Mothers hold nuke protest at NTS

Monday, May 13, 2002 | 10:51 a.m.

MERCURY -- Forget the flowers, chocolates or buffet brunches for Mother's Day.

Mothers from Nevada, Washington state, New Mexico, Oregon and Indian tribes spent the Mother's Day weekend camped in the desert across from the entrance to the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Out of a crowd of about 200 people, at least 20 anti-nuclear activists were cited for trespassing at the Test Site Sunday during the third annual Mother's Day march.

Peggy Maze Johnson, executive director of public affairs group Citizen Alert, said she came to the event because she is the mother of four children and grandmother of seven.

"This is a women's issue," Johnson said. "As a woman and a mother, it's my job to be a nurturer. That's not what's happening now."

Johnson said that since President Bush announced his support for a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, more people across the country are becoming aware of the dangers of transporting radioactive shipments to Yucca.

"Let's stop shouting and start a whispering campaign to stop this insanity," Johnson said.

Susan Gordon of Seattle, executive director of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, said she came to her first protest at the gates of the Test Site 15 years ago to make her feelings about nuclear weapons experiments known. She is continuing to demonstrate against storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

"It certainly changed my life," Gordon said. "It motivates me for the work I do."

If the walk to the Test Site doesn't convince enough people, the mothers gathered Sunday say they may walk across the nation to deliver the message of how dangerous a Yucca Mountain repository would be.

Another walk, an 800-mile trek from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to the Test Site from Aug. 9 to Oct. 12, is planned.

Ten members of the Shoshones walked 250 miles from Warm Springs to the Test Site, logging about 50 miles a day, to join the camp, said Darlene Graham, whose Shoshone name is "Gasawaipi," meaning feather woman.

Although Graham, who turns 58 today, fell and injured her right knee before reaching the camp, she said she finished the walk.

"It is very important for the Shoshones to run and walk here, because our ancestors came to gather plants and herbs by season," Graham said. From those plants, she makes candles, salves and soap.

The Shoshone are concerned about radiation contaminating the water, Western Shoshone Tribal Council Chief Raymond Yowell said.

"Water is in the earth like the Earth's blood. It is flowing. Where it flows, we don't know."

Indians, who have traveled to Yucca Mountain for thousands of years, consider it a desecration to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste at the site.

"It's not going to just affect my people," Graham said. "It will affect all the people."