reprinted with permission from    [Russel Jim with Paul Robinson]
     Poison Fire, Sacred Earth,
     TESTIMONIES, LECTURES,
     CONCLUSIONS,
     THE WORLD URANIUM HEARING, SALZBURG 1992
     pages 235-238

     . . . our message must be to the world for them to listen,
     realize, become educated. As has been said here before, the world
     is getting smaller. I hope that one day history in the future will
     show who the true primitives are.
        . . . The Hanford Site, as you see it, is a 569 square mile
     area chosen by the Federal Government for the Manhattan Project,
     because at that time they knew that they would need a tremendous
     amount of water. . . . This 569 square mile area now contains 570
     million Curies of radioactivity . . . there is 200 square miles of
     ground-water contamination. There are 149 single-shell tanks which
     used to house the waste material. 66 of those 149 are known to
     leak and are contributing to the contamination of the environment.

        . . . The technology to administer to nuclear waste is not
     here. Perhaps it is in the minds of the younger generations.
     Perhaps they can help us, but at the same time as I get old, as we
     all must do and pass on, I hope to leave in my chair a person that
     not only understands the culture, the language, the history of my
     people, but they must also realize the other road of modern
     science and technology. I do not believe it is impossible or
     difficult to achieve. No different, and two decades back that was
     the norm in education. But education has become somewhat by the
     wayside on a world-wide basis. For instance, when I was enquiring
     about a proposed repository in Hanford in 1978, my persistence
     finally caused them to ask me: "What the hell business is this of
     yours?" And I said: "You are on the ceded land of the Yakima
     Indian Nation, due to the treaty of 1855." And they said: "Treaty?
     What treaty? What the hell you talking about?" What it only told
     me, that each scientist, engineer, manager and whom ever, plain
     worker down there was not taught in the education curriculums and
     the institutions across this country about what a "treaty", "ceded
     land", "sovereign nation", "tribal government" meant. And they
     assumed that didn't exist because they were not taught in the
     schools. I would recommend that the curriculums change and put
     into print the true history of the indigenous peoples. Analogous
     to the time when some of you didn't even know where Tahiti was.
     Our children do not know world-wide geography, like we used to
     have to learn when we were young.
        I will continue to work with you and with anyone to preserve
     and protect my culture. It seems that the true E.T. is Edward
     Teller. . . . But in regard to all of this culture on a world-wide
     basis, I think it was best said by, or at least one of the great
     sayings was by an author, Peter Farb, who wrote the book "Men's
     Rise to Civilization". In there, and I quote: "Man is quick to
     prevent cruelty to animals, sometimes to humans, but there is no
     counterpart to the Humane Society or the Sierra Club for the
     prevention of cruelty to entire cultures."

     ------------------------------------------------------------------

     Russel Jim

     Russel Jim, Yakima Nation, Washington State, USA. Manager of the
     Environmental Restoration Waste Management Project.

     Thank you, Madam Chairman. Ladies and Gentlemen! I'm going to
     speak to you in English, a borrowed language to me and my people,
     but one that has now become universal for communication purposes.
     My name is Russel Jim. I am a member of the Yakima Indian Nation
     in the state of Washington in the United States what is in the
     Northwest region. I appreciate this opportunity to come to this
     old country, as they call it, and to bring a vital message along
     with the other messages that are so vital to humanity from the
     indigenous peoples of the world. I am most fortunate to have the
     ability provided to bring my wife with me. She is my support, just
     as the women being the stronger of the gender, our support for
     people world-wide. I have brought a few slides to show you the
     geographical location of not only the state of Washington, but the
     remaining reservation of the Yakima people.

        The messages we have heard here today are not only disturbing,
     but they are all similar. They are similar in the content that
     there is continued cultural deprivation and environmental
     deprivation, and the one thing we seemingly have the most in
     common in regard to trying to exist in a contemporary society is
     the average of 70 percent unemployment. So, my brief conclusion is
     what we suspect that all of this on a world-wide basis is by
     design. And as each of us are guilty of this attractive social
     high possesses called paternalism, it has come more so from those
     that feel that they know what is best for us, regardless whether
     they are a member of a church or a scientific group or a
     government. And it is quite disturbing to listen to these concerns
     that are analogous to the Yakima Nation who have also suffered
     deeply. Not from mining of uranium, but of the finished product.
     The Manhattan Project and its early start eventually had to have a
     place for its refinement. And after much searching and
     deliberations they'd chose the land of the Yakima. And in this Day
     of the Water, the land of the Yakima include the economical
     lifeline of the Northwest region of the state of Washington, and
     that is the mighty Columbia River where millions and millions of
     fish used to migrate and which is the primary diet of the Yakima
     people as it has been for thousands and thousands of generations.

