our contribution to your project,” said Isabel Rancaño of FILA 13.

Both the film itself and the epilogue have been subtitled in French. Groundswell will distribute special French-language DVDs for screenings starting in France where Groundswell board member Alan Slavik is based in Paris. If you have any referrals for French language events, please let us know.

Here’s a photo from our archives. Elsie Mae Begay, left, stands next to then-Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) outside her radioactive hogan. A short time later the hogan was demolished by the EPA at Elsie’s request. Watch a video of the hogan being demolished below:

Watch more Navajo webisodes.

It’s been a long time coming. In September the EPA committed funds to clean up the Skyline mine and all the high level radioactive waste in the backyard of Elsie Begay, the star of our documentary, “The Return of Navajo Boy“.

EPA officials cited Elsie’s efforts and our campaign to educate others as the reason they moved this location to the top of a long priority list. EPA plans to relocate Elsie and family in the spring for approximately 4 months while experts in hazmat outfits dig up several tons of radioactive ore and truck it to the top of the mesa where a new repository will be established.

We are training local Navajo residents to cover this story for a new web series and we need your support. Click to select a level for your donation.

Groundswell and Northwestern University’s Chemistry Department are building a website to offer water quality information to Navajo residents. The EPA has identified many contaminated water sources, but government data comes in scientific language that is not accessible to most residents.

With support from the National Science Foundation, Northwestern Chemistry professor Franz Geiger contracted Groundswell to develop an interactive, user friendly website with educational extensions into Navajo communities concerned about water quality. There are more than 1,000 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo reservation. Impacts to groundwater, livestock and family health concern many communities. The EPA and Navajo water researchers have investigated hundreds of wells scattered across the 25,000 square mile reservation. The new water website will enable Navajos to share their findings, educate residents and lobby for assistance. Navajo educators want more than signs with public health warnings.

Help us produce webisodes that empower Navajos to report about their own communities and share information. Click to select a level for your donation.

This Fall The Return of Navajo Boy screened with Navajo guest speakers at sponsored public events in the Navajo Nation, Salt Lake City, Chicago; Portland, and France!

In the Navajo Nation, Indian Health Service collaborates with Groundswell to engage audiences in remote communities impacted by uranium mining. Participants from the film, Elsie Begay, her son Lorenzo, and daughter-in-law Mary Begay travel across the reservation to lead discussions.

In the Midwest, the University of Chicago Law School hosted a screening and panel discussion with filmmaker Jeff Spitz, Navajo activist Mary Begay, and author Judy Pasternak. Pasternak’s new book: Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed features the Navajo family in our film. Pasternak appears in our film’s 2008 Epilogue which is now available on DVD.

Bennie Klain, Co-producer, traveled to France for the Premier of The Return of Navajo Boy at the Amiens International Film Festival. (See photos on Groundswell’s Flickr page.) Groundswell Board member, Alan Slavik, a Paris-based marketing consultant, attended the Amiens premier and is planning future screenings in Paris.

Northwestern University chemistry professor Franz Geiger and a small group of interns will collaborate with Groundswell and stakeholders on Navajo Nation to create a rich new website with information about the quality of water on Navajo Nation.

This new, interactive website will incorporate a large US EPA dataset with photos and video and will be useful to Navajo residents looking for information about their local water supplies.

The US EPA made extensive measurements of water sources in the late 1990s (many of which were contaminated by nearby Cold War-era uranium mining), but the wealth of data they produced has not been available in an easily-understandable web format for residents of Navajo Nation. This project will solve that problem and help fill a void of reliable information about water quality in Navajo communities.

In addition to the design and programming of the new website and all the data inputting that this entails, this project will also include collaboration and outreach with Navajos to ensure the usefulness of this groundbreaking new website. For participating Northwestern chemistry student interns, this project will serve as a prime example of chemistry making a tangible impact in people’s lives.

The website will be publicly accessible in September 2010.

