No Compensation Without Recognition: Tribal Sovereignty and Uranium Mining in the United States

This thesis explores an underlying conflict that exists between Native Americans and non-Natives in United States society and that mostly translates into environmental exploitation or environmental injustice. Native Americans differ from other minorities living in the United States, due to their sovereign status. Such a status, however, has not always shielded Native Americans from phenomena of marginalization or, as this thesis will prove, economic and environmental exploitation. The historical development of uranium mining in the last century gives a perfect illustration of this, and it will be used as a case study to explain the conflict being played out on tribal lands. The economic and sociocultural harms of this historical development have further entrenched Native Americans in the lowest socioeconomic layers of American society, and the repercussions of such a phenomenon of further marginalization will persist for future generations. Ultimately, this thesis argues for the...Show moreThis thesis explores an underlying conflict that exists between Native Americans and non-Natives in United States society and that mostly translates into environmental exploitation or environmental injustice. Native Americans differ from other minorities living in the United States, due to their sovereign status. Such a status, however, has not always shielded Native Americans from phenomena of marginalization or, as this thesis will prove, economic and environmental exploitation. The historical development of uranium mining in the last century gives a perfect illustration of this, and it will be used as a case study to explain the conflict being played out on tribal lands. The economic and sociocultural harms of this historical development have further entrenched Native Americans in the lowest socioeconomic layers of American society, and the repercussions of such a phenomenon of further marginalization will persist for future generations. Ultimately, this thesis argues for the importance of strengthening tribal sovereignty in the interest of preserving tribal tradition as well as the natural environment Native Americans inhabit.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

No Compensation Without Recognition: Tribal Sovereignty and Uranium Mining in the United States