MS. PLAZA: Next we are going to have Phil Harrison. He is from the Navaho Indian Tribe.

MR. HARRISON: Thank you. I chair the Navaho Uranium Radiation Victims Committee, coming out as grassroots organization. I am from the heart of the problem. My father was a miner and I, myself, did three months of mining while I was a student. And I am very, I am also the Vice President of the Red Valley Chapter, which is part of the Navaho Nation Government. And I am completing, we are in a fourth term now and the reelections are coming up. So actually I wear two hats here.

I am very much disturbed and appalled by the RECA program. It is, my feelings are it is an outrageous program. Kind of like a slap in the face. What the problems I have seen and I heard, that that I have seen, my relatives, my father, they are gone. So, that in return is how much I am disturbed by this.

There is a feeling on the recommendations that on the Advisory Committee, it doesn=t go far enough medically beyond lung cancers. We have miners who have a high incident of kidney problems, stomach cancers, nose and throat cancers, and other medical conditions that are existing with the Navaho miners and millers.

Also the Advisory Committee had no recommendations for constitutional abuses to the Navaho miners, Navaho millers= families, who were exposed to contamination. My people were never were subjective to putting them in the mines without warning and then studying them without their knowledge and consent. My people would be compensated for this abuse. The miners were never paid for studies, whereas I hear the non Indians are being paid for studies and they have access to medical care. They have access to modern facilities whereas the Navaho people don=t have proper medical care, proper medical facilities. And the Government=s response to the Advisory Committee, these recommendations are going backwards and not taking the tragedy seriously in taking away the recommendations.

To reiterate this, there is, I hear that there is no plans for legislative action, but another study is being looked at. These studies are made already. There is obviously wrongs that have been done. If this study is initiated, our people will not be part of it. Our attorneys are not going to be part of it. Our doctors are not going to be part of it. Enough is enough. And we don=t have time for this thing. We don=t have time for studies, you know, the clock is running. I have miners dying. I have millers dying. I have families that are impacted. There are birth defects. We have contamination. There is pain. There is suffering. There is death almost every two weeks. We have funerals that we have contend with, let alone the hardship and the livelihood of the Navaho people are impacted seriously. This is what I live with every day. This is what we live with back home.

If the Administration won=t introduce legislation as recommended, we have no choice but to come out with other remedies, if we have go back to court, to file a lawsuit, or we have to go to Senator Domenici, or Senator McCain to help us to assist with this thing.

In conclusion, the past mining activities have, like I said, totally devastated the livelihood of the Native American Nations. There are other people affected by uranium mining from the past, such as like the Jack Powell Mine in Pomeroy, the Laguna people, they are also impacted by that. Which Manny and El and Dorothy are here for today. But, the Federal Government should immediately take action and not just initiate studies. This is long overdue and I hope this is one of my last two trips to Washington, D.C. to plead with the Federal Government, that this has to be taken care of. Miners have to be paid. Out of about so many numbers of miners that have been paid, I think there is about 1200 miners, none Indians that are paid, whereas, there is only 300 Navaho miners that have been paid. That is a big difference there that tells me that, that the law that was put into place for the miners is not the law for the Native American people. It is the laws for the Western Society. We comprehend this law as having a foot in the grave and one on top. This is a taboo that the Navaho people do not like talk about. But, this is the way we look at it. Thank you.

MS. PLAZA: I would like to clarify something that, what we are doing now, is not yet another study. We have a lot of studies as Mr. Harrison said. And we are not just embarking on another one that is going to take years. What we are embarking on is actual changes or proposed changes, actual action and it may not seem to you as action, but the group that was described here a little bit earlier, by the other panelists, is actually making changes, recommending changes. Based on the Advisory Committee=s recommendation. Whether that will be changes to the regulations or whether that will involve going up to the Congress, I can assure you that we are talking about months, two, three months. We are a fast track in direct response to what the Advisory Committee has already found. I don=t know that that was very clear.

We have also and I don=t want to appear defensive here, but we made some minor changes, but we can=t make big major changes because this is a statute that we have to change and we have to go to Congress. And that is exactly what we are going to do, if this particular group comes up with some very specific recommendation, such as to the working level months requirement or to the smoking, non smoking distinction. We are going to go to Congress and have these legislated changes.

