The tainted desert : environmental ruin in the American west

372 Pages·2016·19.482 MB·English

by  Valerie Kuletz

Valerie L. Kuletz
The Tainted Desert
Environmental and Social Ruin in the American West —
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The Tainted Desert
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Kuletz, Valerie.
Tainted desert
COLORADO
Alpine Campus
Library
Bristol Hall
P.O. Box 774688
Steamboat Springs
MOUNTAIN CO 80477
(ole) Keds)
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2021 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/tainteddesertenvO00O0kule
The Tainted Desert
Environmental Ruin in the American West
- Valerie L. Kuletz -
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ROUTLEDGE New York London
Published in 1998 by
Routledge
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
Published in Great Britain by
Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane
London EC4P.4EE
Copyright © 1998 by Routledge
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.
Book design by Charles B. Hames
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Kuletz. Valerie.
The Tainted Desert : environmental ruin in the American west /
by Valerie Kuletz.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0—415—91770-0 (hb). — ISBN 0—415-91771-9 (pb)
|. Indians of North America—Nevada. 2. Nuclear weapons—Nevada Testing—
Social aspects. 3. Radioactive waste disposal—Nevada —Social aspects.
4. Indians of North America—West (U.S.) 5. Nuclear weapons—West (U.S.)—
Social aspects. 6. Radioactive waste disposal—West (U.S.)—Social aspects.
Telirtle:
E78.N4K85_ 1998
363.17'99'0978—dc21 97.3459
CIP
DEDICATION
For my father, Edward Kuletz (1921-1995),
for Corbin Harney,
Spiritual Leader of the Western Shoshone
and tireless antinuclear activist,
for Richard Rawles,
who explored this sad and
beautiful landscape with me, and
for the people of the desert

Contents
List of Illustrations/Maps ix
Legend of Map Symbols x
List of Acronyms xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xxi
ONE: Mapping the Nuclear Landscape 1
1. Introduction 3
Mapping the Invisible Nuclear Landscape 3
Interlocking Desires: Science, Industry, and the Military 15
2. Tragedy at the Center of the Universe 19
The Uranium Story 19
Science as a Mechanism of Exclusion 27
The Global Picture 36
3. Science Cities in the Desert 38
Outdoor Laboratories and Theaters of War 38
Zones of Concentration on the Nuclear Landscape 45
Zone One 48
Zone Two 61
Vil
4. Nuclear Wasteland 81
The Nuclear Legacy 82
Confusion in the Field:
Problems with the Nuclear Industry and Its Regulation 88
Nuclear Waste and Indigenous Communities 94
Deep-Geologic Repositories:
The Yucca Mountain Project and WIPP 97
Monitored Retrievable Storage Sites 104
Low-Level Nuclear Waste:
Ward Valley and the Mojave’s Indigenous Peoples 111
The Nuclear Waste Crisis in Context 115
Two: Power, Representation, and
Cultural Politics at Yucca Mountain 121
. The View from Yucca Mountain 123
Perspectives and Boundaries 123
Perceptions of Nature and Their Material Consequences 139
Protest at the Margins 145
. Cultural Politics 159
Indian Perspectives on Yucca Mountain Cultural Resource Studies 159
Tribal Representation in Cultural Studies 167
Removal of Artifacts, Removal of Presence 173
Different Ways of Knowing 177
. The Country of Lost Borders 185
A Historical Sketch 185
. Aboriginal Homeland 205
The Cultural Politics of Difference 205
Indian Geography and Mythopoetic Knowledge 209
Intersubjectivity and Ecological Ethos 216
(Re)Assembling Knowledge 239
. The Experimental Landscape 245
Intellectual Precursors to the Experiment at Yucca Mountain:
Ecology, Energy, and Radiation 248
Managing the System:
The Yucca Mountain Project and the Technology of Knowing 265
10. Conclusion 283
Notes 291
Bibliography 319
Index 331
Vill The Tainted Desert