Sociology
Gregory Hooks
Regional Economic Growth and the Social Costs Associated with Growth

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A new study by Dr. Gregory Hooks and Chad L. Smith, a professor at Texas State University-San Marcos suggests Native Americans and their lands are disproportionately exposed to hazards posed by the U.S. military’s explosive and toxic munitions.

The research provides evidence that Native American lands tend to be located in the same county as sites deemed to be extremely dangerous due to the presence of a variety of unexploded military ordnance.

While a body of previous research has determined that Native Americans and other minority populations are often subjected to environmental inequalities as the result of economic and industrial activities, Dr. Hooks latest research is the first to systematically examine the role of the military in the uneven distribution of military environmental hazards.

The study demonstrates that much of the disproportional exposure of Native Americans to environmental dangers throughout the 20th century was the result of militarism, rather than economic competition. It also indicates that historically coercive governmental policies in locating Indian reservations are a major factor in determining their exposure.

The study cites historical evidence showing that the United States widely expanded its military infrastructure in the 1940s, then reinforced that infrastructure again during the Cold War, each time using remote lands to serve as bombing ranges and weapons testing and storage sites. For the most part, the expansions occurred throughout the western U.S., where by the 1930s much of the Native American population had been relocated to government reservations.

The research focused on sites containing unexploded ordnance, including landmines, nerve gases, and toxic and explosive shells, currently estimated to contaminate between 20 and 50 million acres of formerly used defense installations throughout the country.

Comparing U.S. Army Corps of Engineer rankings of the hazards posed by each closed site to the proximity and acreage of Native American-owned lands in each location, the study found a disproportionate number of the sites deemed most hazardous lay within close proximity to Indian reservations.

Contact Information
Gregory Hooks, Ph.D.
Chair and Professor
Sociology

Washington State University
PO Box 644020
Pullman, WA 99164-4020

Telephone: 509-335-3687
E-mail: ghooks@wsu.edu