Nygren Turns Back on Navajo Nation in Coal Industry Betrayal

On Monday, a diverse group of advocates from the Navajo Nation convened at the nation’s council meeting hall in Window Rock, Arizona, on what seemed like a fruitless mission. They had hoped to convey their bitter disappointment to Navajo President Buu Nygren, who had haphazardly thrown his support behind Donald Trump’s executive order designed to breathe new life into the slowly dying coal industry. Unfortunately, Nygren was absent, out in Washington, D.C. engaged in what his office vaguely referred to as ‘engagement with our federal partners’, leaving the meeting hall empty and the advocates’ concerns unheard.

As the Navajo advocates delivered their impassioned speeches, they couldn’t help but point to the recent secretive deal cut by the Nygren administration with Energy Fuels, a uranium company, that drew back the curtains on an act of profound betrayal. The agreement, far from being a mutually beneficial trade, permitted the transportation of uranium ore through Navajo Nation lands at a price, while also demanding the company’s promise to clean up its legacy of abandoned uranium mines along the route. Yet any reassurances this might have offered were drowned out in mistrust, largely thanks to Nygren’s surprising absence in the hour of need.

Thanks to the clandestine arrangement made in late January, numerous trucks now traverse the western edge of the Navajo Nation almost daily, ferrying uranium ore and associated materials from a mine near the astounding beauty of the Grand Canyon to a mill, far away in Utah. Consequently, the residual effect of this agreement could well extend towards the eastern side of the Navajo Nation, extending into New Mexico, if the green light is given to a proposed large scale uranium mining project near Mount Taylor.

Dubbed the ‘Roca Honda Mine’, the project has become a ‘priority project’ at the Cibola National Forest. Its status was fuelled by Trump’s executive order which is targeted at boosting national energy production. As much as it seemed like a noble calling for energy independence, it bore the unmistakable signs of corporate favor, much like Nygren’s endorsement.

Despite the controversy surrounding the uranium deal, Nygren’s recent backing of Trump’s ‘Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry’ executive order did nothing to dampen the growing dissatisfaction. To scale up coal production without due consideration to its impact on local citizens and the environment appears to be a slap in the face to those it will impact the most.

Percy Deal, an advocate, took to the podium during Monday’s rally, voicing his concerns in both English and Navajo. He highlighted how coal extraction activities by Peabody Energy since the 1960s have resulted in the depletion of invaluable water resources from an aquifer that served his community on the Black Mesa plateau in northeast Arizona. His concerns extended to the untold contributions of such activities to climate change and the surprise and alarm that Nygren’s policies were fanning these fires.

Deal lamented to the gathering, ‘All these affairs appear to be now in the hands of the man with yellow hair, and the worst part is that he never thought to speak to us. Never.’ Revealing a clear disconnect between the political leadership and the very citizens it supposedly represents.

Nygren attempted to justify his actions in a written statement, ‘I accepted the White House invitation because the trio of executive orders President Trump signed are supposedly going to promote America’s dominance in the energy sector,’ he penned. ‘The Navajo Nation shares this ‘American dream’ of energy supremacy because we have been a cogwheel in the United States energy framework for a century.’ Despite his cloying reassurances, Nygren provided little comfort or clarity to his disgruntled citizens.

Nygren went on to write, ‘Our lands, abundant in natural resources and crisscrossed by transmission lines (also known as the grid), will forever be part of the American energy framework. Therefore, the voice and participation of the Navajo in these discussions are required.’ His words, however, merely echoed in the empty hall, failing to convince a disillusioned audience.

The questionable endorsements from Nygren drastically contradict his own words, portrayed on his official site as an advocate for environmental preservation. His website states, ‘We must mitigate the effects of climate change on Navajo land. The Nygren Administration will ensure that the voices of the Navajo community are empowered in protecting our water, air, and land.’ And yet, his recent endorsements suggest a vastly different, more destructive narrative.

Drawing attention to the duplicity, Larry J. King, a long-time resident of Church Rock, recounted his own experiences with uranium mines and radiation leaks at the rally. He shared his first-hand account of witnessing the United Nuclear spill in 1979 while working at the mines, the single largest accidental release of radiation in U.S. history.

King spoke of promises made and subsequently broken by Nygren, who assumed office in January 2023. He reflected on Nygren’s campaign promises to clean up the uranium mine waste from his community at Red Water Pond, conveniently forgotten once Nygren was comfortably entrenched in the corridors of power.

Expressing his deep disbelief in Nygren’s promises that the new transport agreement would result in cleaning up uranium mines in areas like Red Water Pond, King noted the clear shift in Nygren’s word versus action as a sign of betrayal to his voter base, ‘He’s been quick to make a U-turn, in favour of industrial desires to defile our lands,’ he expressed.

Nygren’s endorsements, then, seemingly crosslinked to his political aspirations and disregard for the environment and the very people he represents, spiral into a deeper narrative of politics entwined with profit, leaving the people and the land in its forgotten wake.