**Web copy updated at 4:40 p.m.**
More than a hundred people gathered Saturday at Red Butte south of the Grand Canyon to protest the mining and hauling of uranium ore. It’s the latest in a string of Indigenous-led protests calling for the closure of the Pinyon Plain mine.
Havasupai, Navajo, and members of other tribes joined environmental activists along State Highway 64, chanting and waving signs.
Havasupai leaders worry the mine could contaminate the aquifer their tribe relies on. They also say Red Butte is a place for ceremony and the mining inflicts spiritual damage.
Dianna Sue White Dove Uqualla is on the tribe’s council. "It’s never going to be the same. The area that they’re mining is one of the most sacred places of our medicines. Now, we cannot go there."
Tribal leaders praised the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument which ended new uranium claims in the area. But they also condemned state and federal officials for allowing the Pinyon Plain mine to operate due to preexisting rights.
"They’re not listening," said Havasupai tribal member Carletta Tilousi. "We need you to listen. We have only 567 Havasupai people left on this world, we need to be protected.”
Sandy Bahr of the Sierra Club said, "We’re not going to stop until they shut the mine down and clean it up, and everyone gets the message that this is no place for a uranium mine."
The mine's owner, Energy Fuels Resources, says it's highly regulated and safe. In a statement to KNAU, spokesperson Curtis Moore says Energy Fuels is engaged with "productive talks" with the Navajo Nation to address concerns about the transport of uranium ore through tribal lands. Shipments have been paused since early August.
Moore says, "Working in good faith with Indigenous communities to address reasonable concerns that pertain to modern uranium transport, we are optimistic that together we can find a mutually agreeable path forward."