So, Mr. Harrison, that is a clarification that I wanted to make.

Now, we also have a couple of discussion leaders, people who are very knowledgeable about the RECA program and who have a few words to say.

First, my friend, Tim Benally from the Navaho Indians.

MR. BENALLY: First of all, I want you to change my name to Timothy on the brochure that you have there. My name is Timothy Benally, Sr. I am a citizens of United States of America. I am a Native American, members of the Navaho Tribe. I am a veteran of United States Armed Forces, during the Korean War. I am former underground miner, currently I am administrator for the Navaho Uranium Workers Office. My language is, English is my second language and therefore, I think in that manner.

I would like to read you a poem that, as an administrator I have 200, 2,500 plus uranium miners, their widows, their children, come to my office inquiring about RECA. And I listen to them, to what they say. And these are some of the results that I have written down of how uranium industry came into the United States and eventually into our reservations.

I hear people speaking down here somewhere, maybe Colonel Bailey participated in this discussion, I don=t know. But, I hear conversation going something like this. AWe need more uranium. We must win this war. I have a little secret, somebody says, there are some uranium on Indian lands, our Army have been picking these secretly from the mines on the reservations. And somebody says, we need a committee to look into this situation. We will call this committee Atomic Energy Commission. They shall be responsible for gathering the uranium and developing atomic bombs. Somebody pipes up and says, but, sir, isn=t that a dangerous substance? And the moderator says, we are talking about our national security here. That is all I want to hear about it. Let the Indians dig it themselves. We need uranium to build more nuclear weapons. We are accustomed to free men, living freely. We must win this Cold War. And somebody else says, well, we are at it, let=s do a study on them.@ That is the poem that I heard in my mind and I was, some of you know that I, I have told you that I was the subject to a study that was carried out by the NIOSH and PHS hospital and without my consent. And I w told yesterday that I had given my implied consent on that study. Which I think is wrong. There were 750 plus miners that were studied in this study that was carried out between 1950 and 1970. So, that is my introduction to what I would like to say.

The response by the Committee, IGW to recommendation number seven is to create a committee, the committee, we don=t know who they are. We were never informed about it as uranium miners, as the grassroot people, as we call ourselves on the reservation. I call Justice Department, AWhat is happening with this recommendation that was made?@ And I was told that they really couldn=t do anything as Eva Plaza stated, because we are dealing with a statute. We can=t change very much. We can change a little bit in the regulations area but what you need is a major change in the legislation, itself. And that is what we want. That is what we demand. That is what we deserve as a miner. And that is what we are seeking here.

At the meeting that I held under, my office sponsored a meeting for uranium workers, where there were over 100 people present, miners, their widows, their children, they cited to me, I told them that I was coming down here to talk with the Washington official, and they said, one gentleman said, AYou speak for us down there, when you get there. Tell them what we think, what we said here at this meeting.@ And at the meeting, one gentleman said, AWe have been abused since 1849, when the Americans came to New Mexico. They took our land and they took us onto the reservations. And they made agreement with us, which they made us break. The United States Government said, AWe will take care of you. We will provide education for you. We will provide health services, medical services. You are our children, we will take care of you. We will take care of everything. You don=t have to worry about anything.@ When the uranium miners came on, they forgot about their promises. They just turned their head and said, AOkay, you go to work, dig the mines.@ The BIA, Bureau of Indian Affairs, is suppose to be looking out for us, they didn=t do it. There is a breach of contract right there.

I think we have a right to sue the Government but that is for my president do that.

MS. PLAZA: Mr. Benally, could you conclude your comments?

MR. BENALLY: All right. Those are some of the concerns, the Government has not only my tribe, that they have broken every Indian treaty that was established from the time that they came onto this new world.

And I thank that took Dr. Cara, O=Toole and Mr. Bailey, Colonel Bailey and Eva Plaza for inviting me and providing transportation for me here. And I hope that we get some actions going. We need to amend the RECA regulation. We have attracted some efforts in that area and hopefully you will help us get that. Thank you.

MS. PLAZA: Thank you, Mr. Benally.

