Smoke Signals ' June 1991
page 9
The Environment
Pi
A
Kuftff Grand Ronde - Oregon Peaceworks Coordinator Susan Gordon (left), recently toured the Grand
Ronde Reservation with Corbin Harney (right). Harney is a spiritual leader of the Shoshone nation.
Interview with Peacework's Susan Gordon
The following is a taped interview with the
state coordinator of Oregon Peaceworks
Susan Gordon about the recent demonstra
tion against the continued testing of nuclear
weapons at the Nevada test site. The test site
islocatedonthelandoftheWesternShoshone
Nation and has become a major concern of a
growing number of Native American Tribes
across the country. Gordonrecentfyvisitedthe
Grand Ronde Reservation with Corbin Har
ney who is a Spiritual leader of the Shoshone
people.
Smoke Signals: Susan, the first question I want to ask
you is what is the purpose of demonstrating against nuclear
weapons testing?
Gordon : The American Peace Test was formed origi
nally in 1985, the group of people that decided to do that
were looking at the whole process of nuclear weapons and
how we get them. The weak link in the process is testing and
we felt that was a specific area that we could have an effect
on and specifically protest against and that was a key
component. If we could pull out testing that we could stop
the continual nuclear arms build up because they wouldn't
have away to keep doing it if we could stop the testing. The
other aspect of it is that it's an easy target in the United
States because it is at the Nevada test site which is very
specific and can be focused on readily.
Smoke Signals : This seems to be almost a noble cause,
I wonder if people are aware of some of the dangers that the
testing itself can bring on the environment and the people
that live in that area.
Gordon : There is a couple aspects of that, more and
more the down winders are speaking up. The down winders
are the people who live down wind from nuclear test
facilities or nuclear weapons facilities like the INEL plant
in Idaho or the Hanford site in Washington. Those people
are just now becoming aware of the effects of radiation on
their lives and as a group they're beginning to speak up and
become part of the protest against it. Especially the folks
at Hanford when they did studies of it and found that more
than 80 percent of the families that lived down wind from
Hanford had serious birth defects and high cancer rates,
high prostate problems, thyroid problems, and the govern
ment is beginning to readdress those folks with money and
medical assistance, but they're doing it very quietly because
they don't want to admit that the nuclear leakage from
facilities has affected their lives. The other aspect of it is
that, almost every single nuclear test site around the world
has been placed on Native peoples' lands. So the testing has
been removed from the main populations of the countries
that are testing and put on minorities and Native people as
the victims, so that lessens the impact on their society, on
the society that's in control and makes it somebody else's
problem.
Smoke Signals: Why do you think that is? Why would
you pick out Native lands to do nuclear testing? What do
you think the reasoning would be from the research you've
done?
Gordon: It's because minorities and Native people don't
have a strong political voice and aren't well organized to
fight back against a major government system like the
United States or France. It's been easy to go in and take
over a m inority. I think it's based on racism and the inability
of governments to look at all of their people and to really
address the differences in culture that exits. They don't
want to look at culture's as being just different and not
inferior.
Smoke Signals : Has it been your experience that Native
American's that are affected by this kind of thing are now
becoming more organized and aware of what's happening
to them?
Gordon: Certainly the Shoshone's have become very
much involved in the American Peace Test and their
looking at the next action in April 3rd through 8th as being
specifically Native American focused. With the idea of
perhaps bringing in other Native Indian Tribes to do a
bigger education kind of forum to bring out more informa
tion about the different kind of Native American culture's
that are out there.
Smoke Signals : Now that you have explained some of
the reasons that these type of demonstrations take place
can you tell us more about you're organization the Oregon
Peace Works.
Gordon: Oregon Peace Works was formed in 1987. We
formed out of Citizens Action for Lasting Security, and
Citizens for Nuclear Free Oregon. Those groups had
formed originally in the early 80's as part of the national
nuclear freeze movement, they were independent chapters
and they had worked on the freeze movement in the early
80's. We spent a whole year on discussing the form and
structure of Oregon Peace Works and had meetings
around the state. We decided that it was important to have
a state wide organization to continue the networking and to
bring as many of these isolated groups together under one
name. So we formed at that point in June of '87, and the
idea was to be a networking organization that continued to
empower the local chapters to let them continue their own
programs but at the same time to tie them into a statewide
network. And the other aspect of it was that we wanted to
be for peace advocacy, instead of being reactive and
adversarial we wanted to have a program that was clear and
practical and included a firming step to create a future that
would embody our brightest hopes and best energies.
Smoke Signals
Works is funded?
Can you tell us how Oregon Peace
Gordon: Mainly, through donations and a small bit
through grants. Our chapters make donations and we have
a renewal program that's been established. And we have
some major donors that help us out. There's three
branches of Oregon Peace Works, we have 501 C4 which
is our general non-profit that we do most of our work out
of. We have and education wing which is called Oregon
Peace Works Fun which is the 501 C3 which is a tax
deductible non-profit donation. And we have a Political
Act ion Com m ittee which this year formed two com m ittccs,
one to work on State Legislative Races and one to work on
Federal races which is specifically Mike Kopctski's race.
Gordon : Can you tell us what your position with Oregon
Peace Works is exactly?
Smoke Signals : The state Co-ordinator which is a non
sexist way of saying director.
Smoke Signals : How long have you been doing this
now?
Gordon: I have been the state coordinator since May of
1990. I became the co-chair of Oregon Peace Works in
early 1988 then began working part time from my home in
Coos Bay doing the bookkeeping. Then that moved up to