Crops, livestock in jeopardy as Navajo Nation says it feels brunt of Colorado mine spill

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Russell Begaye stared into a hole in the side of a Colorado mountain, watching as yellow water contaminated with heavy metals poured out and raced down a slope toward a creek that feeds rivers critical to survival on the nation's largest Native American reservation and in other parts of the Southwest.

At the Gold King Mine, Begaye, president of the Navajo Nation, couldn't help but see the concerned faces of his people — the farmers who no longer had water for corn crops and the ranchers who had to scramble to get their cattle, sheep and goats away from the polluted San Juan River.

http://www.startribune.com/navajo-nation-says-it-feels-brunt-of-colorado-mine-leak/321518301/