The camera pans across the vermillion mesas and buttes of Monument Valley that John Ford and John Wayne made mythic. Here, near the border between Utah and Arizona, lives the most famous family you have never heard of, the family of Happy Cly, pictured again and again in Arizona Highways, the portfolios of photographers Josef Muench and Ray Manley, and postcards sold at Goulding’s tourist lodge. Dissolve. The next scenes introduce Cly’s great-grandson, Lorenzo Begay. He leafs through old black-and-white pictures of his family, stills from a movie he has never seen: a smiling girl in a velvet- een blouse studded with silver conchos, a grinning boy with a bandana tied across his forehead. “I never thought that pictures would change anyone’s life,” Begay narrates. “But that was before the return of the Navajo boy.”

To read the full article, visit the Oxford Journals website.

The screening, which will be followed by a Q&A with director Jeff Spitz, is free and open to the public. It begins at 2PM and is sponsored by the Oak Park Coalition for Truth & Justice.

The Oak Park Main Library address is 834 Lake Street, Oak Park, IL.

The trio will show the film, which will be simulcast to all EPA regional offices via EPA-TV, and explain their methodology for creating environmental justice. For more information, see Groundswell’s press release here.

Navajo Boy Film and Media Campaign Guides EPA to Environmental Justice

Navajo Activist and Filmmaker Present their Story Today at EPA Headquarters

      WASHINGTON DC — A documentary film and decade long media campaign by Groundswell Educational Films and a Navajo family opened eyes in Congress and paved the way this summer for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) first ever cleanup of a Cold War uranium mine on Native American land.

     A Sundance Film Festival and PBS selection The Return of Navajo Boy film, and the Navajo family in it, triggered a federal investigation of uranium houses. After ten years of activism — screenings, public events, media coverage and online advocacy — the innovative media campaign and strong Navajo community voices led to the EPA’s $7.5 million cleanup of the abandoned uranium mine adjacent to the homesite of the family in The Return of Navajo Boy film in Monument Valley UT. Skyline Mine is one of more than 500 abandoned uranium mines listed in the EPA’s 5 year plan to cleanup Cold War uranium contamination in the Navajo Nation. In 2007 Congressman Henry Waxman (D-California) introduced a congressional investigation by describing the situation as “a forty year history of bipartisan failure and a modern American tragedy”.

     To commemorate Native American Heritage Month the EPA is sponsoring a presentation today by Groundswell co-founder, Jeff Spitz, director of the film and Navajo environmental activist Mary Begay, whose family is featured in the film. Spitz, an Associate Professor of documentary film at Columbia College Chicago and Begay, an elementary school teacher in the Navajo Nation, will present film clips, websites, webisodes, science curriculum and social media that chronicle their campaign and the unfolding federal response. The presentation begins at 11:00AM, Nov. 16 in Rachel L. Carson Great Hall, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.

     ”Our work with Groundswell points to the urgent need for more education in impacted Navajo communities where radioactive waste contaminates houses, water, soil and livestock,” said Mary Begay.

     ”While the media flocked to Japan’s radiation crisis, the Navajo Nation struggles to secure a federal clean up of Cold War uranium contamination,” says director Jeff Spitz. “Stories and film are powerful tools to create empathy and communicate across cultures. Groundswell uses new media tools to give voice, public engagement strategies to advocate for environmental justice, and mainstream media to amplify stories.”

     Groundswell Educational Films, based in Chicago, has been actively booking screenings and presentations for 10 years, leveraging media coverage for the issue and creating a platform for the Navajo community to advocate for EPA cleanup. “Transferring media skills to community members continues to be a key to the success of this project,” said Spitz. Accomplishments include triggering the investigation of uranium houses; gaining compensation for ailing former uranium miners and helping the Navajo Nation to move Congress to authorize the five agencies–Nuclear Regulatory Agency, Dept of Energy, Indian Health Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs and EPA to work together to cleanup the contamination.

