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Ian Zabarte on ‘the most bombed nation on Earth’ | AJOPINION

‘You never know what’s killing you when it’s done in secret.’

“Shortly before the end of World War II, we started to be overrun by the United States military-industrial complex, in ways we are only just beginning to understand,” Ian Zabarte, principal man for the Western Shoshone Nation, tells AJOpinion.

“Then, in 1951, the US established the Nevada Proving Grounds on Shoshone territory and began testing nuclear weapons – without our consent or knowledge.

“On January 27, 1951, the first nuclear test took place on our land, when a one-kilotonne bomb was dropped from a plane flying over it.

“Over the next 40 years, more than 900 nuclear tests took place on Shoshone territory – 100 in the atmosphere and more than 800 underground.

“For Native American adults, the risk of exposure has been shown to be 15 times greater than for other Americans. For younger people, that increases to 30 times and for babies, it can be as much as 50 times greater. As a result, we have watched our people die.”

In this episode of AJOpinion, we hear from Ian Zabarte on “the most bombed nation on Earth”.

This episode was produced and edited by Al Jazeera NewsFeed’s Katya Bohdan.