Uranium renewal sparks New Mexico land battle

The mining industry and those residents of the area who are ready for an influx of jobs see the plateau around Mount Taylor near the town of Grants in the northwest curve of New Mexico as an appealing opportunity for economic gain. "It's what we need, it's what's departure to fuel the future," said Star Gonzales, director of the Grants cavity of commerce. "They will be good paying jobs."

But to local Native Americans whose intimates lived in the area centuries before European settlement, Mount Taylor is a central part of their traditions and religion. They are fighting to make sure that archaeological sites, their cultural legacy and water supply be protected. Some are opposite outright to new mine and have watched helplessly as mining projects move ahead. While state and national agencies recognize their cultural claim to the land, the law gives them virtually no power to stop mining.

"As an Indian nation, we are taught to respect mother earth, and you see somebody doing that, it's like somebody put a knife in you," said Albert Riley, a Laguna Pueblo tribal official and religious head. Mount Taylor - known as "Tsibina" to the Laguna and "Tsoodzil" to the Navajo - lies in the heart of the Grants mineral belt, the site of one of the richest hauls of uranium of the freezing war era