Megan Vickery 36:55
That’s very frustrating.

Teracita Keyanna 36:57
It really is. And I’m just like, I don’t know. I don’t know about this guy.

Megan Vickery 37:03
What gives you hope to keep fighting for this?

Teracita Keyanna 37:09
Um, the biggest reason why I’m in it is because it’s my community, it’s my children, it’s my aunts, it’s my uncles, it’s my grandma. It was my grandmother who voiced and said that she didn’t want the mining industry in her community, and then she was not heard. And so we still have a responsibility to the people, to our children that no longer have a voice or can’t use their voice yet because they’re quote, unquote, “not voters.” They’re too young. They don’t understand. But you know, our children do understand. They see what their parents are going through. They see the frustration, they see the hurt, they see the health issues. And our kids are smart. They understand, you know, a lot of people disregard them and don’t want to acknowledge just how smart they are, and that’s disheartening. But you know, this is where as a community, as a parent, as an advocate, this is where we tell the people that it may be challenging, but this is the generation that we need to continue talking to, because they’re the generation that’s going to keep going forward, and then they’re going to have to continue it with their kids, because, you know, the half life of uranium is still millions of years old, and here we are, just a grain of salt in that whole timeline. And so it’s not going to go away unless we continue to advocate and figure out things. And that’s something that I always talk about too. I always call them kids, but they’re college students. But when I do get the chance to talk to students, whether they’re in grade school, middle school, high school, or even college students. I always tell them, “there is no box.” You don’t have to think outside of a box. You don’t have to think inside of a box. There’s no box. You have no limits. And I tell them, and I remind them, it might be you that has this aha moment of, what if we mix this, this and this, and then all of a sudden, uranium is no longer radioactive and no longer a danger to people. I was like, “Can you imagine how many lives you’re going to save? How many communities that are — that have been overlooked, that have been disenfranchised — will finally get a chance to have what you know, the Pledge of Allegiance, you know, has in its actual wording, you know, ‘the pursuit of happiness.’ Can you imagine how many people would be just so grateful that you decided that you wanted to make something with something and then it’s gone?” And I always remind these students that, you know, “It might be you. You don’t have to think that you’re gonna have to wait for somebody else to do it. It might be you. You guys are students. You guys are still learning, and you guys know what’s going on now, because you got to see it. Your professor decided, ‘Hey, we should go visit this community. Hey, we should let this person talk to us.’ Just because you decided to listen and and you left your ego at the door. You left your like, ‘Oh, I’m an Ivy League student. I don’t really have to do anything,’ but you left all of that at the door, and you decided to come in and you decided to listen.” That’s the biggest step forward. And I always tell them I appreciate that, because it is a big deal for somebody to come into that space and be open minded and say, “Okay, what can I do to help?” And that’s the next step of, you know, of this whole big, massive, unbeautiful plan, because, you know, we have a Big Beautiful Bill but we need a plan. And so as ugly as this plan might be, and it’s still in its beginning stages, we still have to have people that want to and that’s the biggest thing, is having people to want to do something about it, want to learn more about it, want to be a part of it. Because it’s tough to be a part of, it’s not an easy… it’s not an easy situation. It’s tough, it’s ugly. It’s gonna last for years. So it’s always good to make sure that the people that you do get to talk to walk away with some type of question of, “What can I do? How can I help? Or what if I just did this?”

Megan Vickery 42:40
Just try it.

Teracita Keyanna 42:41
Yeah

Megan Vickery 42:43
Well, I admire your perspective and outlook there and optimism that there’s something.

Teracita Keyanna 42:51
I know I’m very, very optimistic but like I said, we don’t know. We don’t know the capabilities of some of these students, and we don’t know if, because I talk to them in the way that other people won’t talk to them and tell them that, you know, “It could be you,” and get those type of, you know, just a little bit of pride in what they’re doing and the work that they want to go into and showing them that it really could just be them that decides, “If this does this then why don’t we do it here?” And, you know, you never know. We might have a Nobel Peace Prize winner that just decides, “Oh, I was just adding this to this, and I noticed that this happened, so I figured to try it over here.” And now we have no more uranium. Now we have no more nuclear disasters. Now we have no more, you know, arms race, and that would be great to be able to do that. And a lot of people, there’s going to be a lot of people that are right winged and saying, “Well, what happens if we can’t protect ourselves? If we don’t have nuclear power, if we don’t have nuclear power or nuclear weapons, what are we gonna fight each other with?” There’s nothing. You’re being like.. how? Why are you so violent? And that’s the biggest question is, why are you so violent? Why are you so — you know? Why do you want to have these? Why do we need to have these weapons? Why do we need to have these types of wars? And a lot of it is race, and that’s something that our culture doesn’t teach. And that’s something that has bothered me is that there are some people, even in our race, in our nationality, in our Navajo culture, that say that we can’t share certain things with different people. But in our Navajo fundamental laws, it never talks about color. It never talks about race. It talks about five fingered beings. And we’re all five fingered beings. You might be a lighter pigment Navajo than me. I don’t really care. I don’t see that. And so those are the things that a lot of people will put together for some reason, and they make it about race, and it’s really not, like we’re all the same beings. I mean, even in the colonial Bible, it doesn’t say that we’re different colors. We’re all part of a tribe, and based on the Bible we were all separated because of the things and the situations that were done out of greed, out of, you know, things that are hindering us now. And so, you know, there’s going to be somebody that says, “How come she knows about the Bible?” But that’s, that’s the thing is, if you’re willing to teach yourself, if you’re willing to have knowledge like that, there’s a lot of people that you can talk to, and it’s just because you’ve actually decided I’m not going to let my my blissful lack of knowledge be what hinders me and what holds me back. And so, you know, just picking up a book and reading it or looking it up and seeing like, what does that mean? Like, why?It’s a big learning process. And so, learning these different things, you can learn how to advocate for yourself and community a lot better just because you decided to crack open a book. So, you know, it’s just those small things. And sometimes those small things are what, you know, get people angry because you decided to know more than them, and then, unfortunately, they get unpleasant about it. But you know that’s not on you, that’s on them, because they don’t want to move forward in and start learning on their own. Because it’s tough, I know. So learning about everything that I know now, what I didn’t know 20 years ago, it took a long time for me to start to understand it, start to be more aware and more a part of it. And now writing, writing papers that are, that are being published now, and so I’m just like, Oh, wow!