If Utah continues its battle against the Skull Valley nuclear waste storage site in the halls of Congress, Utah is going to lose.
It has been two decades since the federal government (yes, the federal government) first approached Native American tribes about storing high-level nuclear waste on their reservations. We have been fighting the Goshutes ever since.
Utah has two strikes against it in this battle: (1) The federal government is required by law to take title of and store nuclear waste, and (2) while the extent of Native American sovereignty is confusing at the federal level, for the state's purposes, the Goshutes are sovereign.
Every legal avenue Utah has pursued to keep the Goshutes from accepting nuclear waste has ended in a cul-de-sac. In 2002, a federal judge ordered the state to "stop meddling" with plans to store waste in Skull Valley.
Since we can't win in court, we have resorted to lobbying Congress. States with nuclear power plants (that are running out of room for their waste) are far more politically powerful than Utah. If Utah thinks it has a prayer of keeping the waste in these states, or even in getting help from them in keeping it out of Utah, we are sorely mistaken.
Even if we do get some support, what will it cost us? Not only are there no free lunches in D.C., but what looks like a turkey sandwich is more likely to be roadkill.
Utah citizens should be outraged, not at the Goshutes, but at the unconscionable behavior of our legislators and governors. If nuclear waste arrives in Skull Valley, our own state government is to blame.
Our executive and legislative representatives have treated the tribe with an appalling lack of respect. Every strategy our representatives have pursued seeks to circumscribe the rights of the Goshutes. We seem to have forgotten that if the Goshutes didn't want nuclear waste, then all the legal battles and lobbying would be unnecessary. And guess what? The Goshutes don't want waste. They want, and desperately need, economic opportunity.
The Goshutes are U.S. citizens and our neighbors; their reservation is 40 miles from Salt Lake City. The Goshute tribe is deeply divided over the nuclear waste storage issue, with many members of the tribe not wishing to compromise the sacredness of their tribal lands for the money gained from nuclear waste storage. The cohesiveness and integrity of the tribe have suffered as members struggle with trying to balance economic opportunity with environmental and social cost.
Gov. Huntsman, take the fight out of D.C. Fire the lobbyists and the lawyers, hop in an old pickup and drive out to Skull Valley. Approach the Goshutes, hat-in-hand. Tell them, that as a representative of the state of Utah, you apologize for actions that contributed to the Goshutes' desperate circumstances. Acknowledge that Utah has been taking from the Goshutes since the early pioneers first stole their water and their food, and then murdered their people.
Tell them that you apologize that Utah did nothing, as they watched their reservation shrink and their borders fill with toxic waste and munitions.
Ask the Goshutes what Utah can do to help restore the tribe's integrity. Tell them you are done with the empty promises of economic development, that it is time for Utah to pay its comeuppance. What this means for Utah, I don't know. I do know that Utah is as much the Goshutes' community as it is ours.
They don't want to look out the windows of their homes and see row upon row of white storage casks, but they do want to have a home. It is time for a little creativity and a lot of humility. It is time for a peace talk.
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Dr. Nicole Haynes McCoy is an assistant professor of natural resource policy and economics at Utah State University. She has researched the nuclear waste storage issue and the Goshute tribe for six years.
