Nuclear Colonialism & Environmental Racism in New Mexico:
The videos above are explorations on topics I am interested in developing into more a long term research project. I am a PhD candidate in the Ethnology program at the University of New Mexico. My interests include discourse, meaning-making processes and storytelling (i.e. semiotics and narrative), documentary filmmaking, and social and environmental conflict in the American Southwest. One of the broad topics I am interested in engaging with for a research project is the history of Nuclear Colonialism in the state of New Mexico.
Nuclear Colonialism entails various aspects of the nuclear energy and nuclear weapons industries in the United States. In New Mexico, the discourse of nuclear colonialism addresses the history of extractive resource mining for uranium, the effects of the radioactive fallout from the testing of the atomic bomb at Trinity, and the storage of radioactive waste that has led to environmental contamination in many instances in New state's history. The mining of uranium and the siting of toxic waste storage sites have disproportionately impacted Indigenous communities in New Mexico. As such, the practices of the U.S. government and privatized mining operations/waste storage industries can effectively be described as acts of environmental racism due to the negative human health and environmental impacts resulting from those activities.
In these videos, I reflect on the process of developing a research project to address these issues. I also provide historical context on the discourse of nuclear colonialism in the state of New Mexico, and present some of the divergent perspectives on the environment that have resulted in conflict between different actors and stakeholders. Additionally, I include the environment itself as an agent and actor situated in the middle of these points of conflict. The geology that contains rare earth minerals along with local ecologies such as plants, animals, and waterways necessary for sustaining life are also impacted by extractive resource industries. I have included landscapes in the videos for this reason and use them as a point of juxtaposition with the human dimensions of environmental conflict in the region. Importantly, these juxtapositions do not suggest some sort of divide between the human and beyond-human realms, but rather, seek to include visuals of regional geologies and ecologies as a voice at the table and to show the depth of interconnection that exists between human and beyond human agencies and networks that collectively interact to compose "the environment."
These videos are a starting point, a way for me to creatively explore and brainstorm about my research interests. I intend to build off of these visual forays and hope to engage a more long-term and developed video documentary project with a local community in New Mexico to share stories that might affect positive social environmental change.
Below, I provide information on nuclear colonialism and environmental racism in the voices of Indigenous scholars and activists. I have an included a map of the state of New Mexico that illustrates the geographic scale of environmental degradation caused by different sorts of extractive resource capitalism. Lastly, please find useful links at the bottom of the page to Indigenous-led environmental action organizations as well as links to more information on the history of environmental contamination resulting from polluting industries in New Mexico and the American Southwest more generally.
Map of Polluted Areas in New Mexico
resulting from extractive resource activities such as the mining of uranium and coal
Links to Social & Environmental Justice Networks
New mexico environmental law center &
the Eastern navajo Diné Against uranium mining (endaum)
recent legal filing:
Multicultural Alliance for a safe environment
Nuclear Issues Study Group:
Nuclear Watch New Mexico
Nuclear New Mexico
Indigenous Rising
Indigenous Environmental Network
Clean Up the Mines!
Western Mining Action Network
Southwest Research and Information center
Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) statement on Church Rock:
