Kim Townsend
Although many people asociate WWII with nuclear weapons testing, there were in fact a great deal more tests conducted post-war. From 1951-1992, nearby weapons testing led the Shoshone Nation to be exposed to double amount of radiation as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. At one site, the fallout was equivalent to that of 65 of the atomic bombs detonated over Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. The radiation spread far from the detonation sites via groundwater and irradiated beef sent to grocery stores nationwide. Similar issues affect tribal communities throughout the region, including many in Utah. [1]
This topic has gained wider publicity recently due to the 2023 documentary Downwinders, narrated by Martin Sheen. However, for the people living in the Duckwater Western Reservation in Nevada, where testing occurred, this topic has long plagued their community. [1]
Kim Townsend was born in Owyhee, Nevada, and currently resides on the Duckwater Western Shoshone Reservation in central Nevada. She has seven children and several grandchildren. She saw firsthand the negative health impact of the radiation on the Shoshone people, including but not limited to skin, ovarian, stomach, colon, bone, and prostate cancers, thyroid problems, rheumatoid arthritis, and other health issues. Townsend herself was diagnosed with cancer, luckily going into remission after surgeries to remove several of her organs. She testified that many of her friends and family were not so lucky, with some dying in as few as 3 months after being diagnosed.. [2]
She met many Native Americans who were told the nuclear testing was safe, recalling:
“the people there used to go up to the top of the hill to watch the tests. They watched all those pretty colors come up in those big pretty clouds…and for them to be blind all their life because they went to see something the government said was safe. You know little kids never really fully developed because of that intense radiation…” [2]
During the early 1990s Townsend worked with the Citizen Alert Native American Program,[3] a Nevada grassroots group which organized around Native American land rights and environmental issues. She interviewed people within Native communities that were affected by the nuclear testing, documenting their medical issues as a result of radiation exposure. Townsend worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to measure current radiation within the ground and water in order to estimate how much radiation each person was exposed to. Due to a severe lack of infrastructure many Native Americans were exposed to radiation at a much greater rate than other communities.[2] Townsend remembers,
“A lot of those people aren’t alive because they didn’t live in regular houses during that time. You have most reservations that began around the forties but they didn’t get regular housing until, maybe, the fifties or sixties or there. You know a lot of them would move into the chicken houses when the ranchers moved out…the year I graduated from high school my grandma was just getting indoor plumbing. And I think it took another couple years after that to really get electricity.” [2]
Her work sent her to many locations within Nevada including but not limited to South Fork Reservation, Beatty, Ely, Owahee, Battle Mountain, Eureka, and Duckwater Reservation. Many people Townsend interviewed passed away within a few years due to health issues associated with radiation exposure. Thanks to her work, though, many more Native people were able to apply for and receive Federal compensation. [2]
She continues to visit reservations and speak on the effects of radiation, providing information on how radiation is still affecting the water, soil, and life in Nevada today.
[1] Tribal Health, "Downwind" Tells the Story of Nuclear Testing in Native Communities, Jan 30. 2023
[2] ACCN 0814 Everett L. Cooley Oral History Project, Kim Townsend, South Fork Indian Reservation, Nevada: an interview by Danielle Endres, 17 July 2008
[3] Citizen Alert Records, 1971-1999. MS-00415. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.