[A-List] US society: the genocide continues

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Military threat to native Americans
NICHOLAS K GERANIOS, Spokane
The Herald, December 09 2004

The last major push by the US Army against American Indian tribes took place
more than 200 years ago, but a new report finds the military still poses a
danger to remaining tribes.

The study contends the dramatic expansion of US military bases during the
twentieth century was largely concentrated in the same remote, arid places
in the West where tribal reservations were located.

That means aboriginals could be disproportionately exposed to toxic
chemicals and unexploded bombs compared with non-native Americans, according
to the report by Gregory Hooks, of Washington State University, and Chad
Smith, a former graduate student, now of Texas State University-San Marcos.

Two world wars and the cold war "pushed the United States to produce, test
and deploy weapons of unprecedented toxicity," the study, published in
American Sociological Review, said. It is based on geography, not on actual
data showing whether aboriginals are more often injured by unexploded bombs.

Using defence department data on closed military bases - including bombing
ranges, weapons testing and storage sites - researchers discovered the
locations deemed most hazardous "lay within close proximity to Indian
reservations".

The study considered only closed military bases because security concerns
make it impossible to learn of hazards at functioning military bases.

As a result, military facilities such as Washington's Yakima training
centre, Whidbey Island naval air station and Fort Lewis, all of which are
located near Indian reservations, were not included, raising the possibility
that dangers to aboriginals are even greater than what was found in the
report.

The government estimates unexploded ordnance, which can include mines, nerve
gases and explosive shells, probably affects between 20 and 50 million acres
of land and would take centuries to clean up.-AP