Cowboys and Goshutes
On Tuesday afternoon I went to have my haircut. Normally I just buzz it all off myself, however I promised Rhiana that I would have as much hair as a semi-bald 29 year old could have on June 17th.
So in keeping that promise I found myself paying $16 for five minutes worth of much needed follicle attention. Can you believe that? That’s 3 dollars a minute! $180 dollars an hour!
Before I got to that chair I picked up one of the standard issue magazines that most hair chop shops leave. It’s funny how that works. There are about 50 magazines lying around those places for those waiting for their turn in the chair. 49 of them relate to fashion, beauty, and style. There is normally a title or two for those not interested in reading about the beautiful people.
Seeing that I had at least five people ahead of me I picked up the latest issue of Time. I usually just page through and read the shorts because with the longer stories I inevitably get deep into the reading (you know into the thick of the best part) and then I hear the $180 dollar an hour stylist call out, “Jeremy.”
I hate when that happens. Don’t you? Now I have to do one of two things. The first option requires me to close the magazine, take a mental picture of the cover, try to memorize the issue date, and most importantly not to forget about the article all together. It’s a fine line because I personally feel that there are so few articles out there that command that kind of space in my ever filling memory. So additionally I have to ask myself if the article is worth remembering or do I just let it go although I spent ten to fifteen minutes reading it to this point? Quite the quandary huh? The second option involves me trying to solve the logarithmic probability of me being arrested if I stick the damn magazine in my jacket and just walk out with it. I’m sure people do it all the time, but I’d be the one to get caught. So with a glance at the cover and seeing that it is the March 13th edition (a date that was still yet a week away) I knew that it probably wasn’t the best option to jack the mag.
“Jeremy….We are ready for you.” In my head “we”, so now instead of one person making $180 per hour there are two people making $90 an hour?
I walked up to the desk and chose option one, “March 13, 2006 Volume 167, Number 11. Early Man on the cover.”
The stylist looked at me funny and said, “Go ahead to the chair on the right, all the way to the back.”
The normal small talk while in the chair…fiancé….wedding…dogs…."You're all done now."
The whole time in the back of my mind I was repeating, “Early man. Early man. Early man.”
This time I had to remember what I was looking at. And not just because I hadn’t finished the article, but because of how I felt about what I had been reading.
I read about the Native American tribe called the Goshutes. In particular, this article focused on the tribal members that remain in Skull Valley. The article described conditions that I, mostly by my own ignorance, did not know even existed. There were two stories really.
One story holds a familiar theme, the exploitation of yet another Native American tribe. The story went on to paint a sad picture of how the Goshutes have been boxed in at the 18,000 acre reservation by numerous caustic government and military weapons disposition centers, aircraft and germ warfare proving grounds, and toxic waste dumps. And now a conglomerate of powerful polluters wants to “park” nuclear waste on the Goshute land. .Surprisingly, some of the Goshutes, including their Chief, have agreed to take on the waste product.
“Why would they ever agree to that?” I wondered.
And what comes next will be no surprise at all. It’s the same reason that many people do many things.
Money.
100 million dollars is the carrot that has been dangled in front of the Goshute tribe. To be paid over 40 years would be 2.5 million dollars per year. That calculates to about $285 dollars an hour. Of course that’s a number based on every hour of every day of every year for forty whole years. But then the Goshutes will be living with the nuclear bi-product for every second of that time too.
Of course there is resistance. Several high ranking members in the tribe object, at least in part. Acceptance of the risk that goes along with the 100 million dollar gamble could invariably affect the preservation of the Goshute tribe. Any number of factors causing health issues could diminish the already diminutive number of remaining Skull Valley Goshutes. Certainly the plan to maintain an organized toxic waste dump could not help those factors.
There is so much more to Goshute story and short of plagiarizing the Time article completely I will go on to say this. I am disappointed at the tactics employed here. These people for hundreds of years have compromised and barganized with rich white men. And now that they’ve been surrounded and are being squeezed by the very destruction that they are willing to embrace, a price of 100 million dollars has been put on what may be the last remnants of a dwindling tribe of Native Americans. After they are gone, the money will remain. I am ashamed that anyone would put a price on what is a well documented endangered tribe. And even more ashamed that the acceptance of such an offer by these people basically concedes that they have all but lost their fight to survive as a tribe.
The second part of the story, although to me seemed less important, also drives home the ghastly point of an ever expanding problem of energy provision. Like many types of fuel, nuclear power creates environmental and physical waste. The United States is the most energy thirsted country in the world. The article goes on to explain that current nuclear waste levels waiting to be parked in Skull Valley measures in the tens of thousands of tons over and beyond 50,000. If a ton is 2,000 pounds that means that there are four pounds of nuclear waste for each and every person in the United States of America. That is of course based on the 50,000 tons and an estimate of 250 million Americans. Even as a person that is uneducated on the subject, I can say that we ALL have a very big problem on our hands. And if we aren’t watchful now, the downstream effects of the methods that are currently being employed could be disastrous. And not just for the Goshute people.
There are more than wastelands surrounding Skull Valley. Politics have circled the Goshutes in the dessert as well. A movement is emerging in Salt Lake City to stifle the proposed nuclear parking deal for fear that leaking waste in the dessert could affect the population of the near by city. STOP, am I hearing that correctly? This tribe is wasting away because the Skull Valley reservation is “economically inopportune”, but add that little word nuclear to the equation and two faced advocates in Salt Lake will be crying about the sanctity of the sovereign Goshute nation. Again I find myself ashamed, for merely being able to read between the lines.
The article was so well written that it infuriated me. If you ask Rhiana, she’d tell you that I get bent out of shape on issues similar to this almost every day. I’d encourage you to read the article and maybe it will do the same for you.
To give it credit for my writing here I’ll tell you that the article was written by Margot Roosevelt. It is entitled “Utah’s Toxic Opportunity.” And it was published in Time Magazine.
“March 13, 2006 Volume 167, Number 11. Early Man on the cover.”
So in keeping that promise I found myself paying $16 for five minutes worth of much needed follicle attention. Can you believe that? That’s 3 dollars a minute! $180 dollars an hour!
Before I got to that chair I picked up one of the standard issue magazines that most hair chop shops leave. It’s funny how that works. There are about 50 magazines lying around those places for those waiting for their turn in the chair. 49 of them relate to fashion, beauty, and style. There is normally a title or two for those not interested in reading about the beautiful people.
Seeing that I had at least five people ahead of me I picked up the latest issue of Time. I usually just page through and read the shorts because with the longer stories I inevitably get deep into the reading (you know into the thick of the best part) and then I hear the $180 dollar an hour stylist call out, “Jeremy.”
I hate when that happens. Don’t you? Now I have to do one of two things. The first option requires me to close the magazine, take a mental picture of the cover, try to memorize the issue date, and most importantly not to forget about the article all together. It’s a fine line because I personally feel that there are so few articles out there that command that kind of space in my ever filling memory. So additionally I have to ask myself if the article is worth remembering or do I just let it go although I spent ten to fifteen minutes reading it to this point? Quite the quandary huh? The second option involves me trying to solve the logarithmic probability of me being arrested if I stick the damn magazine in my jacket and just walk out with it. I’m sure people do it all the time, but I’d be the one to get caught. So with a glance at the cover and seeing that it is the March 13th edition (a date that was still yet a week away) I knew that it probably wasn’t the best option to jack the mag.
“Jeremy….We are ready for you.” In my head “we”, so now instead of one person making $180 per hour there are two people making $90 an hour?
I walked up to the desk and chose option one, “March 13, 2006 Volume 167, Number 11. Early Man on the cover.”
The stylist looked at me funny and said, “Go ahead to the chair on the right, all the way to the back.”
The normal small talk while in the chair…fiancé….wedding…dogs…."You're all done now."
