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current coal power plants. We have to maintain controlling interest in this enterprise ourselves. There’s a small core of scientists right now among the Dineh who have the technicalexpertise to get this thing started, and the uranium required to fuel such a power plant is already on Navajo land. With the need for more energy across the nation, especially the West, such a project could turn things around for us as a tribe. Marketing clean energy that we produce and control will give us economic clout in the Anglo world, and the funding we need to educate and support our ownpeople.”
    “What I’m most concerned about is the safety issue.” Rose crossed her hands across her chest. “It’s only clean energy when everything goes as planned. The Holy People warned us that certain rocks should stay in the earth. When the bilagáanas , the white people, came to our land during the Cold War and council elders allowed them to take the uranium out, the mining ended up causing diseaseand misery. We can’t afford another mistake like that. Polluting our scarce water supplies is unforgivable.”
    Ella glanced at Wilson. “That’s been bothering me, too. Most of us who live here know that the largest radioactive spill in the history of the United States happened on the Navajo Nation, but few off the Rez had ever even heard about it. You say ‘Three Mile Island’ and everyone knows whatyou’re talking about, but in 1979 millions of gallons of radioactive waste spilled down the Rio Puerco.”
    Rose nodded. “And when the uranium companies closed operations, we were left to clean up the mess.”
    Wilson spoke. “All true, but it should be different now—with scientific knowledge that simply wasn’t around before. And the public is a lot better educated.”
    “Still, the past is hard to forget,”Rose said. “For years our people lived in houses that contained uranium tailings in the concrete that made the foundations. And many of the uranium mine shafts are still uncovered, and the ground around them contaminated. Should we open up new mines? The tribe needs money, but surely not at any cost.”
    Wilson shrugged. “Still, operating a nuclear power plant here, even a small one, is somethingthat could really turn our economic situation around. Do you realize that at current prices, we can make an estimated one billion dollars mining our own uranium and running the power plant—that is, if the plant is allowed to operate for twenty-five years.”
    “Even if we make more money, that still won’t guarantee that we’ll find harmony and walk in beauty,” Rose said. “Even a small mistake couldbe a disaster.”
    “I understand your fears,” Wilson said. “But what happened before shouldn’t happen again if the plant is run properly and safe mining practices are followed. A limited, short-term partnership with the current coal power plant operators would provide enough funding so we won’t be asked to empty the tribal accounts to get things set up. But control must remain with our own leaders.It’s our land, after all, and our resources.”
    “Why would the NEED project be any better than what we already have with the current operations?” Rose was taking notes with a small notebook.
    Wilson shrugged. “The coal-powered plant we have here still puts a lot of stuff into the air we breathe, and there’s the damage caused by the enormous surface-mining operations. A small modern nuclear facility,not one of the old-style monsters, is a good, clean, safe option for us.”
    “I’m still worried about the mines, and the miners. Before, many died, and continue to die, of what they call Red Lung—named for the blood those affected would cough up. And many are just now getting a reasonable financial settlement, decades too late for some. Certainly we know more today—but there might be something elsewe don’t know that’ll come back to haunt us in the future.” Rose grew somber.
    “There’s an element of risk in any