I became interested in science from seeing the abandoned uranium mines in Oljato, Utah. My cousin and I used to go into these abandoned uranium mines to explore. We would go to the end of the mines if we can, that was our main objective. Why we did that was because we were both curious. There was no sign or fence to warn the public about the dangers of the abandoned uranium mines. In addition, there was no one warning the public about the health risk associated with the abandoned uranium mines. This was way back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

I decided to become involved with the clean-up and the research side of the exposure to abandoned uranium mines because my grandfather died of cancer. He was a former uranium mine worker. I will never forgot that morning when I received the message that my grandfather had three hours to live. I was going to school at Northern Arizona University and my grandfather was in Monticello, Utah. There was no chance that I could make it in three hours but I tried anyways. I cried a bit on my way back to Utah. I almost dropped out of school when my grandfather passed away. I remembered one of his teachings, which inspired me to keep moving forward. From all the experience that I had with research and outreach efforts, I know now that they are many people that experienced or experiencing the same situation that I went through.

So now, I am contributing to the clean-up effort being done on Navajo Nation by the tribe, other federal agencies, and universities, along with Dine’ College. They are still many more work that needs to be done when it comes to uranium contamination on the Navajo Nation.

Tommy Rock is a PhD candidate at the University of New Mexico’s American Studies program. His focus is on health policy related to uranium contamination.

After a decade of investigations, the EPA has finally put up a fence to warn people about the hazardous waste in Elsie Mae Begay’s backyard. The area around the abandoned Skyline uranium mine is one of only a few sites on Navajo Nation which has received this attention, despite there being as many as 1,000 former mines on the reservation.

This latest development occurred almost ten years after EPA consultant Andrew Sowder acknowledged to Groundswell in an interview that putting up fencing “is the least they could do” after demolishing Elsie’s uranium-contaminated house.

Last week EPA contractor Brian Milton told Mary Helen Begay, Elsie’s daughter in law, that the steps officials were taking were only temporary, but intended to protect the area until a more comprehensive cleanup could be done. Groundswell trained and equipped Mary Helen to use the flip video camera that the above video was shot with.

Contractors sprayed a special coating on radioactive cables, debris and waste piles to prevent contaminated topsoil from being blown away in the wind, as it has since 1944 when the mine was abandoned. “It basically takes the top inch or so of the soil and puts a crust on it, kind of like a pie crust,” Milton told Begay. He said it normally only lasts a year or so before it becomes ineffective. “It’s just really a temporary measure to fix the top of the soil and prevent erosion and stuff.”

Still a question is where the EPA will relocate the waste to permanently. The cheaper alternative which has been suggested by some officials would be to store it in a repository on-site. Many Navajos however are staunchly opposed to on-site storage due to the health impacts and environmental legacy that uranium mining has caused over the last six decades.

Elsie and Groundswell went to Washington DC in fall 2008 to screen “The Return of Navajo Boy” on Capitol Hill. Ironically, the EPA’s five-year cleanup plan does not include the radioactive waste in her backyard. As a result of Elsie’s determination, and Groundswell’s engagement with policy makers, Elsie and her backyard are now included in the 5 year plan to clean up cold war uranium contamination in Navajo Lands. But questions remain: where will EPA put the radioactive waste?

The Indian Health Service recently launched its “Community Uranium Exposure: Journey to Healing” program with free health screenings and a showing of “The Return of Navajo Boy” in Cove, Arizona. The program, which includes screening Groundswell’s documentary “The Return of Navajo Boy” is based out of an 18-wheel truck known as the Wellness on Wheels van.

The first stop was the Navajo Chapter House in Cove on April 29th, featuring an appearance by Elsie Mae Begay, who has acted as a uranium contamination awareness ambassador after her appearance in the documentary. Elsie, accompanied by her son Lorenzo and daughter in law Mary Helen, took advantage of the opportunity and accepted a health screening herself.

Groundswell’s film, shown at the event, “has proven its ability to give Navajos a voice in the larger society” according to Lisa Allee, the director of the Community Uranium Exposure: Journey to Healing program. Groundswell co-founder Jeff Spitz was also able to attend the screening and answer questions, thanks to generous support for community outreach provided by the Ira Ziering Foundation.

Ira Ziering (left) and Groundswell’s Executive Director Jeff Spitz (right) at the recent Cove, AZ health screening event.