        We are very indebted to those that are responsible for us to
     come here to this great city and to air our grievances and to
     educate others about what is happening in other parts of the
     world. We are indebted to science and to the scientists like Dr.
     Alice Stewart who I think should be one to help us provide quality
     assurance and quality control among scientific research and
     development. We will be forever indebted to Vladimir Chernousenko,
     a physicist who gave his life to go to Chernobyl and then to come
     here and report on it. It is no sadder than the people that have
     been annihilated to one form or another on a worldwide basis, no
     sadder than those that have stated and given names on this death.
     And so, we also come with a message, but I hope this form in the
     realization that our message must be to the world for them to
     listen, realize, become educated. As has been said here before,
     the world is getting smaller. I hope that one day history in the
     future will show who the true primitives are.

        Now, if I may have those slides.

        [Slides]

        This that you see is the state of Washington. The outline, the
     large outline is the ceded area, 12 million acres, that in 1855
     the Yakima Indian Nation ceded to the United States government in
     a treaty. But it was the understanding that forever we would be
     allowed to utilize the ceded land to gather our foods and our
     medicines, to pasture our animals, and to hunt and fish in all
     usual and accustomed places. The Hanford Site, as you see it, is a
     569 square mile area chosen by the Federal Government for the
     Manhattan Project, because at that time they knew that they would
     need a tremendous amount of water. There was cheap
     hydro-electricity there and it seemed ideal to them in more ways
     than one, because they said also, it is a waste land and a minimal
     amount of population, and those people were expendable. This
     "waste land" has provided foods and medicines for the Yakima
     people for generations, as I have said. This 569 square mile area
     now contains 570 million Curies of radioactivity. It contains
     among many unknown trenches, ponds, ditches, where in the fifties
     the state of the art was to just dump the waste into the land and
     hope it filtered through the land and get back into the water --
     which it is now, but it is creating tremendous amounts of
     contamination. It has been publicly noted there is 200 square
     miles of ground-water contamination. There are 149 single-shell
     tanks which used to house the waste material. 66 of those 149 are
     known to leak and are contributing to the contamination of the
     environment. There are 28 doubleshell tanks to which the lickers
     were eventually moved; one want to know as how high is(?) the
     potential to explode and they have yet to characterize what is in
     this tank. There are improper records kept on just about every
     facet of this area and this place and of the amounts of material
     that has gone into the ground, into the water.

        As you will see, over a quarter of our ceded area encompasses
     the state of Washington. We figured that we had paid our taxes for
     all time when we ceded this land, 10.8 million acres. But some of
     you may have read that last year, the Supreme Court ruled an
     immoral decision that we must pay further taxes. So it's a
     continuation of the erosion of rights. And analogous to what has
     been said here in regard to the deprivation of our culture for our
     future generations it was best, it was somewhat said by Noam
     Chomsky when he said very simply: "Dead men tell no tales." When
     you are forced with another language and your culture is gone, you
     are then subjected to a different value system about your land,
     your language, the foods, medicines.

        This slide was made because of when Mount St. Helens blew, it
     went to the Northeast, part of it through our reservation,
     travelled around the world twice and they seemed to imply that the
     Hanford Reservation air always goes to the North and the East and
     the Southeast. But this shows that the second and third eruption
     of mount St. Helens went to Portland and Seattle.

        These are the seven tribes located close to the Hanford Site.
     -- The confluence of these three rivers, the Yakima, the Snake and
     the Columbia, bear witness to the fact of this as a very low
     region. This was the wintering ground of the Yakima Nation people
     for thousands and thousands of years. From here we would migrate
     on a temporary basis to Canada, to the coast, to western Montana,
     northern California, northern Arizona. Knowing at all times where
     the foods and medicines were and gathered them respectively.

        This is another showing of the area and the relationship of the
     Yakima Reservation to the Hanford Reservation. [This was] one of
     the main reasons that the forefathers, our forefathers and
     signators to the treaty, made the provision that we would forever
     be able to gather our foods and medicines on the ceded land: They
     knew that you take 14 tribes and bands and put them on a little
     piece of real estate, that land is going to become too small one
     day. Which it is. And the environmental degradation is continuing.
     Which makes it all the more important that Hanford be cleaned up
     in a manner in which it will be safe for our people to gather
     foods and medicines again.

        This is very hard to see, I realize. But these are the releases
     of the radionuclides into the air in the 1940's and fifties and
     sixties. You will see that in 1945, they released 340,000 Curies
     of iodine-131 into the air, that was only in one year period. The
     next year, they released 79,000 Curies. And as Tom Bailie
     mentioned to you, in 1949, they intentionally released 7,800
     Curies as an experiment on the land and the people. There are nine
     monolith-like destructors in this picture. Nine reactors out there
     along that Columbia River system. Most of them within 300 yards of
     the mighty river. Most of what's dumped much material into that
     whole system. There is yet a decision to be made whether or not to
     dismantle these monoliths and bury the core reactor somewhere or
     maybe leave them standing. If they do leave them standing it will
     be witness to the Faustian bargain that science has made with
     society.

        This is Gable Mountain, a sacred mountain to us, but I heard
     once it had been used by the Department of Energy to drill into so
     they can study the basalt formations. If there is any success
     story, it was for us to fill up these tunnels you will see in the
     next slide. They had miles of tunnels in this mountain. -- And
     they, by a fluke in a reclamation agreement, they filled these
     tunnels back up and restored this mountain back as near as
     possible. That is another story and leads me to regret that I only
     have 20 minutes to speak to you. Lights, please.

