"When a foreign company started exploratory drilling for the possible return of uranium mining near Church Rock, community members say they were not informed in advance.

“It was a complete shock,” Jonathan Perry, the director of Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, said of the process that started this winter.

The eastern Navajo Nation communities have stood largely in opposition to future uranium mining for decades.

“The majority of Diné people have been personally impacted by (uranium),” Leona Morgan, an activist and member of Navajo Nation, said.

The Navajo Nation has a moratorium dating back nearly two decades that prohibits uranium extraction, but the Eastern Agency consists of what is known as checkerboard. That means federal and state lands are intermixed with Navajo, or Diné, lands and allotment lands."

Hannah Grover reports for NM Political Report May 1, 2023. [2]