Navajo scientist Perry H. Charley and Navajo elder Elsie Mae Begay joined with History of Science graduate student Linda Richards and others recently on a panel about radiation effects, held this April in Phoenix at the annual meeting of the American Society for Environmental History.  Charley brought samples of rock from Begay’s home, along with a Geiger counter, as an illustration of the high levels of radiation that Navajo peoples have lived with, and continue to live with, because of the long history of uranium mining on their lands.  Uranium mining falls disproportionately on the lands of indigenous peoples throughout the world, resulting in health problems accumulating over more than half a century of nuclear weapons and electricity production.   Continue reading →