Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed

Holly says: I was fascinated by this sobering investigation of how the Diné were impacted by years of exposure to uranium mines, ore, and radioactive dust across the reservation, fueled by the nuclear arms race, the Manhattan Project, and the Cold War. Having grown up in the west and spent quite a bit of time in this corner of the country, I was also shocked at how little I knew about this tragic history that still influences modern day events. While Pasternak’s book was published in 2011, the dialogue about uranium continues: as recently as July 2024, the Navajo Nation planned to block federal highways to prevent the transport of uranium across reservation lands.