State-Corporate Crime and Exposure to Contaminated Water in Flint, Michigan, and on the Navajo Nation

• In Event: Poverty, Educational Attainment, and the Criminal Justice System

Abstract

The recent Flint, Michigan water crisis has been called a racial killing, and a version of genocide since 10 people have died. Yet, Native Americans in the United States have always faced various forms of genocide. Since the 1950s, coal mining operations and uranium mining corporations have contaminated the reservation’s water supply. On the Navajo Nation, the northwestern area watering points and sources are not safe for household use. Residents who live there must resort to hauling water from distant locations. Many of the impacted community members are also economically disadvantaged and unable to access safe drinking water. For them, there is no other water supply, and they are forced to drink water from "Livestock Only" wells. Elders, adult community members, and young people have therefore experienced adverse health conditions and many continue to be diagnosed with, and die from various cancers and diseases, not to mention birth defects in newborns. State-corporate crime affects vulnerable populations and is frequently racially based, but genocide and responses to genocide, it seems, is in the eye of the beholder.

Author

• Linda M. Robyn, Northern Arizona University