Presentations were also made about the health impacts of uranium the abandoned uranium mines in the area, and the effects they have on local water sources. The Indian Health Service looks forward to using the film at future events as a way to show the dangers of uranium contamination and the importance of health screenings.

The event made the front page of the Gallup Independent on May 1st:

As the world witnesses what is quickly becoming the worst oil spill in US history, Groundswell co-founders Jeff and Jennifer Spitz led discussions surrounding The Return of Navajo Boy and the impact that unchecked corporate activity can have on the environment of local communities.

Following a screening of the film, Jeff and Jennifer brought the audience up to date on recent actions towards cleanup that the EPA has made in Monument Valley, including the installation of a fence to ward people away from hazardous waste.

“The audience members were particularly interested in the story from the point of view of how it bodes for the current environmental crisis in the Gulf Coast region with the giant and ongoing oil spill there,” said Spitz.

“They seemed to draw connections between environmental contamination like these and the need for responsible parties to clean them up. Hopefully the current oil spill will be easier in terms of responsibility, since British Petroleum (BP) has said they’ll pay all cleanup costs. Sadly, the same can’t be said for the uranium contamination on Navajo Nation.”

The Indian Health Service will on Thursday April 29th present a special screening of “The Return of Navajo Boy” at the Cove Chapter House in Cove, Arizona. The film will be screened at the uranium exposure awareness-building event which starts at 10AM. The film screens at 1:30.

IHS’ Lisa Allee helped organize the event, and both documentary filmmaker Jeff Spitz and documentary participant Elsie Mae Begay will be present to take questions. Health screenings and presentations about water quality and contaminated buildings will also take place. Recently the film also screened at the Rough Rock Trading Post.

Groundswell’s partnership with the IHS also extends to agency playing the film in waiting rooms at the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, Arizona. The Indian Health Service’s flyer is re-printed below along with a letter inviting Groundswell to the event from Lisa Allee.

Update: Read a report form the first Community Uranium Exposure: Journey to Healing event.

The Navajo Chapter House in Oljato New Mexico voted 28 to 0 to direct the US Environmental Protection Agency to clean up hazardous waste at the Skyline mine on Sunday, April 11th.

The abandoned mine, once home to more than 100,000 pounds of uranium ore, sits on Navajo land and has long been known as a danger to local residents. Tests have shown that the level of radiation exposure surrounding the area is ten times the limit considered safe by the EPA.

In 2001, the EPA demolished the nearby home of Elsie Mae Begay, which had been partially constructed of uranium rocks which were left free for the taking after the mine closed in 1944. Begay’s son died of brain cancer at the age of 24.

Officials visited the area recently to discuss plans for cleanup of the area. Some local Navajo residents have long urged the EPA to at the very least build a fence that would restrict access to the mine tailings and debris from children and livestock.

Nine years ago, Groundswell Educational Films interviewed EPA uranium expert Andrew Sowder to ask what the next steps would be after Begay’s old home was removed. “The next, and the most important issue for a situation like this would actually be restricting access to some of the soil and ore that’s been left behind.”

“If it can’t be cleaned up at least right away, probably the least that should be done is some fencing placed as well as some kind of signs indicating the hazards present. So that’s really the very least, and probably isn’t that costly to do and it’s certainly the responsible thing to do.” (Watch his interview below.) The fencing and signs were never placed however.

But the recent vote by the tribal council could change that, assuming the authorities stick to their word.

The US Department of Justice recently posted an internship description on their website asking for students to help identify residents of Navajo Nation who have been impacted by the presence of abandoned uranium mines.

The effort is part of a comprehensive five year plan that the US federal government embarked upon at the urging of Congressman Henry Waxman, Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in 2006. The plan calls for Navajo lands to be cleaned up and for Navajos whose health has been impacted by the old cold-war era uranium mines to be fairly compensated.

According to the new internship description, the Justice Department is “looking for creative and dynamic college students to serve as [Radiation Exposure Compensation Act] Program Outreach Interns. The RECA Program will cover travel costs, room and board, and pay a small stipend to cover Outreach Interns’ incidental expenses.”

