Calls for meaningful engagement with Native Nations regarding proposed nuclear waste storage at SONGS in the ancestral homelands of the Acjachemen/Juaneno and Luiseno Peoples
Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples have been subjected to multiple and repeated acts of environmental racism and injustice since the founding of this country. All too often, Native Nations seem to be the places deemed to be "most suitable" for the worst environmental projects that our society produces.
"...[I]t has a profound impact on tribes, because we can't pick up our tribal lands, we can't pick up our history, we can't pick up and move to another neighborhood, we can't move to another city. That's where we are from. That's our ties. That's our place. And to have it possibly contaminated is deeply troubling to our people..." Native American Commenter, Designing a Consent Based Siting Process Summary of Public Input Final Report, U.S. Department of Energy, December 29, 2016
Sacred Places Institute is an Indigenous-led environmental and cultural justice organization dedicated to building the capacity of Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples to protect sacred lands, waters and cultures. San Clemente Green will be available at the Sacred Places Institute table at the annual
Gathering at PANHE event
to share information and educational resources about the current and proposed nuclear waste storage at San Onofre and to help prevent the site from becoming another ecological disaster. To-date, SoCal Edison has failed to engage with the Native Nations that maintain ancestral ties to the area. These Native Nations should each be invited to appoint a representative to the Community Engagement Panel organized by SoCal Edison and state and federal agencies involved in all aspects of decision-making around temporary and permanent site storage for the nuclear waste at San Onofre. They should initiate government-to-government consultation with all Native Nations that maintain ancestral ties to the area -
Angela Mooney D'Arcy of Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples
We eventually want to raise enough money to hire the independent experts that
can provide us with trustworthy answers to our questions and come up
with a plan we can all support
with confidence and clarity of purpose.