by Grace Thorpe

About the author: Grace Thorpe, the daughter of Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe, is the president of the National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans, an activist organization devoted to keeping nuclear waste off Indian lands. In addition, she is on the board of directors for the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, serves on the Greenpeace American Indian Advisory Committee, and is a health commissioner and tribal court judge for the Sac and Fox Indian Nation.

The Great Spirit instructed us that, as Native people, we have a consecrated bond with our Mother Earth. We have a sacred obligation to our fellow creatures that live upon it. For this reason it is both painful and disturbing that the United States government and the nuclear power industry seem intent on forever ruining some of...