• 1950s-1970s: The US government failed to warn Navajos about the dangers of uranium mining and radioactive waste despite the fact that the United States government was the sole purchaser of all the uranium.
• In 1990 Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). RECA represents an official government apology to victims of America’s Cold War nuclear program. RECA expressly acknowledges the United States’ failure to warn three groups of victims: uranium miners, on-site atomic test victims and downwind communities exposed to fallout from the atomic bomb tests.
• In 2000 The Return of Navajo Boy premieres at the Sundance Film Festival, raising awareness of “uranium houses”. Later that year, the EPA removed these structures from Navajo lands.
• In 2005 the Navajo Nation became the first indigenous government to ban uranium mining and exploration on its lands.
• In 2006 and 2007 Congress, led by Henry Waxman (D-California, Chair of the Budget and Government Oversight Committee) sought direct testimony from Navajo officials and demanded a plan of action from the five federal agencies responsible for what Waxman described as a “40 year history of bipartisan failure and a modern American tragedy”.
• In 2008 Groundswell and Navajo family members screened the film and a new epilogue on Capitol Hill.
• In 2008, Congress authorized a comprehensive 5-year plan to coordinate the clean up of contaminated structures, soil and water in the Navajo Nation.
• In April 2011 US EPA began its clean up operation in Monument Valley at the abandoned Skyline Mine which contaminated the homesite of the Navajo family featured in The Return of Navajo Boy.

About Groundswell Educational Films: Groundswell is a non-profit organization with a mission to collaborate cross-culturally in all facets of documentary filmmaking, transfer media skills into disadvantaged communities, and partner with stakeholders to stimulate local actions that address social justice issues raised in our films. Groundswell engages audiences through film, live performances and multi-arts programming and amplifies marginalized voices through new and traditional media.

Groundswell is celebrating a few milestones with its Return of Navajo Boy project.

EPA has completed the long awaited $7.5 million uranium cleanup in the community of Elsie Mae Begay, the matriarch in our film, The Return of Navajo Boy.

Groundswell Makes Headlines

Our media outreach team prompted dozens of recent news stories about the uranium problems in Navajo lands, including two national feature stories published by the Associated Press: Navajo Woman Helps Prompt Uranium Mine Cleanup and EPA Wraps Up Uranium Mine Cleanup on Navajo Nation.

Groundswell Keynotes EPA Event in DC

The EPA has invited Groundswell and Navajo webisode correspondent Mary Begay, to present our model for documentary film, news making and advocacy in Washington DC on November 16th for Native American Heritage Month. Our presentation will be broadcast on EPA-TV.

New DVD Edition

Groundswell is proud to announce the release of our new 15th Anniversary edition of The Return of Navajo Boy DVD. This edition includes features such as: webisodes, slideshow about Groundswell’s methods, behind-the-scenes photo gallery, 2011 epilogue and the original 1950s film Navaho Boy: The Monument Valley Story.

Next up: We are raising funds to develop curricula and an education program with our Navajo partners. The project, led by Mary Begay, will empower other communities on the reservation with knowledge, tools, and skills to advocate for clean up of uranium contamination. We welcome all donations to this effort.

Groundswell turns unheard-of stories into social change. What’s your story?

   – Jeff & Jennifer
  Groundswell Co-Founders ]]> http://navajoboy.com/30611/november-2011-newsletter/feed/ 0 http://navajoboy.com/30573/sarah-lawrence-college/ http://navajoboy.com/30573/sarah-lawrence-college/#comments Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:06:48 +0000 Navajo Boy Staff Writer http://navajoboy.com/?p=30573 On November 11, 2011 Sarah Lawrence College will host a special screening of The Return of Navajo Boy featuring a Q&A session with director Jeff Spitz and Navajo activist Mary Helen Begay. As part of the Sarah Lawrence Indigeneity Symposium, the film will screen at 7PM at the Pillow Room in the library at 1 Mead Way, Bronxville NY with a Q&A session directly following.

October 20 2011 Farmington Daily Times

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — For decades, Elsie Begay and her family tied sickness and death to the contaminated uranium waste that sat at the foot of a mesa on the Arizona-Utah border and was scattered throughout an arroyo near their homes.

Now it’s gone, along with the threat of continued radiation exposure for the handful of families living on the valley floor. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wrapped up the $7.5 million cleanup project at Oljato Mesa this week, marking the first significant remediation of a mine site on the Navajo Nation.

“Our big concern was people going right up to the piles and being exposed to gamma radiation, and we’ve mitigated that threat,” said Jason Musante, who oversaw the cleanup of Skyline Mine for the EPA.

Just as crews complete the cleanup of the Skyline Mine, a group of health scientists is preparing to launch a sweeping study of how the uranium legacy continues to affect the health of the youngest Navajos.

Toxicologist Johnnye Lewis said no other health study of its kind has taken place on the Navajo Reservation.

“It probably would have been nice to do this 10 years ago,” the University of New Mexico researcher said.

But it was only in 2008 that Congress held a hearing about the lingering problems of uranium on the reservation and adopted plans to deal with them.