Scan barcode
A review by kathleenitpdx
Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed by Judy Pasternak
5.0
“The stories were ceremony, to be told at just the right place and time”
Judy Pasternak is an extraordinary story teller and an investigative journalist. She has pieced together the legacy of uranium extraction on Navajo land and its aftermath. She beautifully and respectfully focuses on four generations of one family. She uncovers the stories of scientists and health professionals, Navajo and not, who tried to set off alarms and of governments and agencies that shuffled the reports and the blame.
The book ends at a hopeful time when, at last, meaningful cleanup and research is happening. But it is a lesson for all of us, Native and non-Native, to honor and preserve the land.
Judy Pasternak is an extraordinary story teller and an investigative journalist. She has pieced together the legacy of uranium extraction on Navajo land and its aftermath. She beautifully and respectfully focuses on four generations of one family. She uncovers the stories of scientists and health professionals, Navajo and not, who tried to set off alarms and of governments and agencies that shuffled the reports and the blame.
The book ends at a hopeful time when, at last, meaningful cleanup and research is happening. But it is a lesson for all of us, Native and non-Native, to honor and preserve the land.