First Voices Radio

Host Tiokasin Ghosthorse welcomes Marley Shebala back to the show. Marley Shebala, Diné and A:shiwi (or Zuni), is an investigative journalist, photographer, videographer and blogger. Marley talks about the continuing, alarming issue of transporting uranium waste across portions of the Navajo Nation, which already started several years ago. Without any notice, the transportation of uranium waste is taking place not only at Navajo Nation but also Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. This affects not only the Navajo Nation but also Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada so communities need to find out where this transportation route goes. If the sovereign Navajo Nation is not being notified about this route it’s unlikely other communities (cities, towns and rural areas) are being notified about the transport of this waste through their communities and its dangers. People need to be aware of how uranium waste could contaminate people, roads, air, water, etc. (virtually everything). For years Marley has been covering the uranium issue on the 25,000 square-mile Navajo Nation. Most of the Navajo Nation has been contaminated by uranium. Many, may Navajo people have been suffering and continue to suffering from different cancers, children were and continue to be born with defects, etc. However, the US federal government thinks that depleted uranium can still be used: for weapons of war and by somehow turning uranium waste into a type of fuel that will be “clean” nuclear energy for household uses. This is a huge national, and global issue. There is a small group of Diné people traveling to DC at the end of September. They will be traveling in a bus and telling people along the way what they have gone through and asking others if they have also been poisoned and made sick by depleted uranium, too.

For more background about today’s discussion, please visit “Requiem for RECA (Radiation Exposure Compensation Act)” by Kathy Helms, who has been covering this issue for years: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/requiem-reca-kathy-helms-ohuvc/. Follow Marley on Facebook, where she will be posting information about the DC trip and the activities that will happen there (as well as covering Navajo Nation activities): https://www.facebook.com/marley.shebala. Additional important information about this issue and many others can be found on Marley’s website: http://www.dineresourcesandinfocenter.org/

About Marley: In the Diné way, Marley Shebala is Tó'aheedlíinii (Water Flows Together clan), her mother’s clan, and born for Cha’al (Frog clan), which is her father’s clan. Her mom is from Lake Valley, New Mexico, which is in the eastern part of the Navajo Nation and next to Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Her father is from the Pueblo of Zuni, New Mexico. Her hometowns are Lake Valley and Zuni. “Marley Shebala's Notebook” is her website where she provides current news coverage of the Navajo government and Navajo communities on and off the Navajo Nation. She also produces Navajo Nation environmental news and political analysis of the Navajo government and legislative process. Marley hosted "Politics on the Navajo Nation," an internet news show. But due to unreliable WIFI on the Navajo Nation where she resides, the weekly news show was cancelled until she can raise funds to increase WiFi power at her residence. She is available for presentations on the benefits of a free and open press in Indian Country and how to achieve accurate and fair news coverage of the Navajo Nation and Indian Country. Marley works part-time at the Gallup Independent newspaper, which is headquartered in Gallup, New Mexico. She is the only reporter at the Gallup Independent Diné Bureau in Window Rock, Arizona, which covers the Navajo Nation. Before working for the Gallup Independent, she worked as the Navajo Times newspaper’s’ Senior Reporter specializing in investigative reporting on politics, domestic violence, law enforcement, veterans and the environment. She also covered a wide range of general interest stories. Her stories have won numerous awards from state and national organizations over the more than 30 years she has been in journalism.

Production Credits:
Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer
Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer
Karen Martinez (Mayan), Studio Engineer, Radio Kingston
Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Audio Editor
Kevin Richardson, Podcast Editor

Music Selections:
1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song)
Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters
Album: Tahi (1993)
Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand)

2. Song Title: Blackbird Song
Artist: Lee Dewyze as heard on AMC’s The Walking Dead Season 4, Episode 13 “Along”
Single
Label: January 2014 Vanguard Records, a Welk Music Group Company, exclusively licensed to Republic Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

3. Song Title: Raglan
Artist: Bruci Jordan
Single: Raglan (2024)
Label: Bruci Jordan

4. Song Title: The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
Artist: Traffic (Steve Winwood, Producer)
Album: The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (1971)
Label: Island

5. Song Title: Ambrosia
Artist: A Reminiscent Drive
Album: A Reminiscent Drive (2001)
Label: React

AKANTU INTELLIGENCE
Visit Akantu Intelligence, an institute that Tiokasin founded with a mission of contextualizing original wisdom for troubled times. Go to https://akantuintelligence.org to find out more and consider joining his Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/Ghosthorse