The task is particularly difficult because victims must provide onerous documentation of their eligibility and fill out a more than 20 page form. Navajo residents often don’t have the medical records that officials require, which makes proving health impacts even harder.

The Department of Justice says that the responsibilities of the new interns will include spreading awareness about the compensation program, helping applicants find or obtain paperwork, and helping arrange medical testing for those affected by atomic programs. Training for the student interns will occur in June, July, and early August, and their employment is expected to be 20 hours a week for at least six months. Those interested should apply on the Department of Justice’s website.

The RECA act originally passed Congress in 1990, but has seen a renewed interest due to Congressman Waxman’s hearings four years ago. It permits up to $100,000 in compensation to those affected by uranium mining and atomic bomb testing during the cold war.

The Northern Navajo Medical Center has begun showing “The Return of Navajo Boy” in its waiting rooms, which serve residents in the Shiprock, New Mexico area.

Groundswell Educational Films recently forged a partnership with the Center, which is the largest hospital on the reservation, that is now resulting in regular screenings of the film in the hospital, intended to increase awareness of the health impacts of uranium contamination in the area.

“Your film has proven it ability to give Navajos a voice in the larger society,” Lisa Allee the Program Director of the Journey to Healing uranium program at the Medical Center said in a letter to Groundswell. “We recognize your organization’s continued success in amplifying those voices in schools, colleges and mainstream media.”

Navajo Nation is home to more than 1,000 cold-war era abandoned uranium mines and many of these sites still contain hazardous materials which threaten the lives of nearby Navajo residents. “The Return of Navajo Boy” features one Navajo family who has suffered from the legacy of the mining. Elsie Mae Begay, a Navajo grandmother in the film, lived in a hogan (traditional Navajo house) partially constructed of uranium debris for example. Her son died at age 24 due to brain cancer.

“This is an unprecedented step for the Indian Health Service,” Navajo Boy director Jeff Spitz said in reaction. “It stems from Henry Waxman who opened up the Sunday LA Times in November, 2006 and read about Elsie Mae Begay’s uranium house and a litany of uranium mining legacies plaguing Navajo families. A real groundswell of concern evolved out of Elsie’s cry for help.”

Officials believe that the film is a potent tool to spread awareness about the old mines and the dangers they pose. At the end of April, the Indian Health Service kick off a mobile health initiative designed to reach remote Navajo communities which do not live near traditional hospitals.

The Northern Navajo Medical Center is located at the “four corners”– an area where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet. According to officials, the Center teats about 40 residents per day at its in-patient facilities, and about 400 out-patient.

Update: The Indian Health Service is now using “The Return of Navajo Boy” as part of a “Wellness on Wheels” initiative all around Navajo Nation to raise awareness. Read about the first Community Uranium Exposure: Journey to Healing screening.

“The Return of Navajo Boy” will screen at the Environmental Law & Policy Center on May 3rd, in Chicago, Illinois.

Director Jeff Spitz will be on hand to discuss the film and take questions about the environmental and health threats posed by uranium waste on indigenous lands.

The screening will occur from 11:45AM to 1:45PM on Monday, May 3rd, 2010. Lunch will be provided. Admission is free, RSVP by April 29th to Anne Fell (AFell@elpc.org). The ELPC is located at 35 E. Wacker Drive, Suite 1300, Chicago IL, 60601.

Update: A recap of the screening and discussion is now available.

Groundswell’s award-winning documentary The Return of Navajo Boy will screen at Amnesty International’s Human Rights Film Festival on Saturday, April 24th 2010 in Silver Spring Maryland.

Filmmaker Jeff Spitz, Groundswell’s co-founder, will also be on hand to also present a work in progress screening of his upcoming project, Robben Island Singers.

For more information, see the festival’s official website.

Update: Read a report from the Amnesty International Human Rights Festival.

Groundswell is pleased to announce that The Return of Navajo Boy is now available to the general public for home DVD purchase at NavajoBoy.com and direct streaming rentals at Amazon.com.

