For Some Native Americans, Uranium Contamination Feels Like Discrimination
Helen Nez had 10 children.
Seven of her children died of a disorder called Navajo neuropathy, which is linked to uranium contamination.
The three remaining children, now adults, have health problems.
Chan School of Public Health, more than 1 in 4 Native Americans say the quality of their drinking water is worse than in other places.
Nez’s sister Sadie Bill drives out to an abandoned uranium mine called Claim 28.
We drive by four more homes where people have died.
Shuey, an environmental health scientist, has been studying the impacts of uranium mining on the Navajo people for almost four decades.
Of the 521 abandoned mines, the EPA has only cleaned up nine so far.
A Navajo group is currently evaluating the cost to remediate the mine near Helen Nez and her sister Sadie Bill’s home.
"We lost too many people," Bill said.