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Marked by high mesas and deep canyons the Dinétah joins portions of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado. Known more commonly as the Four Corners, this area stands as one of the most vast deposists of uranium-rich ore. Regarded as the Navajos’ ancestral home land (it was they who named it), it is also the United States’ largest American Indian land reserve.
Economic growth and the search for raw materials brought speculators to the region as early as 1817; it was during World War II, however, that mining companies focused there on the large abundance of high-grade uranium. In partnership with the Atomic Energy Commission, mining operations sprouted up across the reservation, initiating an effort to complete the greatest military weapon of history. This website is a compilation of interviews and photograhps that document the lasting impact of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation.