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Show THE GOSHUTES W E S H A L L R E M A I N : U TA H I N D I A N C U R R I C U L U M G U I D E 60 the Department of Interior, and one by the Bureau of Land Management, voided the 1998 NRC license, effectively stopping nuclear waste storage on the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Reservation. Both the Skull Valley Band of Gos-hute executive council and Private Fuel Storage contested the rulings. In July 2007, the Skull Valley Band of Goshute filed suit against the Department of Interior calling for a reversal of the 2006 rulings. The proposed Skull Valley nuclear waste site stirred up controversy for at least two reasons. First, the state of Utah's opposition to the proposal threatened the Skull Valley Band of Goshute's sovereignty. In 1996, former gover-nor Mike Leavitt was reported as saying that nuclear waste would come to Utah "over [his] dead body." As a sovereign nation, the Skull Val-ley Band of Goshute is not under the jurisdiction of the state of Utah but rather in a trust relation-ship with the federal government. The Bureau of Indian Affairs-the intermediary between Native Americans and the federal government-ap-proved the lease agreement between PFS and the Skull Valley Band of Goshute. The executive council and members of the Skull Valley Goshute argued that the state's efforts to stop the PFS/ Skull Valley nuclear waste storage facility was an affront to Native American sovereignty and self-determination. Several local environmental organizations in Utah also opposed the waste storage facility. Similarly, their objections to the decision of a sovereign Native American nation could be seen as a violation of the principles of sovereignty. Second, although the Skull Valley Band of Gos-hute executive council, under the leadership of former chair Leon Bear, was in favor of the nuclear waste facility, there were several mem-bers of the tribe who opposed the council's decision. Margene Bullcreek and Sammy Black-bear are two prominent opponents of the site. Bullcreek opposed the site because she believed it was part of a pattern of environmental racism targeting Native American lands for the disposal of nuclear and other toxic wastes. She also argued that the site would have violated the reservation land that she believes is sacred. Several parties in the controversy considered the Skull Valley site ideal for nuclear waste storage because of the reservation's geographic seclusion and sparse landscape. Indeed, in his advocacy of the proposal, Leon Bear noted that the reserva-tion is already surrounded by toxic facilities that damage the landscape, including the Tooele Army Depot, Magcorp, and Deseret Chemical Weapons Incinerator. Storing nuclear waste, Bear argued, might be the best bet for economic development in an area already considered to be a "waste-land." Ironically, these features have perhaps also prevented the fruition of alternate economic development projects for the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians. The Tekoi Balefill landfill, leased on the southwest corner of the reservation, is the only current source of economic development on the reservation |