Sahtú and the Atomic Bomb, by Deborah Simmons

In 1930, prospectors found pitch blend radium and uranium at Great Bear Lake. At first, the main interest was in the radium used for medical purposes. But when the lethal use of uranium was discovered, the Somba K’e (Port Radium) mine was secretly transferred to the Canadian government. The uranium ore from Great Bear Lake was refined at Port Hope, Ontario, and from there went directly to the Manhattan Project to make an atomic bomb. After the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, every ounce of Great Bear Lake uranium ore was sent to the United States for the construction of more bombs. An estimated 1.7 million tonnes of radioactive tailings were left behind at the mine site when the mine closed down.

Many people from the community were employed by the mine as ore carriers. The ore had to be transported in 100-pound bags down the Great Bear River by barge, then portaged by truck at the rapids, and loaded onto another boat. At every stop, the bags had to be loaded and unloaded on the backs of the ore carriers. And every time it was handled, the powdery ore would leak from the bags.

George Blondin lived in front of the mine for 15 years. The family subsisted in large part on fish from a net set right in front of the mine. He says, “I thought it was gold, they were going to make rings or something.” Since that time, cancer has claimed three of his brothers, as well as his wife and four of his seven children. He believes that his family is just one of the many that were impacted by the mine.

In an effort to make amends, a delegation of Dene people attended the peace ceremonies at Hiroshima in 1998 on the anniversary of the bombing there. The first ore carriers of the uranium that went into the bomb met with the first people on whom the atomic bomb was dropped. As Bella Modeste put it, “We Dene people are a good people … We hope that blame won’t be put on us because we had no knowledge about all that happened in the war.”

The Deline Uranium committee has been conducting research on the social and environmental impacts of the mine. Negotiations with the federal government for cleanup of the Somba K’e mine site are taking place concurrently with self-government negotiations.

The documentary film Village of Widows (1999) on which this article is largely based may be obtained from Lindum Films in Toronto, phone 461-2305.