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Short abstract:

How does toxicity from nuclear fallout settle across generations? This presentation analyzes rumors of red dust that fell upon South Dakota in 1954, exploring how people remember and re-narrate radiation poisoning to reflect on how atomic residue shapes social life in the US Midwest today.

Long abstract:

How does toxicity from nuclear fallout settle across generations? This presentation approaches this question by analyzing rumors of red dust that fell upon South Dakota for three days in 1954, one year before the well-documented “Operation Teapot” series of test explosions occurred a thousand miles away in the southwestern United States. Drawing upon oral histories and archival records of nuclear experimentation, I present a radio-style short story that explores how people remember radiation poisoning within central South Dakota, and how these memories have been retold intergenerationally. The presentation examines technologies of blame and recognition that surround high cancer rates in the region: who is held accountable, and what forms does this accountability take? It also analyzes the medium of rumor to consider what stories about poison cannot be publicly told—for example, stories about families rather than 'corrupt' scientists or neighbors rather than the state. My consideration of how the residue of fallout persists and transforms is the first of a multi-story analysis of how communities have navigated past toxicity toward the present, reflecting on how atomic residue shapes social life today.