        [End of Slides]

        The Yakima Nation would like to continue to work with the
     United States Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory
     Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Indians, all people,
     so that one day we can clean up the site. There has been
     questions, not only in this place, but in the United States and
     wherever, seemingly implying that the Yakima Nation has agreed to
     bring and store waste on our reservation. That is untrue. What we
     want is the study of any and all technologies, because it is yet
     undetermined what is to become of the 64 million gallons of waste
     that is in those tanks. What is to become of the billions of cubic
     yards and billions of gallons of material that must be tended to?
     As the Assistant Secretary of Energy said: "We must work together
     on research and development, because the technical tooth fairy has
     not shown up." The technology to administer to nuclear waste is
     not here. Perhaps it is in the minds of the younger generations.
     Perhaps they can help us, but at the same time as I get old, as we
     all must do and pass on, I hope to leave in my chair a person that
     not only understands the culture, the language, the history of my
     people, but they must also realize the other road of modern
     science and technology. I do not believe it is impossible or
     difficult to achieve. No different, and two decades back that was
     the norm in education. But education has become somewhat by the
     wayside on a world-wide basis. For instance, when I was enquiring
     about a proposed repository in Hanford in 1978, my persistence
     finally caused them to ask me: "What the hell business is this of
     yours?" And I said: "You are on the ceded land of the Yakima
     Indian Nation, due to the treaty of 1855." And they said: "Treaty?
     What treaty? What the hell you talking about?" What it only told
     me, that each scientist, engineer, manager and whom ever, plain
     worker down there was not taught in the education curriculums and
     the institutions across this country about what a "treaty", "ceded
     land", "sovereign nation", "tribal government" meant. And they
     assumed that didn't exist because they were not taught in the
     schools. I would recommend that the curriculums change and put
     into print the true history of the indigenous peoples. Analogous
     to the time when some of you didn't even know where Tahiti was.
     Our children do not know world-wide geography, like we used to
     have to learn when we were young.

        Ladies and gentlemen, the health and welfare of my people is
     paramount in my work. I maintain the stance that I'm neither
     pro-nuclear nor antinuclear, but pro-safety for all people. I have
     my reasons. In this manner I do not get doors slammed in my face.
     And so I hope that I can promote this understanding on a
     world-wide basis. On the positive side, if there is any, the U.S.
     Department of Energy has recognized the necessity to involve
     tribes into the clean-up process now. Hanford used to be the
     production place for plutonium. There was where we made the second
     bomb that was dropped. But one of my Elders who was in World War
     II adequately said, or appropriately said: "What we are dealing
     with at Hanford now is Tojo's revenge." We have the most waste by
     pure volume, tremendous amounts of environmental degradation.
     Continuously those that seem to want to maintain conservancy say:
     "It can't be cleaned up in order for you to gather your foods and
     medicines, that would cost too much." My reply is that we can all
     agree that to clean it up completely is the best for the future
     generations. And that should be the impetus for Congress to
     provide the funding and continuously to clean this place up and
     other facilities. There are other, the other 124 facilities like
     Hanford in the United States and Puerto Rico. But Hanford is the
     worst, admittedly by the United States government and by
     everybody.

        I will continue to work with you and with anyone to preserve
     and protect my culture. It seems that the true E.T. is Edward
     Teller. And as we go through these quotations that I'm going to
     say to you, these philosophies, which most of it is borrowed today
     anyway, I would like you to consider them in the context and the
     heart moods they are given. Bion, a Greek environmentalist in 600
     B.C., said: "Although the boys may throw stones at the frogs in
     sport, the frogs do not die in sport, they die in earnest." That
     is an analogous to what has happened here by humankind on the
     environment. And in this attempt to preserve and protect my
     culture, to be able to be allowed to speak my language, to teach
     my son the language and songs that are so beautiful and so
     important. If I stutter a bit it is because this English language
     is not adequate to say to you what I would like to say. I could
     say it in my own language, but then you wouldn't know what I'm
     saying. But in regard to all of this culture on a world-wide
     basis, I think it was best said by, or at least one of the great
     sayings was by an author, Peter Farb, who wrote the book "Men's
     Rise to Civilization". In there, and I quote: "Man is quick to
     prevent cruelty to animals, sometimes to humans, but there is no
     counterpart to the Humane Society or the Sierra Club for the
     prevention of cruelty to entire cultures."

        I thank you for your time and I again applaud Claus Biegert,
     Tom LaBlanc, Guenter Wippel, all of those, all of you that saw
     this to make possible this gathering. For me, to make new friends
     and visit what's old. And I hope that we all come to an agreement
     to say to the world: Not only is uranium harmful in this present
     status of digging it up, but also any degradation with environment
     is not just romanticized by saying: This is our Mother Earth, you
     harm Mother Earth, you harm yourself. That's not romanticism, it
     is true fact. And I hope throughout this whole effort will come
     continued committees and gatherings so that our future generations
     will not look back upon a legacy of wondering, what did our
     ancestors do about this situation?

        Thank you very much.