For the first time, customers can now order a DVD of this award-winning documentary for personal use, or stream the film online through the world’s largest web retailer. Says director Jeff Spitz, “From a dusty 1950s film reel to a new documentary film and from a Sundance Film Festival premier to screenings on Capitol Hill, this story keeps opening eyes. Lots more eyes will see it now.”

Visit Amazon.com or NavajoBoy.com to order or download the film. The trailer for the film is embedded below.

The Rough Rock Chapter House in Arizona recently invited Groundswell and Perry Charley to screen and discuss the film with residents.

The screening took place in the old trading post and the film was projected onto a bedsheet. Perry H. Charley, Navajo Nuclear scientist and uranium education expert appears in the new epilogue for the film. He frequently shows it to students at the tribal college, Dine College.

Above: Perry H. Charley, Director, Dine College Environmental Institute leads Q&A after The Return of Navajo Boy at Rough Rock Trading Post.

Perry uses the film to introduce audiences to the Navajo perspective on colonization, manifest destiny, and media. He leads discussions about the Navajo conceptions of healing, family history, native knowledge, research, teamwork and environmental science. Perry is a master teacher whose previous work experience includes heading the Navajo office responsible for the abandoned mines and uranium mills. Every agency that is responsible for the legacies of Uranium mining consults with Mr. Perry H. Charley. We are proud to work with Perry and his remarkable students at Dine College.

Above: Groundswell co-founder, Jeff Spitz, with the media team staff at Northern Navajo Medical Center, Shiprock, NM.

Above: Watch a slideshow of photos taken by Groundswell intern Mitch Wenkus on the recent trip to Navajo Nation.

Director and Groundswell co-founder Jeff Spitz will be in the Washington DC area on April 24th to present and discuss both The Return of Navajo Boy and a preview screening of Robben Island Singers.

The first ever Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival will be held in Silver Spring, MD (just outside of Washington D.C.) from April 23-25, 2010. This multi-venue, multi-media event will bring together artists, local businesses and politicians to use socially transformative art to raise awareness of human rights and justice issues, as well as the important work of Amnesty International.

Says Groundswell co-founder Jeff Spitz, “The wide range of artists, art forms and creative human rights campaigns is inspiring. I will be on a panel with fellow filmmakers Sunday, April 25th 2:30 – 4:30 to be followed by work in progress screening for Robben Island Singers.”

More information can be found at HumanRightsArtFestival.com.

Update: Read a report from the Amnesty International Human Rights Arts Festival.

“The Return of Navajo Boy” was presented on March 3rd, 2010 at Daley College in Chicago. It was sponsored by the student psychology club. Filmmaker Jeff Spitz was on hand to answer students questions in a Q&A session after the film.

After watching Navajo Boy Webisodes, Paul Robinson of the Southwest Uranium Research and Information Center relates Elsie’s story to the rest of Navajo Nation. Paul is from the Southwest Research and Information Center and focuses on Uranium mining contamination in the Church Rock and Window Rock area among other issues.

Watch more Return of Navajo Boy webisodes.

Lorenzo Begay (the narrator of “The Return of Navajo Boy“) and his wife, Mary, have a gift shop in Monument Valley. In this video, Mary can be seen selling DVDs to tourists.

The Return of Navajo Boy has unlocked an investigative LA Times series about the affects of uranium mining on Navajos.

Fifty years ago, cancer rates on the reservation were so low that a medical journal published an article titled “Cancer immunity in the Navajo.”

Back then, the contamination of the tribal homeland was just beginning. Mining companies were digging into one of the world’s richest uranium deposits, in a reservation spanning parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

From 1944 to 1986, 3.9 million tons of uranium ore were chiseled and blasted from the mountains and plains. The mines provided uranium for the Manhattan Project, the top-secret effort to develop an atomic bomb, and for the weapons stockpile built up during the arms race with the Soviet Union.
[...]
Today, there is no talk of cancer immunity in the Navajos.

The cancer death rate on the reservation — historically much lower than that of the general U.S. population — doubled from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, according to Indian Health Service data. The overall U.S. cancer death rate declined slightly over the same period.

Read more here.

