The Return of Navajo Boy
Encyclopedia
The Return of Navajo Boy is an award-winning documentary film produced by Jeff Spitz and Bennie Klain about the Cly family, Navajo
who have suffered health problems due to environmental contamination from uranium
mining on tribal land in Monument Valley
, Utah. Bill Kennedy
served as the film's executive producer; his late father had produced and directed the earlier silent film
The Navajo Boy
(1950s), which featured the Cly family.
In 2000 the film was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival
. It has won numerous awards. It explores several longstanding issues among the Navajo and their relations with the United States government and corporations: environmental racism
, white supremacy
, media and political representation, off-reservation adoption, and denial of reparations for environmental illnesses.
in Monument Valley
, Utah
, who had been the subjects, presented without their own voices, in the silent film The Navajo Boy. In addition, through their story, the director and family could explore many of the issues with which the Navajo Nation has had to struggle: land use and environmental contamination, off-reservation adoptions, health education, enforcement of treaty rights, relations with the United States government.
Much of the story in the 2000 film is told by the chief subject, Elsie Mae Cly Begay, the oldest of the children in The Navajo Boy. She is the oldest living Cly featured in the 2000 film. Her mother Happy Cly died of lung cancer, which the family believed was caused by environmental contamination from unregulated uranium mining on the reservation. In addition, Elise Mae Begay has lost two sons, one to lung cancer and the other to a tumor, whose deaths she attributes to uranium contamination near the home where they lived when her sons were children. (Constructed in part of contaminated rock, it was torn down in 2001.)
Uranium was mined for four decades in six regions on the reservation, producing numerous sites of abandoned mine residues and tailings, including near Begay's former home. In some areas, families used contaminated rock to build their homes. The air and water have also been contaminated. "By the late 1970s when the mines began closing, some miners were dying of lung cancer, emphysema
or other radiation-related ailments."
At the time of Happy Cly's death, her youngest son John Wayne Cly was an infant. Christian missionaries adopted the boy. Elsie Mae Begay insists that the family agreed only to have her brother John cared for, but that he was to be returned to the family when he was six years old. They lost track of him, but through the making of the film, the Cly family was reunited with their long-estranged brother and uncle John Wayne Cly.
Elsie Mae's late grandparents, Happy and Willie Cly, were the main subjects of the earlier film. The "Navajo Boy" for whom the original film was named was Jimmy Cly, Elsie Mae's cousin.
Elsie Mae Begay has become an activist, telling her family and the Navajo Nation's story on college campuses and to Congress, to try to have practices changed and such health hazards controlled. Her daughter-in-law, Mary Helen Begay, has been filming webisodes of the EPA clean-up effort, with a camera supplied by Groundswell Educational Films, which produced the documentary.
With an updated epilogue in 2008, the film was shown on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC to Congressional and EPA staff. In 2008 Congress authorized a five-year, five-agency clean-up plan to mitigate environmental contamination on the Navajo reservation.
Since the film was made, Bernie Cly, one of the Navajo family featured, has been awarded $100,000 in compensation from the US government under the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act
. The legislation was passed to compensate mine workers and residents for environmental damages due to uranium mining, especially from the 1950s-1970s, as the US government was the sole purchaser of the product.
had long been concerned about the effects of uranium mining on the reservation and their EPA has identified numerous sites that need work. In 2005, the Nation was the first indigenous nation to prohibit such mining on its reservation.
Following identification of contaminated water and structures, the United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) and the Navajo Nation have developed a five-year, multi-agency plan to clean up contamination from the sites. In 2011, it was completing the first major project, to remove 20,000 cubic yards of materials from the abandoned Skyline Mine, near Begay's former home. Progress on reservation uranium clean-up by the government is documented with video webisodes online.
In early 2010, the Indian Health Service
began using the documentary as an outreach tool to raise awareness about uranium contamination and health issues on the Navajo Nation reservation.
Navajo people
The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
who have suffered health problems due to environmental contamination from uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
mining on tribal land in Monument Valley
Monument Valley
Monument Valley is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of vast sandstone buttes, the largest reaching above the valley floor. It is located on the northern border of Arizona with southern Utah , near the Four Corners area...
, Utah. Bill Kennedy
Bill Kennedy
Bill Kennedy may refer to:*Bill Kennedy , American actor, voice artist and TV show host*Bill Kennedy , retired American basketball player*Bill Kennedy , American technical writer...
served as the film's executive producer; his late father had produced and directed the earlier silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
The Navajo Boy
The Navajo Boy
The Navajo Boy was a silent film of the 1950s that depicted the Cly family on the Navajo Nation in Monument Valley, Utah. The director, Robert J. Kennedy, narrated the film live at each showing. He provided little written information about the context or the identities of the Navajo people...
(1950s), which featured the Cly family.
In 2000 the film was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
. It has won numerous awards. It explores several longstanding issues among the Navajo and their relations with the United States government and corporations: environmental racism
Environmental racism
Environmental racism is a sociological term referring to policies and regulations that disproportionately burden minority communities with negative environmental impacts....
, white supremacy
White supremacy
White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...
, media and political representation, off-reservation adoption, and denial of reparations for environmental illnesses.
