History

In the 1970s, a uranium mill was built approximately four  miles away from the White Mesa community of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. Many White Mesa community members became concerned their lands, bodies, and future generations would be polluted by the incoming toxic material. The mill, built atop dozens of culturally significant sites, including kivas, pit houses, and burial sites, was solely intended to process uranium ore. In the 1990s, the mill’s business plans changed and they began to accept radioactive waste from around the U.S. and the world. Today, the mill is the last operating uranium mill in the U.S. and radiation blows onto the White Mesa reservation, leaks into and threatens their water supply.

Co-founded by Yolanda Badback and her mother, Thelma Whiskers, the WMCC is a multigenerational organization created in opposition to the Energy Fuels’ White Mesa Mill. The creation of the WMCC was inspired by Badback’s late uncle, Norman Begay, a vocal opponent to the Energy Fuels’ radioactive waste disposal plans in the 1990s. Thus, the organization was created in order to educate, organize, and mobilize tribal members and allies and campaign to protect White Mesa’s health, environment, cultural/sacred sites, and cultural landscape from the Energy Fuels uranium mill located immediately next to the White Mesa community. Currently, the WMCC educates their community on the dangers of the nearby mill and advocates for the shutdown and clean up of the mill to protect their community and future generations.