[CPEO-MEF] Military Ordnance and Native Lands

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

American Sociological Association NEWS
October 27, 2004 
pubinfo@asanet.org 

Military Hazards Are Greater for Native Americans, According to
Sociological Research 

Washington, DC - A new study by sociologists at Washington State
University (WSU) suggests Native Americans and their lands are
disproportionately exposed to hazards posed by the U.S. military's
explosive and toxic munitions.

The research, conducted by Gregory Hooks, chair of the WSU Department of
Sociology, and Chad L. Smith, Texas State University-San Marcos
professor and a former WSU graduate student, provides evidence that
Native American lands tend to be located in the same county as sites
deemed to be extremely dangerous due to the presence of a variety of
unexploded military ordnance.

The researchers study, "The Treadmill of Destruction: National Sacrifice
Areas and Native Americans," appears in the most recent issue of the
American Sociological Review, the flagship journal of the American
Sociological Association.

While a body of previous research has determined that Native Americans
and other minority populations are often subjected to environmental
inequalities as the result of economic and industrial activities, Hooks
and Smith said this latest research is the first to systematically
examine the role of the military in the uneven distribution of
environmental hazards.

"The study demonstrates that much of the disproportional exposure of
Native Americans to environmental dangers throughout the 20th century
was the result of militarism, rather than economic competition," Hooks
said. "And it shows that historically coercive governmental policies in
locating Indian reservations are a major factor in determining their exposure."

The study cites historical evidence showing that the United States
widely expanded its military infrastructure in the 1940s, and then
reinforced that infrastructure again during the Cold War, each time
using remote lands to serve as bombing ranges and weapons testing and
storage sites. For the most part, the expansions occurred throughout the
western United States, where by the 1930s much of the Native American
population had been relocated to government reservations.

"These lands were remote, had a low population density and could be
acquired in a very short period of time because the federal government
already owned them," the researchers write of the military's expansions.
"This contingent intersection of Indian conquest and the rise of the
Pentagon placed Native Americans at great risk of exposure to noxious
military activities."

Because national security restrictions make it difficult to gain
information about bases that are functioning currently, the study
examined publicly released documents from the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineer relating to closed military bases in the approximately 3,100
counties in the contiguous 48 states.

The research focused on sites containing unexploded ordnance, including
landmines, nerve gases, and toxic and explosive shells, currently
estimated to contaminate between 20 and 50 million acres of formerly
used defense installations throughout the country.

Comparing U.S. Army Corps of Engineer rankings of the hazards posed by
each closed site to the proximity and acreage of Native American-owned
lands in each location, the study found a disproportionate number of the
sites deemed most hazardous lay within close proximity to Indian reservations.

Even after accounting for a number of factors that influence the
location of military bases and unexploded ordnance, "Native American
lands," according to the authors, "are positively associated with the
count of extremely dangerous sites. The more acres owned by Native
Americans, the greater the number of such sites."

"Our research suggests that the toxic legacy of this unprecedented
military expansion of the second half of the 20th Century left in its
wake a spatial overlap pairing the forcible relocation of Native
Americans and the expansion of the U.S. military," the researchers
concluded. "This 'treadmill of destruction,' as we call it in our
research, has systematically placed Native Americans in close proximity
to extremely dangerous military sites.

For more information, contact Gregory Hooks, Department of Sociology,
Washington State University, at ghooks@wsu.edu. For members of the media
interested in a copy of the American Sociological Review (August, 2004)
article, contact Johanna Ebner in the ASA Public Information Office at
<pubinfo@asanet.org>. 

# # #

for the original press release, see
http://www.asanet.org/media/natives.html

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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