Yellow Dirt

By Judy Pasternak,

Book cover of Yellow Dirt: A Poisoned Land and the Betrayal of the Navajos

Book description

This investigative feat tells the shocking, heartbreaking story of uranium mining on the Navajo reservation and its terrible legacy of sickness and government neglect, documenting one of the darker chapters in 20th century American history.

Now in paperback, the critically acclaimed Yellow Dirt, “will break your heart. An enormous achievement—literally,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Yellow Dirt as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Pasternak was one of several journalists who became immersed in the cause of assembling information on exposure of Navajos and other Native American peoples to lethal doses of uranium as a result of mining.

As a veteran who worked with the Los Angeles Times for 24 years, she played an important role in achieving compensation. Yellow Dirt is especially strong on ways in which uranium had pervaded the lives of the Navajo, from the clothes they wore to the food they ate, to the air they breathed.

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