A Native American reservation that straddles Nevada and Idaho has been left reeling after an widespread outbreak of illness and cancer diagnoses.
For years the Duck Valley Indian Reservation believed the communitys health and environmental troubles were linked to two Bureau of Indian Affairs buildings where fuel and herbicides were stored, the Associated Press reported.
But the recent discovery of decades-old documents has sent shock waves through the Shoshone-Paiute tribes and raised fears the US government played a greater role in contaminating the environment than they thought.
Owyhee is the sole town on the reservation, which is home to only around 1,800 residents. Yet horrifying figures show the tribal health clinic has logged more than 500 illnesses that could be cancer since 1992 — and is currently trying to break down the data to find the most common types.
Duck Valley Reservations community has been plagued by cancer and sickness stemming from land and water contamination
Marvin Cota, a highly regarded tribal chairman, lived a healthy life for decades and when he was finally diagnosed with cancer, it was too late
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in Native American communities. Native Americans are more likely to get liver, stomach, kidney, lung, colorectal and breast cancers than non-Hispanic white people, according to the CDC.
But the startling number of cases on this one reservation nestled between the deep Nevada canyons and flat Idaho plains has raised major concerns.
Earlier this year members of the tribes gathered to mourn yet another loss of a loved one to cancer. Marvin Cota, a highly regarded tribal chairman, lived a healthy life for decades. When he was finally diagnosed, it was too late.
He was one of many tribal members who worked in the BIA building before falling ill.
In 1985, at the now-abandoned irrigation shop, some 8,000 gallons of heating oil leaked from a pipeline next to the highway.
Samples taken from soil and floor drains around the building revealed a mix of the hazardous chemicals that were stored inside, including waste oil, arsenic, copper, lead and cadmium, along with the two herbicides that make up Agent Orange.
Racheal Thacker, a pesticides and solid waste technician with the tribes, said residents at the time were likely unaware of the dangers related to handling the chemicals stored there.
But resident Sherry Crutcher, whos late husband Robert worked in the BIA maintenance building across from the irrigation shop, recalled how he wore a uniform that reeked of chemicals after spraying willow trees and cleaning oil wells.
Crutcher, a teacher and former natural resources director for the tribes, said employees asked for cancer screenings. She claimed the BIA did the tests and told the workers the results were negative but didn’t share the records.
She said she asked her husband if workers had any protection and was always told no. He died in 2022 from an aggressive form of brain cancer at age 58, she said.
In 1995 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned employees from dumping gasoline, batteries and other substances onto the dirt floors of the buildings - and warned that it could result in soil contamination, threaten the groundwater supply endanger community members health.
But many believed the damage had already been done and thought this was the main reason behind the outbreak of illness and cancer in their community.
Yet documents from 1997, obtained by AP, contain a BIA employees recollection of using at least one Agent Orange herbicide about 20 years earlier.
The employee said they used Agent Orange to clear foliage from the canals running through the reservation - the same canals where Duck Valley residents swim and use for farming.
The Duck Valley Reservation is located on the cusp of Nevada and Idaho
Duck Valley is nearly 290,000 acres and is home to about 1,800 people
Tribal members gathered to mourn Marvin Cotas death amid rising concerns of cancer-causing chemical contamination
School teacher Sherry Crutcher hugged Terri Ann Cota at her fathers memorial
Tribal members mourned Cotas death in the gymnasium. Cota and other tribal members who worked in the BIA building were diagnosed with cancer
The EPA outlawed Agent Orange chemicals in 1979 because of its detrimental effects on human health.
It is the same chemical used by the US military during the Vietnam war to clear forests and kill crops, leaving many soldiers who were heavily exposed suffering from illness and cancer, according to History.com.
Veterans later filed a class-action lawsuit against the producers of Agent Orange and a $180 million fund was created to support affected families.
A BIA official had originally told the EPA and tribal leaders that they believed the herbicides were only used to control weeds along the roads, not in the canals.
The current members of the Shoshone-Paiute tribes said they did not know about any use of Agent Orange on the roads or in the canals.
Terri Ann Cota, Marvins daughter, told AP: I dont know if Im more mad than I am hurt. Because if this is the case, it took a lot of good men away from us.