The New York Times has published an article about Navajos living on uranium contaminated lands, and the growing awareness about this problem:

Many miners died from radiation-related illnesses; some, unaware of harmful health effects, hauled contaminated rocks and tailings from local mines and mills to build homes for their families.

Now, those homes are being demolished and rebuilt under a new government program that seeks to identify what are very likely dozens of uranium-contaminated structures still standing on Navajo land and to temporarily relocate people living in them until the homes can be torn down and rebuilt.

Stephen B. Etsitty, executive director of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, and other tribal officials have been grappling for years with the environmental fallout from uranium mining.

“There were a lot of things people weren’t told about the plight of Navajos and uranium mining,” Mr. Etsitty said. “These legacy issues are impacting generations. At some point people are saying, ‘It’s got to end.’ ”

Check out the full article here.

“The Return of Navajo Boy” will be screened on November 18th at The American Indian Christian Mission on November 18th, 2009. For more information about this screening, please contact the AICM.

“The Return of Navajo Boy” will be screened at The University of Chicago on November 10th, 2009. More information about the panel discussion and the screening are available at the university website.

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) will host a special screening of Groundswell Educational Film’s award winning documentary “The Return of Navajo Boy” November 9th from 3PM to 5PM. The event, featuring documentary filmmaker Jeff Spitz and other panelists, will be held at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum’s Residence Dining Hall at 800 S Halstead Street in Chicago.

The screening, hosted by UIC’s Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy, is part of a series of events celebrating Native American Heritage Month. UIC students can learn more about this scheduled event on the University calendar.

“The Return of Navajo Boy,” an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival and PBS, is now available on DVD with a recently updated epilogue (individual discounts also available).

“The Return of Navajo Boy” was screened on November 5, 2009 as part of The University of Miami (Ohio)’s Native American Film Festival. For more information about this event, please visit the U of M’s website.

Indigenous uranium activists from all over the United States will gather from October 22nd through the 24th at The Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum in Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico.

Activists plan to use Groundswell Educational Films’ documentary, “The Return of Navajo Boy” with its new 15 minute epilogue as a tool to advance the campaign for toxic waste cleanup (DVD available for sale, individual discount available). Elsie Mae Begay, the Navajo grandmother who tells her family’s story in The Return of Navajo Boy, will present the film and participate in audience discussion. The screening is scheduled for Friday, October 23rd starting at 7PM.

Among the other attendees will be about a dozen Navajo grandmothers who recently demonstrated on the steps of Capitol Hill calling for compensation for the families of uranium-mining victims.

The forum, organized by Anna Rondon, is the 7th annual event bringing together Native American uranium activists working towards environmental justice. Conference organizers can be reached by calling (505) 726-9392 or by visiting www.siuf.net.

Navajo uranium activist Gillbert Badoni, Navajo Nation Council Member Phil Harrison and a delegation of Navajo grandmothers demonstrated at the Capitol today to demand compensation for families poisoned by cold-war uranium mining on Navajo Nation.

“We screened our film, The Return of Navajo Boy for legislators, government staff and the public,” said Navajo grandmother Elsie May Cly Begay, “so they can understand the deep impact of uranium poisoning in our community.” For more on this action, visit the UMCGBCS website.

In September 2008, Groundswell brought Elsie Mae Begay and the The Return of Navajo Boy (with its new epilogue) to Capitol Hill for a screening and discussion about hazardous waste cleanup with EPA officials and congressional staffers.

Watch more Return of Navajo Boy webisodes.

Groundswell Educational Films issued the following press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 24, 2008

Documentary about Navajo Family Exposes the Human Cost of Nuclear Waste Contamination, Triggers Investigation and Warnings about Nuclear Dangers

WASHINGTON D.C. — While the nation is abuzz with talk of energy independence and nuclear reactors, the legacy of cold war uranium mining remains an open wound that literally continues to poison residents of the Navajo Nation.

