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LIVINGSTON COLLEGE «GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ANTHROPOLOGY
Mr. Wallace 0. Green
Department of the Interior
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July 18, 1980
NEW BRUNSWICK « NEW JERSEY 08903 201/932-2598
Deputy Under Secretary of
Intermational end Territorial
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Affairs
Office of the Secretary
Washineton, DC. 20240
Dear Mr. Green:
I have been edvised by Mr. Clifford
Sloan,
Lezislstive Assistant
for Congressmen Sidney Yates, to forward along the enclosed information
concerning the proposed resettlement of Enjebi Island in the Marshall
‘Islands.
I hope this information will vrove to be of some use in making
your decision about the resettlement, and I must admit that I do not
envy your.position in having to make a determination about this most
complex and difficult issue.
My involvement with the Marshall Islanders began in 1975 when I
was stationed on Utirik Atoll as a Peace Corns volunteer.
Despite my
“official" Peace Corps task of helping to initiate an agricultural co-
operative, as well as to teach school on the atoll, I soon realized that
the Utirik people had more immediate concerns which stemmed from their
{rradiation during the BRAVO shot of March 1, 1954.
Specifically,
the Utirik Council articulated to me their complaints
about the Brookhaven National Laboratory medcicel program in the Marshells,
and the Utirik people were becoming increasingly suspicious about the
nature of that program. For example, the Utirik people could not understand the logic of a program which spent millions of dollars annually,
and which neglected to treat numerous illnesses in their population,
notwithstanding that these illnesses were admittedly unrelated to radiation
and its effects.
A case in point concerns the 30% incidence rate of
adult-onset type diabetes as diagnosed in the Utirik group by Brookhaven
doctors several years previously:
the Brookhaven doctors carefully
explained that because diabetes was unrelated to radiation, 1t was "not
their responsibility," and consequently the diabetes was left untreated.
Moreover,
many other cases of illnesses which were allegedly unrelated to
radiation--including primary and secondary health care--went untreated.
AS a result, the Utirik people began to question the Brookhaven progran
for their atoll, end they began wondering whether the program was really
intended for their benefit, or perhaps for the benefit of medical science
and scientific inquiry.
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