Tanya Smith Beaudoin was horrified as she recalled frequently swimming in the canals, as many other members did. Her father died from liver cancer.
More emails and documents gathered by AP reveal that federal agencies have promised investigations into the contamination, but so far nothing has materialized.
The BIA and EPA visited Duck Valley on August 7 to discuss hiring a contractor to help clean up the contamination caused by the federal buildings and to review the Agent Orange documents.
The presentation noted gaps in data analysis, including for the storage and use of herbicides, AP reported.
But tribe members said they feel like the governments clean-up efforts lack urgency.
Chairman Brian Mason told federal officials: People are dying. And I dont know what theyre waiting for.
The BIA declined interview requests from the AP but said it’s evaluating the extent that Agent Orange components might have been used on the reservation.
In a statement, the BIA said it has extensively studied the soil and groundwater on the reservation since 1999 and cleaned up wells used for drinking water.
The agency added that any petroleum in the soil is safe and it’s working with the tribes on other remedial actions.
Irrigation canals that run through the reservation have been contaminated with Agent Orange chemicals
A cemetery on the Duck Valley Reservation, located in Owyhee, Nevada
Julie Manning is another tribal member battling cancer
But for many residents, its not enough.
Michael Hanchor, a grant assistant at the tribes health clinic who lost his mother and grandfather figure to cancer, believes this is yet another government failure in its treatment of the tribes.
He told AP: When you get that sense of defeat your whole life, you just kind of shrug your shoulders and move on.
Meanwhile, the findings led resident Smith Beaudoin to think of her own father, Dennis Smith Sr., an influential tribal leader was diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer after working in the BIA maintenance building.
Julie Manning, a tribal member who was diagnosed with advanced stage ovarian cancer last year, said: I’m going to run out of days sooner than I should’ve.
And BIA can say ‘whoops, sorry,’” she added.
However, health experts said that it’s nearly impossible to say with certainty that the environment factored into cancer diagnoses and deaths without robust data, AP reported.
Bottom line is it’s really, really complicated even to establish among things we already sort of know about, said Lauren Teras, the senior scientific director of epidemiology research at the American Cancer Society.
A spokesperson for EPA said: EPA is coordinating with the Tribe and BIA to ensure that BIA investigates the nature and extent of historic environmental contamination, including the application of Agent Orange on Duck Valley Tribal lands.
Before colonization, Shoshone and Paiute tribes lived on their ancestors land in Oregon, Idaho and Nevada, according to the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes website.
The tribes came together under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and united as one in Duck Valley - a nearly 290,000-acre plot of sacred land.
Their lifestyle is deeply rooted in the culture of their ancestors. They raise cattle year-round, use the same medicinal plants and perform the same rituals.
Farming is an important aspect of their culture.
In 2021, the Shoshone-Paiutes tribes protested President Joe Bidens plan to build one of the largest lithium mines in the world on a sacred site in Duck Valley in 2021.
The tribes argued that the mine was being built too close to an 1865 massacre, according to AP.
The tribes sued the Bureau of Land Management, but these arguments were dismissed by a Nevada judge in 2023.
Tribal member Myron Smart told NPR: They have people that are buried out there, so therefore that place to us is a very sacred place.
The Duck Valley Reservation is home to the joint Shoshone-Paiute tribes and is considered the sacred land of their ancestors
Michael Hanchor put flowers on his mothers grave after she died from cancer
Tribal chairman Brian Mason spoke to federal officials about the contamination crisis on August 7
Tanya Smith Beaudoin held a poster memorializing her father who died from cancer
Tanya Smith Beaudoin recalled frequently swimming in the canals before she knew about the Agent Orange contamination
There is a long legacy of contamination across Indian Country, ranging from uranium tailings in the Southwest to solvents dumped at a military installation in Alaska and pesticides used on the North Dakota plains, AP reported.
Health risks and other critical information are often concealed from Native American communities until years, sometimes decades, after the damage is done.
Just this June, the federal government released a report that for the first time recognized the damage done to Native American environments by dams built in the Pacific Northwest, according to The New York Times.
It described the historic, ongoing, and cumulative damage and injustices that the federal dams on the Columbia River have caused and continue to cause to Tribal Nations.