American Indian Miners Deserve To Be Awarded Workers Compensation

Native Americans have worked for decades in the deep mines underneath the Colorado Plateau. Soft, yellow uranium ore was drilled from the rock by the miners. This uranium was used in the nuclear warheads that the US deployed around the country and that eventually helped win the Cold War.

Unfortunately, a lot of Native American miners later became casualties of the Cold War. Radiation from the uranium in the mines has left the workers with serious illnesses and cancer; some have already died from these complications. Many have lost family members and even those that have survived continue to fight for their life.

The majority of workers have webs of scars on their arms from dialysis treatments. This is the required treatment by the many workers who suffer from kidney failure. Blame has been placed on the mines' drinking water, which has been proven to contain traces of radioactive minerals in scientific testing.

In 1990, Congress attempted to repay these miners by passing the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. This law recognized the dangers that were faced by uranium miners, and was designed to help those who have suffered and continue to suffer due to the work they performed. Keep in mind that most of this work was entirely in the service of the United State's nuclear weapons program.

Every underground uranium miner was to be granted $100,000. The only condition required was that they should have been diagnosed with one of six possible lung diseases that are linked to radiation exposure. While hundreds of miners have met all of the preconditions necessary to begin receiving payments, most have yet to see a single dime.

The compensation law sets up nearly impossible hurdles for Indian miners. One such requirement is that the paperwork required must be filled out in English. Native Americans do not all comprehend the English language well enough to fill out paperwork.

Only 96 of the 242 claims that have been filed through the Office of Navajo Uranium Workers have been approved. Since the law went into effect in 1990, the Justice Department has approved over 1300 claims from uranium miners. They have rejected another 1,316 requests.

Another problem for many miners is that the government requires proof of constant exposure in the form of check stubs or similar documentation. However, for many people the damage occurred decades ago and those records have long since been lost or thrown out. Authorities that could provide this information to the workers are not helpful.

The United States government first opened up the uranium minds on the Navajo Indian Reservation back in 1947. The jobs and careers that accompanied the mines were welcomed in the beginning. They presented an opportunity to work, even though the pay was low and the conditions horrible.

For the miners, one of the greatest dangers was radon. Radon is a colourless, odourless radioactive gas created by decaying uranium. It is believed that most of the lung conditions that qualify for government compensation were caused by radon exposure.

In the hope of making changes to the law from 1990 and to make it easier for eligible miners to receive compensation for their ailments, tribal officers and afflicted miners plan to lobby Congress later this year. However, the government is faced with a problem, as all Navajo miners believe that they are entitled to compensation solely on the basis of their work.