From time to time we are approached to included links to site that are more provocative. For instance recently one of our members recommended an online site that offers at home std test kits. Instead of having to travel distances to a doctor’s office or clinic, one could take the std test in the privacy of one’s home. The test kits on this site are self-contained and do not need to be sent to a lab, as some at home STD self testing kits require. The results are available within 15 minutes and are extremely accurate (between 95% to 99%). They come with a European Certification for use in hospitals, which is reassuring. If the test results are negative, you have immediate piece of mind. On the other hand, if the test results are positive the individual would now know that he/she needs to get to a doctor a.s.a.p. since these diseases are very treatable. STD’s may not a subject that people always talk about, but the issue is very real. I think this type of site would be good to include in the list of companies and websites that have something to offer to the Navajo people. The members of DineCare.org are in the midst of opening up our link page, and welcome your input before making a final decision.
Related Links
Organizations referenced in our pages
• Department of Justice RECA claims program
Administered by the Department of Justice’s Civil Division, Torts Branch, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Program (RECP) provides financial restitution to anyone who became seriously ill as a result of US nuclear testing and uranium mining. Using a special trust fund, RECP disburses fixed payments to eligible claimants who became seriously ill as a result of nuclear testing and uranium mining during the Cold War. Eligible claimants who make up the key constituency of the RECP consists of people who lived downwind from the Nevada Test Site, uranium mines, and mill workers and ore transporters.
• Navajo Nation Government
The Navajo Nation extends into the states of Arizona,New Mexico and Utah. Diné Bikéyah, or Navajoland, is larger than 10 of the 50 states in America. The Navajo government has evolved into the largest and most sophisticated form of American Indian government. The Navajo Nation Council Chambers hosts 88 council delegates representing 110 Navajo Nation chapters.
• The Environmental Justice Fund
Environmental Justice gives project grants by providing education and outreach to all affected citizens living in one of the largest Superfund sites in the nation.
• Desert Rock Power Plant
The Navajo Nation, like many American tribes, has tried to take control of resource development on its own land. The tribe’s Desert Rock coal plant was conceived to keep its control under the Navajo Nation. Created by the tribal council to develop the tribe’s energy resources,the Diné Power Authority, in 2003 announced that the 1,500-megawatt facility would be built by the German company Steag Power on Navajo land about 25 miles outside of Farmington, N.M. The tribe itself would own up to a half stake in the development, exploit its large coal reserves, and upon completion around 2005 would send electricity off to markets with its own 500 kilo volt transmission line. Unfortunately the Navajo tribal government’s approach did little to reassure community members that Desert Rock would be different from past projects. This isn’t the first time the Navajo Nation has stumbled while trying to develop its own energy resources. The Navajo Nation’s proposed coal plant always rested on shaky ground. Now, it may collapse entirely as a number of issues against it rise.
Journals and On-line Papers
• Indian Country Today
• High Country News
• Navajo Times
• Gallup Independent
Literature
• Land, Wind and Hard Works, John Sherry