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Science Quickly

Just One U.S. Reservation Hosts Nuclear Weapons. This Is The Story of How That Came to Be

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.41.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2023

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

15 nuclear missiles deployed in underground concrete silos across the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota. It took displacement and flood to get them there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Attention at all passengers. You can now book your train tickets on Uber and get 10% back in Uber credits to spend on your next train journey.

0:11.0

So no excuses not to visit your in-laws this Christmas.

0:16.5

Trains now on Uber. T's and C's apply check the Uber app. Is it true that we out of all of these though we are the only reservation?

0:32.1

Yeah you're the only reservation United States who owes nuclear weapons.

0:37.0

Okay, guess that's a new perspective.

0:43.0

In American history,

0:45.0

in the way.

0:47.0

In American history, certain stories remain untold, buried beneath the way of oppression, neglect, and exclusion.

0:57.0

How nuclear missiles ended up being deployed on the Fort Berthold Reservation of MHA Nation in North Dakota, also called the Three Affiliated Tribes is one such story.

1:07.0

A tale that epitomizes the troubled relationship between Native Americans and the U.S. government.

1:12.0

That, by the way, is Edmund Baker, the environmental director of MHA Nation.

1:17.0

He is responsible for enforcing the three affiliated tribe's Environmental Protection Code.

1:21.0

He wasn't exactly aware of the US.S. Air Force's plans to modernize all of his existing nuclear

1:26.4

missile silos, including the 15 on our reservation.

1:29.8

But more on that in the next episode. You are listening to Scientific Americans

1:34.7

podcast series The Miss Lezonare Res. I'm Ella Weber, a member of the

1:38.6

MHA Nation, a Princeton University student and a journalist.

1:42.8

This is episode two.

1:44.2

After the flood came the missiles. In the first episode, I explained how I came to learn that my tribe was hosting 15 nuclear missiles,

2:00.0

deployed in underground concrete silos across our reservation in North Dakota.

2:05.0

Today I want to dig deeper into this history.

2:08.0

This is important because it will give you more context when we talk about the US Air Force's plans to refurbish these

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