The Cly family
The producers wanted to tell the full story of the Cly family, residents of the Navajo NationNavajo Nation
The Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering , occupying all of northeastern Arizona, the southeastern portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico...
in Monument Valley
Monument Valley
Monument Valley is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of vast sandstone buttes, the largest reaching above the valley floor. It is located on the northern border of Arizona with southern Utah , near the Four Corners area...
, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, who had been the subjects, presented without their own voices, in the silent film The Navajo Boy. In addition, through their story, the director and family could explore many of the issues with which the Navajo Nation has had to struggle: land use and environmental contamination, off-reservation adoptions, health education, enforcement of treaty rights, relations with the United States government.
Much of the story in the 2000 film is told by the chief subject, Elsie Mae Cly Begay, the oldest of the children in The Navajo Boy. She is the oldest living Cly featured in the 2000 film. Her mother Happy Cly died of lung cancer, which the family believed was caused by environmental contamination from unregulated uranium mining on the reservation. In addition, Elise Mae Begay has lost two sons, one to lung cancer and the other to a tumor, whose deaths she attributes to uranium contamination near the home where they lived when her sons were children. (Constructed in part of contaminated rock, it was torn down in 2001.)
Uranium was mined for four decades in six regions on the reservation, producing numerous sites of abandoned mine residues and tailings, including near Begay's former home. In some areas, families used contaminated rock to build their homes. The air and water have also been contaminated. "By the late 1970s when the mines began closing, some miners were dying of lung cancer, emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
or other radiation-related ailments."
At the time of Happy Cly's death, her youngest son John Wayne Cly was an infant. Christian missionaries adopted the boy. Elsie Mae Begay insists that the family agreed only to have her brother John cared for, but that he was to be returned to the family when he was six years old. They lost track of him, but through the making of the film, the Cly family was reunited with their long-estranged brother and uncle John Wayne Cly.
Elsie Mae's late grandparents, Happy and Willie Cly, were the main subjects of the earlier film. The "Navajo Boy" for whom the original film was named was Jimmy Cly, Elsie Mae's cousin.
Film's reception
The Return of Navajo Boy was aired on PBS November 13, 2000 List of Independent Lens films#Season 2 (2000). It has won awards at film festivals and is regularly screened at activist events, in public libraries and colleges, where it used for education related to the issues covered in the film.Elsie Mae Begay has become an activist, telling her family and the Navajo Nation's story on college campuses and to Congress, to try to have practices changed and such health hazards controlled. Her daughter-in-law, Mary Helen Begay, has been filming webisodes of the EPA clean-up effort, with a camera supplied by Groundswell Educational Films, which produced the documentary.
With an updated epilogue in 2008, the film was shown on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC to Congressional and EPA staff. In 2008 Congress authorized a five-year, five-agency clean-up plan to mitigate environmental contamination on the Navajo reservation.
Since the film was made, Bernie Cly, one of the Navajo family featured, has been awarded $100,000 in compensation from the US government under the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act
Radiation Exposure Compensation Act
The United States Radiation Exposure Compensation Act is a federal statute providing for the monetary compensation of people, including atomic veterans, who contracted cancer and a number of other specified diseases as a direct result of their exposure to atmospheric nuclear testing undertaken by...
. The legislation was passed to compensate mine workers and residents for environmental damages due to uranium mining, especially from the 1950s-1970s, as the US government was the sole purchaser of the product.
Changes in law and practice
The Navajo NationNavajo Nation
The Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering , occupying all of northeastern Arizona, the southeastern portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico...
had long been concerned about the effects of uranium mining on the reservation and their EPA has identified numerous sites that need work. In 2005, the Nation was the first indigenous nation to prohibit such mining on its reservation.
Following identification of contaminated water and structures, the United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
(EPA) and the Navajo Nation have developed a five-year, multi-agency plan to clean up contamination from the sites. In 2011, it was completing the first major project, to remove 20,000 cubic yards of materials from the abandoned Skyline Mine, near Begay's former home. Progress on reservation uranium clean-up by the government is documented with video webisodes online.
In early 2010, the Indian Health Service
Indian Health Service
Indian Health Service is an Operating Division within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services . IHS is responsible for providing medical and public health services to members of federally recognized Tribes and Alaska Natives...
began using the documentary as an outreach tool to raise awareness about uranium contamination and health issues on the Navajo Nation reservation.
Honors
- Official selection, 2000 Sundance Film Festival
- Best Documentary, Indian Summer Festival
- Programmer's Choice Award, Planet in Focus Festival
- Audience Award, Durango International Film Festival
See also
- The Navajo People and Uranium MiningThe Navajo People and Uranium MiningThe Navajo People and Uranium Mining is a non-fiction book edited by Doug Brugge, Timothy Benally, and Esther Yazzie-Lewis; it uses oral histories to tell the stories of Navajo Nation miners and families in the uranium mining industry. The foreword is written by Stewart L. Udall, former U.S. House...
- Uranium mining and the Navajo peopleUranium mining and the Navajo peopleAfter the end of World War II, the United States encouraged uranium mining production because of the nuclear arms race with the U.S.S.R., its opponent in the Cold War. Large uranium deposits were found on and near the Navajo Reservation in the Southwest, and private companies hired many Navajo...
- Uranium mining debateUranium mining debateThe uranium mining debate covers the political and environmental controversies of the mining of uranium for use in either nuclear power or nuclear weapons.-Background:...
- List of films about nuclear issues