A Navajo grandmother, who is a main character in the documentary The Return of Navajo Boy, came to Capitol Hill today, to share her story with congressional leaders in a screening hosted by Tom Udall (D-NM), Rick Renzi (R-AZ), Jim Matheson (D-UT) and Navajo Nation’s Washington Office. “I was an extra in Hollywood western movies and a nameless Navajo Girl in postcards. There are thousands of pictures of my family and me. But we never got a chance to say anything. Until now,” said Navajo grandmother, Elsie Mae Begay. “I want people to know how uranium has affected us. That’s why I travel with the film.”

The film will be screened with a new epilogue that documents Ms. Begay’s courageous journey with the film. The screening and discussion will be held Sept. 24, 3-5 PM, Cannon House Office Building, Room 122. The event is free and open to the public. A second free public screening is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 25, 6-8 PM at Georgetown Law, Gewirz Student Center, 12th floor, 120 F Street, NW (between 1st and 2nd Streets). Several lawmakers and high-ranking officials from the EPA, Department of Energy and other government offices are expected to attend the screening.

The Return of Navajo Boy was produced and directed by Jeff Spitz of Groundswell Educational Films. Groundswell’s outreach campaign triggered a federal investigation of uranium houses. Ms. Begay’s story, picked up by Los Angeles Times, motivated Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) to bring the issue to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform which mandated a clean-up plan by the five federal agencies that are responsible for uranium contamination. “This has been a bi-partisan failure for 40 years,” said Congressman Waxman at the opening of the hearings.

Ironically, the Comprehensive Five-Year Plan, issued jointly last month by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, does not include Ms. Begay’s homestead.

“Ms. Begay tells her story through this film, which creates a pathway for people outside her culture to connect with her,” explained Groundswell co-founder, Jeff Spitz. “We book the film and Ms. Begay in public screenings to open doors for face-to-face contact with reporters, academics, funders, policymakers and others who can help make a difference in addressing radiation clean up on Navajo lands.”

“We need people in Washington to realize the enormity of the problem,” said Dave Taylor, an attorney for the Navajo Department of Justice. “We are grateful for the attention Congressman Waxman has brought to this issue, however follow up on the ground has been minimal. We need a permanent solution, not band-aids. The waste needs to be dug up and put into safe repositories.”

“Groundswell’s approach to advocacy shows how one story can ripple into another and keep moving on to cause change,” said Judy Pasternak, the LA Times reporter who wrote the four-part series about uranium poisoning on the reservation. Ms. Pasternak met Elsie Begay at a Groundswell screening. Ms. Begay’s story of raising her family in a house made from uranium became the framework for the opening piece of Pasternak’s investigative series about uranium.

The Return of Navajo Boy is one example of Groundswell Educational Film’s non- profit mission. Groundswell gives voice to those often overlooked by mainstream media; uses film to initiate cross-cultural dialogue; creates public engagement campaigns; and build alliances with stakeholders to achieve social change. “ We will continue to film this journey until Ms. Begay’s uranium situation is resolved,” Spitz added. To learn more about Groundswell’s work on this and other projects, visit www.groundswellfilms.org.

For more than four decades, Navajo Nation soils were dug and blasted to produce millions of tons of uranium for America’s nuclear arsenal. Residents today still breathe radioactive dust, drink contaminated water and live in homes contaminated by radiation. There are nearly 1000 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo reservation.

Additional screening co-hosts include National Resource Defense Council, Georgetown Environmental Law Society, Georgetown Law, Georgetown American Constitution Society and the Raben Group. The Bradshaw-Knight Foundation sponsored the events and epilogue.

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Update: Watch a video from The Return of Navajo Boy Capitol Hill screening event.

About a year after their initial radioactivity investigation, the US Environmental Protection Agency demolished Elsie Mae Begay’s highly-contaminated hogan. EPA consultant Andrew Sowder is seen at the end of this clip suggesting that the agency should construct fencing or a sign around the area to protect local residents from further contamination.

Watch more Return of Navajo Boy webisodes.

The story of Elsie Mae Begay is featured prominently in our documentary The Return of Navajo Boy; her home was partially constructed out of uranium rocks from an abandoned mine nearby. Around the same time our film was making its premiere, the EPA investigated her home to see how dangerous it might be. The above video is from an official EPA videotape of the investigation, obtained by Groundswell through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Watch more Return of Navajo Boy webisodes.