Loretta Anderson (Laguna Pueblo) directs people during a rally on Sept. 22, 2024 before the group of about two dozen departed for Washington D.C. The group included members of the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Laguna and Acoma Pueblos who are seeking recognition and restitution for radiation exposure from nuclear tests by the federal government and uranium mining. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM)
More than two dozen people from the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Acoma, and Laguna Pueblos, touched by a legacy of radiation from uranium mining, rallied and chanted Sunday morning in Albuquerque with supporters, before starting the 28-hour drive to Washington D.C.
The group is expected to arrive in the nation’s capital Tuesday and leave Thursday. While there, they’ll march, perform prayers and ceremonies, hold a candlelight vigil and demonstrate on the steps of the Capitol this week.
It’s part of a push by dozens of activists from across the county to sway House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and show other members of Congress that the fight to address radiation exposure isn’t over yet.
In June, Congress allowed the expiration of a unique fund offering payments to radiation exposure victims and their families. The Senate passed a measure to extend and expand the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act (RECA), but it languished on Johnson’s desk.
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House Republican leadership’s objections to RECA expansion were with the cost increase, estimated to be $50 billion. Despite criticism from Republican party members who represent radiation exposure victims, the bill has not budged in the House.
The loss of RECA was a setback for people who were fighting for inclusion, who had never been recognized, and were seeking a measure of justice for diseases and deaths linked to radiation exposure.
This includes Loretta Anderson (Laguna), an organizer of Southwest Uranium Miners Coalition Post ‘71, which represents Indigenous people harmed by uranium mining after 1971 or exposure from mining or above-ground nuclear testing. Neither of those groups, despite having developed diseases linked to radiation exposure, could access RECA payments before the fund expired.
Without the fund, Anderson said, the health consequences mount for people in Laguna Pueblo without a measure of justice.
“Many people throughout our community, which were uranium miners and also downwinders, have been greatly affected by the uranium industry,” she said. “Many of them are sick, suffering, dying.”
The demonstrations and lobbying in Washington D.C. are a show that hope isn’t lost, multiple advocates said.
Jay Francis (Laguna) said she’s going on the trip to represent the family who worked in uranium mining and died from cancer: a brother to stomach cancer, an uncle to lung cancer, her mom to liver cancer and her father.
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“I’m here for them. I want to see the RECA bill passed because I believe they deserve the compensation, the recognition,” Francis said.
She said she felt angry and dismissed by Johnson’s refusal to bring the bill forward for a vote.
“I was really upset when I heard that, because I thought, how many people have to die before it becomes a priority?” Francis said. “Why is it that the government can come in, dig these big holes, expose everybody – our communities, our children, our old people, everyone to radiation – and then do nothing about it.”
The group raised more than $29,000 in crowdfunding to charter a bus, and provide food and lodging on the trip and in D.C.
Rep. Gabe Vasquez and representatives from the offices from all members of the New Mexico delegation wished the group well and reiterated their support for expanding and extending RECA.
But the fight extends beyond recognition. Organizers said along with saving RECA, they’re asking for Congress to invest in addressing the environmental racism of uranium mining on tribal lands, and put money and research to address chronically underfunded health care.
Maggie Billiman (Diné), from Sawmill on the Navajo Nation, lost her father in 2001 to stomach cancer, which she attributes to fallout from nuclear tests which fell over Arizona and other western states.
Before he died, she said he charged her with finding cures for cancer, and bringing them back to the Navajo Nation.
“My mission is to bring cancer treatment facilities to save lives on the reservation,” she said. “That is what I’m hoping for.”
Billiman is joined on the journey by her niece, Lorie Lee Sekayumptewa (Sac and Fox/Diné/Hopi), who said addressing RECA is only one step.
Sekayumptewa said the government owes Indian Country better health care and more people to address and identify hazards and toxins from abandoned uranium mines. There are more than 500 such mines on the Navajo Nation alone, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“Families are suffering, they’re suffering from depression, from going through these things, they’re suffering from PTSD, because they are trying to tell the doctors that they’re in pain and to go to a specialist they need chemotherapy, but their care is delayed,” Sekayumptewa said.
“We’re taking that message, and we want the ear of Speaker Johnson,” she concluded.