Part 4 of 4 Parts (Please read Parts 1,2 and 3 first)
The Washington state Department of Ecology helps oversee the Hanford cleanup. Its staff meet with the Yakama Nation at least once a month. They describe their relationship with the tribal Nation as a bit of “push and pull”.
Laura Watson is the director of the Washington state Department of Ecology. She said, “We are the regulators, and sometimes Yakama Nation would like us to push a little harder than they perceive us doing. And so there’s a little bit of that push and pull. And that’s fine, that’s actually important as a regulator to have folks pushing.”
A fully rehabilitated Hanford site likely will not happen within the lifetime of Yakama Nation’s elders, or even the generation that follows. However, they are working diligently to bring younger tribal members to the effort.
Samantha Redheart coordinates Stem programs for ER/WM. In recent years, she has held coloring contests, a mass mailing of postcards and visited local schools. The ER/WM has offered college scholarships for students studying such subjects as engineering and sciences. The STEM outreach program hopes that those who receive scholarships may one day bring that knowledge back to the community. Redheart said, “We always share that Hanford is a multi-generational cleanup site. Yakama Nation leaders and management are always looking into not just the cleanup today, but for our future generations and of our children that are not yet born.”
Twenty-two high school students were allowed to visit Hanford in 2016. This was a rare opportunity, according to Redheart, because those under sixteen are usually not allowed on most of the site. She said that they took the students to series of culturally significant sites, pointing out the traditional cultural artifacts and salmon spawning grounds. The experience was thoroughly regimented. It involved DoE staff, hasmat guides and strict timelines.
If Sohappy got her wish, sharing her knowledge of Hanford before it was a nuclear site with the next generation would involve something like a trip back in time. She would take them on wagons and horses to each of the important sites. She would make sure to point out where the strawberry fields and old town once stood. It is difficult to know whether that will ever be a reality. Personally, she has not been to the Hanford site for over a decade. She said, “It angers me that I can’t go where my dad used to wander around. There’s nothing there that’s pleasurable. Not anymore anyway. It’s all torn up.”
(Editor’s note: I had just started my consulting business in the early 1980s when I got a call from a friend of mine. He had been consulting with the Yakama Nation on economic development. Russell Jim was just getting his new program going. The tribe needed a nuclear laboratory that they could contract to monitor the Hanford cleanup but finding one was not easy. I contacted Jim and told him that I would be glad to help. After a lot of research, I was able to find an RFP from the Washington state Department of Ecology for nuclear laboratories. I used it as a guide to craft a new RFP for the Yakama Nation which was accepted and used by the tribe to find their own nuclear consultant.)