The whole time in the back of my mind I was repeating, “Early man. Early man. Early man.”
This time I had to remember what I was looking at. And not just because I hadn’t finished the article, but because of how I felt about what I had been reading.
I read about the Native American tribe called the Goshutes. In particular, this article focused on the tribal members that remain in Skull Valley. The article described conditions that I, mostly by my own ignorance, did not know even existed. There were two stories really.
One story holds a familiar theme, the exploitation of yet another Native American tribe. The story went on to paint a sad picture of how the Goshutes have been boxed in at the 18,000 acre reservation by numerous caustic government and military weapons disposition centers, aircraft and germ warfare proving grounds, and toxic waste dumps. And now a conglomerate of powerful polluters wants to “park” nuclear waste on the Goshute land. .Surprisingly, some of the Goshutes, including their Chief, have agreed to take on the waste product.
“Why would they ever agree to that?” I wondered.
And what comes next will be no surprise at all. It’s the same reason that many people do many things.
Money.
100 million dollars is the carrot that has been dangled in front of the Goshute tribe. To be paid over 40 years would be 2.5 million dollars per year. That calculates to about $285 dollars an hour. Of course that’s a number based on every hour of every day of every year for forty whole years. But then the Goshutes will be living with the nuclear bi-product for every second of that time too.
Of course there is resistance. Several high ranking members in the tribe object, at least in part. Acceptance of the risk that goes along with the 100 million dollar gamble could invariably affect the preservation of the Goshute tribe. Any number of factors causing health issues could diminish the already diminutive number of remaining Skull Valley Goshutes. Certainly the plan to maintain an organized toxic waste dump could not help those factors.
There is so much more to Goshute story and short of plagiarizing the Time article completely I will go on to say this. I am disappointed at the tactics employed here. These people for hundreds of years have compromised and barganized with rich white men. And now that they’ve been surrounded and are being squeezed by the very destruction that they are willing to embrace, a price of 100 million dollars has been put on what may be the last remnants of a dwindling tribe of Native Americans. After they are gone, the money will remain. I am ashamed that anyone would put a price on what is a well documented endangered tribe. And even more ashamed that the acceptance of such an offer by these people basically concedes that they have all but lost their fight to survive as a tribe.
The second part of the story, although to me seemed less important, also drives home the ghastly point of an ever expanding problem of energy provision. Like many types of fuel, nuclear power creates environmental and physical waste. The United States is the most energy thirsted country in the world. The article goes on to explain that current nuclear waste levels waiting to be parked in Skull Valley measures in the tens of thousands of tons over and beyond 50,000. If a ton is 2,000 pounds that means that there are four pounds of nuclear waste for each and every person in the United States of America. That is of course based on the 50,000 tons and an estimate of 250 million Americans. Even as a person that is uneducated on the subject, I can say that we ALL have a very big problem on our hands. And if we aren’t watchful now, the downstream effects of the methods that are currently being employed could be disastrous. And not just for the Goshute people.
There are more than wastelands surrounding Skull Valley. Politics have circled the Goshutes in the dessert as well. A movement is emerging in Salt Lake City to stifle the proposed nuclear parking deal for fear that leaking waste in the dessert could affect the population of the near by city. STOP, am I hearing that correctly? This tribe is wasting away because the Skull Valley reservation is “economically inopportune”, but add that little word nuclear to the equation and two faced advocates in Salt Lake will be crying about the sanctity of the sovereign Goshute nation. Again I find myself ashamed, for merely being able to read between the lines.
The article was so well written that it infuriated me. If you ask Rhiana, she’d tell you that I get bent out of shape on issues similar to this almost every day. I’d encourage you to read the article and maybe it will do the same for you.
To give it credit for my writing here I’ll tell you that the article was written by Margot Roosevelt. It is entitled “Utah’s Toxic Opportunity.” And it was published in Time Magazine.
“March 13, 2006 Volume 167, Number 11. Early Man on the cover.”
posted by Jeremy @ 1:44 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home