Remembering Trinity 80 Years Later

 
Recommitting to Creating a Culture of Peace with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

As part of its Trinity Solidarity Tour, members of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) visited with Tewa Women United on Monday, July 14. The ICAN delegation was on a weeklong journey in New Mexico to join those commemorating the first nuclear detonation, called Trinity, which took place on July 16, 1945, in the Tularosa Basin in southern New Mexico. Despite military messaging that this was a barren area, 19,000 people lived near the blast site, including Native Americans of several Pueblos and tribes. Residents received no warning of the detonation, and decades later their descendants continue to experience health effects from the blast. The Tularosa Downwinders Consortium was founded in 2005 to compile data on the cancers and other diseases that plague the communities surrounding the Trinity Test.
 
Elder Kathy Sanchez hosted the ICAN delegation during their time in the Tewa homelands. The day began with a water blessing at the Rio Grande followed by a visit to Tsankawi, site of an ancestral Pueblo village. The group got a bird’s eye view of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) “Area G,” a legacy radioactive waste disposal area, closely located to the community of White Rock and low-income housing. They also saw Cochiti Dam, the earthen dam protecting the Pueblo of Cochiti but also capturing the contaminants from LANL.
 
The day of the visit happened to fall on the Pueblo of Cochiti’s Feast Day and the delegation was welcomed into the homes of Pueblo members to share a meal. In the evening they watched special screening of “First We Bombed New Mexico,” hosted by filmmaker Lois Lipman.
 
For three decades, Tewa Women United has served as protector, monitoring and assessing activities at LANL.  In collaboration with our many community partners including Honor Our Pueblo Existence, Communities for Clean Water and Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, we work to halt and hold the Lab accountable for past, present and future emission of toxins. Our goal is to put an end to nuclear proliferation and the culture of violence.
 
ICAN’s Executive Director, Melissa Parke said of the Trinity site, “This was not an empty desert, as some claim, it was home to Indigenous Peoples and other local communities made up of families, children, workers, and farmers. There was plant and animal life, and sacred sites. What we commemorate here today was not some historical event of 80 years ago with little relevance to today. The Trinity explosion was only the beginning of the nuclear weapons story, and we’re honoured to join together with everyone here to write its ending.”
 
We are grateful to ICAN for your partnership in creating a culture of peace that will protect the health and wellbeing of everyone.