Waste foes to lift voices

Gov. Mike Leavitt has been singing the blues of late when it comes to stopping a nuclear waste repository in Utah. But Oct. 6 he'll be humming a different tune, one with plenty of folk, pop and rhythm-and-blues.

Leavitt's efforts have struck a sympathetic chord with Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, better known as the Indigo Girls. They, along with American Indian blues group Indigenous and country blues icon Bonnie Raitt, are teaming on a Utah benefit concert at the Huntsman Center to help grassroot efforts opposed to nuclear waste.

"It's very gratifying to see different groups begin to organize to oppose this. It also will help to have this national attention. I feel confident we will be able to resist having any nuclear waste in Utah," Leavitt said.

The focus of the concert tour is "no nuclear waste on native lands," said Saye Brown, campaign manager for Honor the Earth, a national advocacy group based in Minneapolis.

Margene Bullcreek, a member of the Skull Valley Goshutes, has been working with Honor the Earth on efforts to stop the nuclear waste storage facility. She formed Ohngo Guadadeh Devia, a phrase that refers to the Goshute community that's under the mountain setting.

"Bonnie Raitt did a similar concert with Honor the Earth for us about four years ago," Bullcreek said.

The entertainers have teamed up on a three-week tour across the country to change the odds in Native American struggles.

The pop stars will be diverting proceeds to a variety of Native American causes. The Utah concert will raise money for Goshute tribal members who are opposed to their tribal government's efforts to authorize storage of 40,000 tons of spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants, most of them in the East.

Private Fuel Storage (PFS), a consortium of nuclear power companies, has a lease with the Skull Valley band of Goshutes to store the waste — temporarily, they say — on tribal lands about 40 miles west of Salt Lake City.

Some of the concert profits will go to the Environmental Justice Foundation, which is spearheading a lawsuit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs for approving the lease.

This is the fourth time pop stars have toured in support of Native American efforts to preserve the environmental integrity of native lands.

"We're trying to use the power of music and indigenous wisdom to reach people with a message and ask them to act," Brown said.