Editor:

“I have a message for the nuclear waste folks who want to use our pristine state as a dumping ground: We do not produce spent nuclear fuel, we do not benefit from it, and we will not store this deadly material in Utah!”

These words were followed by great applause during the State of the State address by Gov. Huntsman.

It’s a nice sound bite, but it hides a dirty secret that politicians don’t want you ?to hear about: They’re called the Goshute Indians. They’re the people we kicked out of the “pristine” parts of Utah and gave the leftovers to.

The ground at Skull Valley is so desolate that the most advanced farming techniques can’t produce results, and there isn’t enough game to feed a family of five.

To add insult to injury, we won’t allow the Goshutes to have casinos on their land to supplement their starving economy.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. In exchange for storing spent nuclear waste, the tribe will receive millions of dollars to be spread throughout the tribe in order to feed impoverished families.

But why should we let them do what they want? We slaughtered them fair and square-it’s our right to decide what they can or can’t do in our state.

Well, Col. Custer, I think it’s time we realized might doesn’t make right, and we have to share this land with those who were here first. We don’t tell Idaho to close their nuclear power plants or Nevada to stop gambling, and by all legal standards a reservation is just as sovereign as our neighboring states.

I propose we join with the Goshutes in storing this waste in our state. We triple the amount of waste to 120,000 tons and in return gain hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars that could go toward higher education. Our children and grandchildren will look back to the day when logic and fairness overcame unfounded fear and selfishness-and the results turned out to benefit generations to come.

Ammon Van Orden Provo