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This podcast is Part 3 of a five-part series. Listen to Part 1 here<\/a>\u00a0and Part 2 here<\/a>. The podcast series is a part of \u201cThe New Nuclear Age<\/a>,\u201d a special report on a $1.5-trillion effort to remake the American nuclear arsenal.<\/em><\/p>\n [CLIP: Audio from Association of Air Force Missileers video: \u201cAfter over 50 years of incredible service, the Minuteman III will be replaced and modernized with a new generation ICBM. The Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent Systems Directorate team will deploy 400 new missiles, update 450 silos and modernize more than 600 facilities across almost 40,000 square miles of U.S. territory. This undertaking is a true megaproject that will require radical teamwork, disciplined execution and historic resolve.\u201d]<\/p>\n [CLIP: Music]\u00a0<\/p>\n Ella Weber<\/strong>: This true megaproject is now called the Sentinel missile program. It\u2019s the Air Force\u2019s most ambitious military construction and weapons project in decades.<\/p>\n Weber<\/strong>: The new weapon is one part of a plan that was started under former President Barack Obama. It was accelerated by the Trump administration to replace and upgrade the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal \u2014 at a projected cost of upward of $1.5 trillion over the next 30 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a project that will perpetuate, until at least 2075, the little-known role that my tribe\u2014the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota\u2014plays in U.S. National Security policy: to be a nuclear target.<\/p>\n You\u2019re listening to Scientific American<\/em>\u2019s podcast series The Missiles on Our Rez<\/em>. I\u2019m Ella Weber, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, a Princeton student, and a journalist.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is Episode 3: \u201cThe Air Force\u2019s New Nuclear Missile.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n In this episode, we\u2019ll be talking about how the Air Force came to our reservation to present its new missile project to the tribe, and how this fits into the broader patterns that have characterized our historical relationship with the U.S. government.<\/p>\n [CLIP: Air Force environmental impact statement video<\/a>: \u201cThe National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, is a federal law that requires federal agencies to integrate environmental values into their decision-making process. NEPA review is required when a federal action is proposed that may have impacts on the human or natural environment. NEPA includes requirements for involvement of the public and government entities and, in the case of this project, 62 Native American Tribes.\u201d]\u00a0<\/p>\n Weber: <\/strong>Under the National Environmental Policy Act, the U.S. Air Force is required to produce an environmental impact statement. In this case, it\u2019s to\u00a0\u201canalyze the potential effects on the human and natural environments from deployment of the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile system.\u201d Also, it\u2019s to\u00a0\u201cprovide the public and other stakeholders an opportunity to comment on the action and associated analyses, and to consider all alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n [CLIP: MHA Nation honor song]<\/p>\n Weber:<\/strong> The Fort Berthold reservation was the first place picked by the Air Force to present this report at a public hearing and collect public comments on the record. This was an opportunity for the Air Force to connect with the MHA Nation and to explain the military branch\u2019s plans and what they meant for the reservation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unfortunately, this isn\u2019t exactly what happened.<\/p>\n Logan Davis:<\/strong> That public hearing? Meaningless. You know why it\u2019s meaningless? Because nobody was really informed, nobody was able to give the testimony they wanted to do, and nobody had a clear picture because nobody was prepared. I certainly wasn\u2019t prepared.<\/p>\n Weber:<\/strong> Logan Davis<\/a> is a freelance journalist, an army veteran and an elder of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa of North Dakota. He\u2019s been reporting on the MHA Nation for a long time<\/a> and happened to be on the reservation that day. He learned about the EIS meeting by chance.