History Commons^™

The Half Life Of Environmental Racism: Reproductive Justice And Nuclear Technology On Indigenous Lands, Katherine Gladhart-Hayes

Honors Program Theses

Nuclear waste on indigenous lands is a reproductive justice issue. Indigenous communities experience high rates of miscarriage and reproductive cancers, which remove bodily autonomy and reproductive choice. Negative health outcomes make communities unsafe places to raise children, and the potential for increased exposure to toxins through traditional cultural practices impacts a community’s ability to raise children with those cultural practices. This paper draws on bioethical theory, secondary historical and sociological analysis, and primary source accounts. This paper argues, through a series of historical case studies, that these impacts of nuclear waste are the result of systemic racism against indigenous communities …