Havasupai v. Provencio. The committee passed the resolution by a vote of 20-2, requiring the interior secretary to immediately withdraw the one million acres for three years.In 2011, the Obama Administration announced plans for a mineral withdrawal (mining ban) on those one million acres around the Grand Canyon. 3. Enter your email or sign up with a social account to get startedPhoenix's independent source of local news and cultureBack in May 2004, we published a cover story entitled "Indian Givers," which broke the news about a remarkably devious study conducted by genetic researchers at Arizona State University.The piece described how those researchers, led by Dr. Therese Markow, a nationally known genetics-research professor then at the university, had misled members of the tiny (about 650 members), poverty-stricken Havasupai tribe, who live on the floor of the western Grand Canyon (see photo), into providing blood samples in the early 1990s for what they said might help solve the tribe's diabetes epidemic.Instead, the samples were used for other research, including attempts to prove that tribal ancestors had crossed the frozen Bering Straits into North America. In the United States, the world’s richest country, less than one percent of non-indigenous households lack access to clean, safe water (0.6 percent), according to the report made by the UN’s independent expert.That number skyrockets to 13 percent among Native American households.It is in part this disparity that compelled the Havasupai Tribe to file two lawsuits in federal court aimed at protecting their water supply from the contamination resulting from uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.The small tribe has made its home at the bottom of the Grand Canyon for around 800 years, and its livelihood depends on the seeps and springs that keep Havasu Creek flowing. The NCAI uses this case to explore issues surrounding genetic research in tribal communities. Two weeks on the heels of a $25 million lawsuit filed by 52 members of the Havasupai tribe, the tribe itself filed a $50 million lawsuit Friday in Coconino County Superior Court against Arizona State University, the Arizona Board of Regents and three ASU professors. Don't have an account yet? Get the most out of your experience with a personalized all-access pass to everything local on events, music, restaurants, news and more. “Our very being and continuance as Havasupai depends on the continued flow of our water and our ability to continue that reliance forever.”Although the Havasupai generally do not disclose their religious beliefs and practices to those outside the tribe, tribal elders provided an explanation to underscore the importance of the area around Red Butte and the tribe’s right to continue to exercise its traditional religious beliefs and way of life.According to the Havasupai people, the meadow where one of the mines in question is located, is known as Mit taav Tiivjuudva; it is a sacred place used by the tribe for pilgrimages, ceremonies, gathering of medicinal plants and prayer. This brief describes unethical research conducted on the Havasupai Tribe which eventually led to a lawsuit filed against the researchers by the Tribe. laboratory to laboratory and university to university for over This brief describes unethical research conducted on the Havasupai Tribe which eventually led to a lawsuit filed against the researchers by the Tribe.
Photo/Chris Jordan-Bloch, EarthJustice n.d. Havasupai Tribe and the lawsuit settlement aftermath.
a decade to the extent that many blood samples cannot be accounted The civil rights action is brought by attorneys from NADLC, Public Counsel, the law firms Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP and Sacks Tierney P.A., which are handling the case pro bono, and the ACLU of New Mexico. at the university, and must review, monitor and approve all research and approves written protocols for federally funded research projects false pretense" to study diabetes when in fact they were In 2013, the Havasupai Tribe, along with Grand Canyon Trust, Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club, filed a lawsuit, Havasupai Tribe v. U.S Forest Service, to prevent the resumption of uranium mining at Canyon Mine, about six miles southeast of Tusayan. During On Tuesday, the ASU Board of Regents agreed to pay $700,000 to 41 members of the Havasupai tribe and return the blood samples. In one of the initial court filings, Rex Tilousi, a religious and cultural leader of the tribe, explained the significance of the deeply-sacred area.“The meadow is where the Grandmother and her Grandson meet every year to renew life for all Havasupai … we hold our babies up to face Mit taav Tiivjuudva and meet the Grandmother,” he said.The issue of uranium mining around the Grand Canyon is hotly-contested.In 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported 15 springs and five wells near the Grand Canyon have concentrations of uranium that exceed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) standards for safe drinking water. When ore containing uranium is exposed to the air, it oxidizes, making it highly soluble in water, he explained.Sump pumps are used to pump water out of the mines and into holding ponds, but when the mines are shuttered, the pumps are turned off, and water accumulates from the bottom up. The Havasupai settled in an isolated and remote location in the Grand Canyon, which is still only accessible by horseback, foot, or helicopter.
To find out more, visit our Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inboxGet the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox Tourism and camping at the site sustains the tribe’s economy.“We are the Havsuw ‘Baaja, which means people of the blue-green water,” said Don Watahomigie, chairman of the Havasupai Tribe. within the law.The suits also request a stop of all use and transfer of the ASU, has not filed a response to the suits because the suits have She’s a professor at UC San Diego, not exactly where you go to escape genetics. studying inbreeding.