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Protesters gathered outside Flagstaff City Hall on Monday afternoon to speak up against the transportation of uranium ore from the Pinyon Plain Mine near the Grand Canyon.

Organized by the anti-nuclear group Haul No!, the protest came a week and a half after the Navajo Nation reached a new agreement with mine operator Energy Fuels allowing hauling of uranium across Navajo lands.

Ore transportation is set to resume before the end of this month and potentially as soon as this week.

The haul route between Pinyon Plain Mine and the White Mesa Uranium Mill in southern Utah -- also owned by Energy Fuels -- uses Highway 64, Interstate 40, Highway 89 and Highway 160, passing close to Williams, Flagstaff, Cameron, Tuba City, and other communities on the Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation.

The protest began with a small group of around a dozen people at 4:30 p.m., and it gradually swelled to at least 30 people over the next hour. Protesters held signs reading “Flagstaff - No to Uranium,� “Don’t Nuke the Climate,� “Indigenous Health Matters� and “Stop Nuclear Colonialism.� Some wore T-shirts stenciled with the words “Leetso Dooda,� a Diné phrase meaning “No uranium.�

They chanted slogans such as “Haul no! Shut it down! Keep uranium in the ground!� and “No uranium through this town! Shut Energy Fuels down!� Some of the cars passing by on Route 66 honked to demonstrate support. Three Flagstaff Police Department officers stood by the City Hall building, observing the protest through its duration. 

Treina Jones, co-organizer of the Tuba City-based Indigenous activist group Bidí Roots, said she came to stand in solidarity with Haul No! and to spread awareness about the potential risks of uranium hauling.

“I was very disappointed with the Navajo Nation agreeing to let Energy Fuels haul through the reservation,� Jones said, noting the long history of uranium mining on the reservation and the high rates of cancer among Navajo residents.

(The Navajo Cancer Workgroup has that uranium exposure via past mining or cleanup employment, abandoned tailings and toxic waste is “an additional environmental risk to the health of Navajo people even to today.�)

“I’m really hoping that they don’t open new mines across the Navajo Nation,� Jones added.

A Canadian company, Laramide Resources Ltd., is actively pursuing renewed mining at a site surrounded by Navajo Nation lands in New Mexico.

Her Bidí Roots co-organizer Taymond Tolthe said he was concerned about the possibility of aquifer contamination at Pinyon Plain and saw the mine as emblematic of a broken relationship with the natural world.

“Traditionally, you’re not supposed to take anything out of the ground. You’re not supposed to utilize the Earth in any sort of destructive manner,� Tolthe said.

“I also feel like it’s disrupting the balance that has been created for us to be a part of, not take advantage of,� he added. “And we’re just being very destructive, and exploitative, and damaging the earth.�

Jones and Toltha are planning a community awareness walk in Tuba City on Saturday, Feb. 22, from the junction of Highway 160 and Main Street to the Tuba City Chapter House.

Mattea Goetz, the Grand Canyon program manager for the Sierra Club, also joined the protest in support of Haul No! and “to continue public pressure to shut down and clean up the mine,� they said.

They’re concerned that a spill along the haul route -- which the Grand Canyon Trust has  includes multiple stretches of highway with a significantly elevated risk of vehicular accidents -- could result in soil contamination.

“Should a spill occur we’re � afraid that a thorough cleanup would not be able to happen, [and] personnel involved would be exposed to really unsafe conditions,� they said.

Kathy Armstrong, a volunteer with the Northern Arizona Climate Change Alliance who attended the protest, said she’d like to see Pinyon Plain Mine permanently closed.

“Nuclear energy is not clean energy, and that’s what we need now, with our climate chaos -- our climate emergency that we’re in now,� Armstrong said.

She hopes to “stand with the Navajo people, and the Hopi people, and to just keep making noise and get attention."

The noise of the protest drew the attention of Flagstaff City Councilmember Anthony Garcia, who walked out from City Hall and greeted some of the protesters. As the protest wound down around 6 p.m., attendees gathered in a circle and listened to a performance of a Navajo prayer song, along with exhortations from organizers to spread information and educate others.

Garcia addressed the protesters before they dispersed.

“I don’t know all the answers,� he began. “I am a Flagstaff City councilman. I also care deeply about the Earth. I also was born and raised in Flagstaff, and care about this place.�

He mentioned his friendship with local Indigenous activist Klee Benally, who co-founded Haul No! and died just over a year ago. Garcia then promised to ask the council for a future agenda item to discuss the issue of uranium mining.

“I’m only one voice, and that voice tomorrow� -- during the Feb. 11 City Council meeting -- “will be asking for us to discuss this in greater detail to learn the facts around it."

He couldn’t guarantee that the council would take any action, he said, but added, “I want you to know that your voice is heard by me.�

True to his word, at the Feb. 11 meeting Garcia requested a future agenda item to discuss the public safety ramifications of uranium hauling near Flagstaff.