<\/p>\n [CLIP: Music]\u00a0<\/p>\n Davis: <\/strong>I was eating, talking, visiting, and I saw this policeman that\u2019s a friend of mine. He\u2019s like, \u201cHey Logan, you going to that environmental impact study meeting?\u201d I was like, \u201cWhat?\u201d I\u2019m a journalist, and nobody told me. I didn\u2019t know about it until this cop called me.\u00a0<\/p>\n So nobody knew about it. So I was calling people, \u201cHey, you gotta get over here; you gotta testify,\u201d you know?<\/p>\n Weber:<\/strong> Davis\u2019s struggle to find where the meeting was taking place was confusing. The Air Force had advertised for weeks in local newspapers and on the radio that the meeting would take place at the New Town Powwow grounds. But for some reason, the location of the meeting was changed last minute\u2014to the Four Bears Casino.<\/p>\n Davis: <\/strong>The cop was there. I sat with him. And I said, \u201cAre you going to testify?\u201d \u201cOh, I don\u2019t know,\u201d he goes. \u201cIf somebody else does.\u201d And I just looked around, and there is just very few people from this community. It was mostly Air Force people. Nobody told any of the journalists or any news person. It was so highly secretive. And that bothers me.<\/p>\n So they did this whole video thing [on] how great it\u2019s going to be, blah, blah, blah, jobs, and it was just like, okay, you guys are not telling the truth.<\/p>\n Weber:<\/strong> In case you\u2019re wondering, the video that\u2019s being talked about is the one that we played at the beginning of this episode. It\u2019s about the environmental impact statement of the Sentinel Program.<\/p>\n Davis: <\/strong>They never talked about war. They didn\u2019t talk about jobs. They talked about how it\u2019s going to benefit the community, for the most part.\u00a0<\/p>\n My forte is journalism\u2014and I started asking questions and they took the general out of the meeting, out of the building, out of the area of testimony. They left! And then we\u2019re, they said we\u2019re going to have an intermission.\u00a0<\/p>\n When we come back, they were starting the public testimony. But where the hell is the chairman, where the hell is the major general? They should be here listening to the public testimony.\u00a0<\/p>\n Weber<\/strong>: As it turned out, Davis was the only one who had filled the sign-in sheet at the meeting entrance. And he was called up first.<\/p>\n Davis: <\/strong>I\u2019ve always felt nervous about being in North Dakota because there\u2019s so many nuclear missiles here.<\/p>\n I testified that I know there\u2019s always a chance for incidents and accidents and nuclear accidents. They\u2019re not all going to be like Chernobyl, but it could be. And when you\u2019re messing with warheads, you know, you have to be, you know, so precise, and, you know, there\u2019s a process and procedure and safety.<\/p>\n Weber:<\/strong> So Logan\u2019s a reporter. But he was also stationed in Germany in the 1970s<\/a>, when the country had short-range nuclear missiles, so he has some prior knowledge in this area.<\/p>\n Davis: <\/strong>I\u2019m not the most smartest, the most knowledgeable, about nuclear missiles. I do know enough that it\u2019s a dangerous occupation. I mean, any kind of amount of radiation exposure can kill you or hurt you\u2014lessen your health.<\/p>\n Weber:<\/strong> Someone else spoke up, too.<\/p>\n Jerry Ruth Birds Bill Ford:<\/strong> Jerry Ruth Birds Bill Ford. My mother is a Cherokee from Oklahoma, from Claremore, Oklahoma. And my dad is Lawrence Birds Bill, from here. He\u2019s Mandan and Hidatsa.<\/p>\n Weber:<\/strong> Jerry was one of the two women that testified that day after Logan spoke up. She\u2019s married to a retired Air Force colonel. Her daughter\u2019s in the Air Force, too. I asked what\u00a0 brought her to testify that day.<\/p>\n Birds Bill Ford: <\/strong>Well, they asked me if there was a close working relationship between the tribe and the, and the United States Air Force. And I tell them no, there wasn\u2019t one at all, that everyone here knew that there were silos on the reservation, but there was just, like, little-to-no communication between the Air Force and the tribe.\u00a0<\/p>\n Weber:<\/strong> If you listened to the previous episode<\/a>, you\u2019ll know that there are 15 nuclear missile silos on the reservation itself. But Jerry didn\u2019t know there were that many.