‘Ready to fight’: how a Russian uranium ban would threaten Native American tribes

Ban would shift US uranium production into overdrive - posing environmental and spiritual threats to Indigenous communities who live near the mines

Sacred Native American sites such as the Grand Canyon and Bears Ears may seem a long way from the devastation unfolding in Ukraine. But as the US mulls a ban on Russian uranium, part of economic levers to stop Putin's war, Indigenous communities living near US mines could pay the price.

John Barrasso, a senator from Wyoming, recently introduced a bill that calls for a ban on all forms of uranium imported from Russia. Uranium fuels America's nuclear power plants, and about 20% of that comes from Russia, while close to another 30% is imported from the Russian allies of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.