An Ideographic Analysis of Native American Sovereignty in the State of Utah: Enabling Denotative Dissonance and Constructing Irreconcilable Conflict

In 1990, the Office of Nuclear Waste Negotiation under the direction of the federal government sought a community to voluntarily store nuclear waste. The program, known as Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS), would temporarily store 40,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel within a designated community until a permanent storage location could be determined. In 1992, the Goshute Tribe, located on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation in southwest Utah, submitted a grant application and was awarded $100,000 to investigate the benefits and impacts of implementing the MRS program on their reservation. Since then, the Goshute Band has leased land to a private group of electrical utilities for the temporary storage of the spent nuclear fuel. The tribe, along with the out-of-state utility companies, is in the process of transporting the nuclear fuel to the Goshute Reservation.

Targeting a Native American tribe to store nuclear waste is not specific to the Goshutes. Tribes in the United States are increasingly targeted by governments and corporations to consider the economic possibilities of storing nuclear waste on their reservations. The Pine Ridge Sioux, Chippewa, California Campo, Mescalero Apache, Northern Arapaho, Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone, Lower Brule Sioux, Chickasaw, Sac and Fox, Alabama-Quassarta, Ponca, Eastern Shawnee, Caddo, Yakima, and others have either been approached or have applied to store nuclear waste on their reservations. ¹ This has led to much controversy as conflicting ideas about the legal and moral implications of involving Native Americans in the problem of nuclear waste storage come to the forefront of the debate. "Nuclear power symbolizes many of the major social problems of technological change, its effect on traditional values, the industrialization of rural areas, the concentration of economic activity, the centralization of decision-making power, and the pervasive intrusion of government bureaucracies." ² Some of those involved in the various tribal situations are supportive, but most disapprove, referring to the issue as "self cannibalism" or "radioactive genocide." ³

Likewise, storage of nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Reservation has ignited a major controversy and a howl of protest. Although the Goshute Skull Valley Tribe has sovereign rights to govern and render the use of their land, there are those in Utah who do not want the tribe to house nuclear fuel and are challenging tribal autonomy. There is confusion surrounding the term "sovereignty" as those who oppose the nuclear waste proposal argue that the Goshutes do not have legal rights to house the waste. Opposition in Utah has become intense and politically charged and has stemmed from political leaders, environmental groups, the general public, and members of the Goshute Tribe. Among the issues being discussed are the environmental effects, the economic status of the tribe, and tribal sovereignty.

Although concern for the environment and tribal financial stability are key to the current debate, Daniel McCool, director of the American West Center ⁴ believes "the conception or misconception of the term sovereignty is at the heart of the Goshute controversy surrounding nuclear waste in the state of Utah." ⁵ This sentiment was also echoed by David Rich Lewis, a historian specializing in Native American environmental law. Speaking generally of Native Americans and the storage of nuclear power, he states, "the concern that such economic development strategies might adversely effect reservation environments is genuine, tempered by the knowledge that reservation peoples desperately need some alternative to poverty and unemployment. Above all is the issue of tribal rights to pursue genuine self-rule." ⁶ The issue of sovereignty then, is central not only to the Goshute controversy in Utah, but to the Native American nuclear power storage debate in the entire United States.

Because of the axial nature of the sovereign rights of Native Americans in the nuclear storage issue, specifically the Goshute Skull Valley Tribe, an understanding of how tribal sovereignty originated, how it has...