The quiet and shade of the Kaibab National Forest ends at a chain-link fence posted with No Trespassing signs. The hum of a giant pump cuts through the still air. A sign proclaims this site Energy Fuels’ Pinyon Plain Mine with an American flag emblazoned beneath. The Havasupai Nation has another name for it.
"Mat Taav Tijundva … a gathering point," explains Stuart Chavez, a tribal councilman. "This location that was only used for ceremonial purposes that’s now been tarnished and tainted was our heirloom."
We walk around the enclosed mine to where water pours from a pipe into a lined pond. Energy Fuels breached an aquifer here in 2016, and the uranium and arsenic heavy water’s been pumped out ever since at the speed of a garden hose...