Part 1
Nuclear Colonialism with Leona Morgan (Dine Nation) is a three-part interview that will broadcast over three consecutive episodes of American Indian Airwaves. The series focuses on our guests community work since 2007, which includes combatting against many aspects of nuclear colonialism. Our guest not only helped prevent the construction of a new ISL (in situ leach) uranium mine in Eastern Navajo, but also, she has and continues to raise awareness about the extreme dangers of transporting high-level radioactive waste material by highway and railroad nearby and through Indian Country, along with the negative and continuing legacy of uranium mining and its unresolved impacts on the Dine people and other Indigenous peoples and nations. In addition, Leona Morgan provides an extensive update on the unresolved issue of nuclear waste and how Holtec International is proposing to construct a high-level nuclear waste facility in southeastern New Mexico despite the opposition by numerous Native American nations.
Moreover, our guest discusses: the renewed pushed by the Nuclear Energy industry to build Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) " mini nuclear reactors - as a means to generate electricity for the future; how the Nuclear Energys Greenwashing strategy of claiming nuclear energy as green energy helping to combat the climate crises places Indigenous peoples and Mother Earth at historical perils; the $1.7 trillion reconstitution of the United States nuclear weaponry arsenal over the next 30 years, and how Native Americans and nations future generations are at risk unless there is an immediate nuclear decolonialization across Mother Earth.
Guest Leona Morgan (T dichnii, Ts nahabinii, Kiyaaanii, T aheedlinii; she/her) is a Din activist and community organizer who has been fighting nuclear colonialism since 2007. Leona Morgan co-founded and works with the Nuclear Issues Study Group www.fb.com/NuclearIssuesStudyGroup), Din No Nukes, which contributes to the Haul No! initiative (www.fb.com/HaulNo), and Radiation Monitoring Project (www.radmonitoring.org). Our guest collaborates nationally with many groups to address the entire nuclear fuel chain in the United States and is part of the international campaign Dont Nuke The Climate (www.dont-nuke-the-climate.org) that focuses on nuclear energy as a global climate issue.
Part 2
As of early 2023, only five Native American nations have constitutionally protected press freedoms. In terms of Native American self-determination and sovereignty, what does freedom of the press mean for Native American nations? What about Native government owned (and sometimes controlled) media and the right to tell critical stories about tribal council members without being penalized? What does Native American journalism look like both within and outside of Native American nations? Bad Press is a new documentary premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2023 and the film tells the story about Angel Ellis just trying to do her job. Shes a reporter for Mvskoke Media in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and she wants to give her readers access to all the information relevant to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. But thats not an easy task, given that Angel and her colleagues believe in truth and transparency and aren't afraid to challenge the integrity of some questionable tribal officials. Fast-forward to a confusing whirlwind of an emergency session at the National Council, where the 2015 Free Press Act is repealed, Mvskoke Media's independent editorial board is dissolved, and the newspaper is placed under the direction of the Secretary of the Nation and Commerce. Plus more.
For more information about viewing the documentary in person or online, see the Sundance Film Festival website (https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a1ffad406b20f68f2e3f2).
Guests Becca Landsberry-Bakker (Muscogee Nation) and Joe Peeler co-directors of Bad Press (2023).
Rebecca Landsberry-Baker is a Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program grantee, Ford Foundation JustFilms grantee, and 2022 NBC Original Voices fellow. She is an enrolled citizen of the Muscogee Nation and the executive director of the Native American Journalists Association. Landsberry-Baker was a recipient of the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Developments Native American 40 Under 40 award in 2018.
Joe Peeler is a documentary editor and director whose work has appeared on Netflix, HBO, and FX. Peeler edited Lucy Walker's Sundance Film Festival premiere and Academy Awards"shortlisted documentary short, The Lion's Mouth Opens; episodes of Netflix's original series Flint Town; Peter Berg's NFL docu-series The Team That Wouldn't Be Here; and Margaret Brown's documentary short, The Black Belt.
01-19-2023
- KBOO