<\/p>\n Birds Bill Ford: <\/strong>There are 15? I couldn\u2019t remember. All on the reservation? Or\u2026okay\u2026wow. I didn\u2019t know that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Weber:<\/strong> During her testimony, Jerry suggested that the Air Force develop a permanent partnership with the Tribal Council itself and the representatives of a higher level.<\/p>\n Despite the fact that the Air Force changed the location of the actual meeting with the tribe so close to the event that the chairman and veterans went to the wrong location, Major General Michael Lutton<\/a>, commander of the 20th Air Force, came on the reservation to talk about how grateful he was to the tribe for showing up.\u00a0<\/p>\n [CLIP: Major General Michael Lutton speaking at visit to the MHA Nation: \u201cAnd when you combine knowledge and time, you have wisdom. And we\u2019re so thankful for your time and the time of the people here, and we look forward to cooperation as we share a common goal to defend our nation and our land. Thank you so much.\u201d]<\/p>\n Weber:<\/strong> In an e-mailed statement in response to this reporting, the Air Force said,\u00a0\u201cThe National Weather Service issued a severe weather storm wind advisory alert for Northwest and North Central North Dakota for July 18, and 19, 2022. MHA Leadership, Veterans Groups, Tribal Law Enforcement, security and facility security directors consulted with each other.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The decision was made for the protection of human health, safety and cultural resources that the hearing be moved to the planned back up, indoor venue, 4 Bears Casino and Lodge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Though there was one severe weather alert for those dates, on the day of the hearing on July 19, 2022, it was sunny by 4:15 P.M. local time, prior to the meeting\u2019s start at 5:30 P.M.\u00a0<\/p>\n I asked Logan if, during its 30-minute PowerPoint presentation, the Air Force had discussed the role of the silos in U.S. nuclear strategy, the rationale behind the modernization program and the risks that are involved for the tribe, if nuclear war or accidents were to occur.<\/p>\n Davis: <\/strong>The only thing they talked about is that they were going to make sure everything was safe. We have to take it for granted and, and rely on that word of the military and the politicians.<\/p>\n Weber:<\/strong> During Major General Lutton\u2019s visit to the tribe, he exchanged gifts with the MHA Nation\u2019s chairman, Mark Fox.\u00a0<\/p>\n Six months later, Fox signed a programmatic agreement <\/a>with the Air Force. The agreement streamlines the exchange of historically and culturally relevant information of sites that could be impacted by the missile modernization program<\/a>, which will include deploying Sentinel and quote \u201cdecommissioning and disposing of the Minuteman III ICBM system.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In its e-mailed statement, the Air Force said that, quote, \u201cthe radiological effects of a strategic nuclear attack on the continental United States are beyond the scope of this Environmental Impact Statement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Mark Fox, the MHA Nation\u2019s chairman, did not reply to several requests for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n MHA was one of two tribal nations to sign this agreement out of 63.<\/p>\n Davis: <\/strong>Did we really need that Minuteman change? Do they really? I mean, it\u2019s not going to really deter any more than they already have.<\/p>\n Nothing will change because nothing is really\u2014we don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to affect us except if there\u2019s an accident.<\/p>\n [CLIP: Music]\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u2019re supposed to be protective of the land. You see, the system has changed us\u2014changed the last couple generations to not respect the land like we\u2019re supposed to. Our ancestral teachings as Native Americans teach us to respect, honor Mother Earth, not to put toxics, crap in her.<\/p>\n Weber:<\/strong> This was a lot to take in. I asked Logan what made him speak up so freely today, especially considering the fact that he\u2019s been worried about retribution in the past.<\/p>\n Davis: <\/strong>I\u2019m trying to protect the environment and my grandchildren\u2019s future. And my little granddaughter, she\u2019s born today. I want to come into a world that\u2019s safe and secure and doesn\u2019t have to have the dreams and nightmares I did when I was a little boy worried about nuclear war.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n