First of all, I think Mr. Benally, that you would agree that we go down to the reservation quite frequently and that we have, in this Administration, made very strong efforts, we have opened up an office down there and we are able to help you access some of the medical data that you need. We have sent a number of attorneys to, and nurses and health professionals down there to try to make the process a lot easier. We clearly have not done enough. And that is the reason we are embarking on this action. It is not another committee as it was before, to study the problem. We know that there is a problem. And we just want some solutions. That is what this group is -- Yes, sir?

(Pause.)

MR. BROWN: Cooper Brown, National Committee for Radiation Victims. I thought that we had a format whereby we go through all the panelists and after there has been this panel discussion, then there would be an interchange between the panel members and perhaps the moderator, then moving to the audience. And this panel, I would just like to remind people of and the Moderator, with all due respect, of that format.

MS. PLAZA: Okay, the format that we established for this particular group is to finish with uranium miners. After my two second comments, I am going to go to our next discussion leader and then we are going to open it up for questions and answers on the uranium miners issue. Then we move onto the next issue.

So it is a slightly different process.

MR. BAILEY: Hey, Dr. Egilman, we can not have that kind of outburst in here. We cannot have that kind of outburst.

MS. PLAZA: I would like to recognize now --

MR. BAILEY: This is a professional -- Excuse me. This is a professional environment. I have said repeatedly, no personal attacks, no outburst. We want to get some things done. We have got to refrain from that kind of behavior. Totally inappropriate, totally inappropriate.

MS. PLAZA: Yes, I am going to recognize Mr. Manual Pino, from the Pueblo of Laguna.

MR. PINO: My name is Manual Pino. I am from the Pueblo of Akima, although I work with my brothers and sisters from our neighboring village in New Mexico, the Pueblo of Laguna. I come from an area that is in the heart in the Grants Mineral Belt. Our homeland has been there for, since our creation. That always been our homeland and that will always be our homeland.

The Grants Mineral Belt extends about 20 miles from, about 20 miles west of Albuquerque to the Arizona/New Mexico border. It is approximately 100 miles long and 60 miles wide. In that area between the late 1940s and the mid 1980s, uranium was mined in this area, the most intensely mined area in North America. In the heart of that Grants Mineral Belt sits the Pueblos of Laguna and Akima. On the Pueblo Laguna sits the Jack Pile Mine, which opened in 1953 and closed in 1952(sic), during its 29 year lifetime, Jack Pile grew to the be largest open pit uranium mine in the world. Within a thousand feet of that open pit uranium mine sits the Village of Puwait, which my grandmother and my brother, Al Waconda, who accompanied me here to Washington, live in that village. For 30 years Anaconda conducted strip mining within a thousand feet, as I said of that village. And for 30 years, those people had to endure 365 days a year, 52 days a week (sic), blasting three times a day. And if you were in that village during that time period, you would think you were in Bosian or Beruit, because the blasting was so intense during that time period. No one has claimed responsibility for the damages that have been done to the structures, to the houses within that village. Our tradition and culture were destroyed in that 30 year time period, going from an agricultural and livestock raising community to wage earners.

I am a Ph.D. candidate at the University of New Mexico in Sociology. And I have looked at the social impacts of the devastation of this 30 year experience that have been imposed upon my people. As was articulated before by our brothers and sisters, brothers, excuse me, Phil and Tim, the land is not an expendable commodity to our people. You cannot sell the land. We did not draw lines on the land. However, when your forefathers came to this continent, they immediately saw wealth\ in that land. First it was the land, itself, and then it was other natural resources that we possessed and we considered sacred, whether it be the buffalo, gold. Eventually that land became, as it became stolen from us, was abundant with natural resources. Today, we now own one half of the uranium resources, one third of the strippable coal and one fourth of the oil and gas in this United States.

When they initially came to our land, they wanted the land, itself. In the last 30 years, we have experienced that this government wants what is underneath the land. And more importantly, today they want the last thread of the natural resources that we own inherently and that is our water. This is not a recent issue that we have had to deal with in addressing natural resources, environmental injustice, that our people have had to live with. We didn=t write these laws, they were imposed upon us. This trust relationship that is alluded to in legal principals, is not a trust relationship, because we have kept our end of the bargain. We have been a very good trustee, however, this Government in all 480 treaties that they signed between us as indigent people of this land, they have had a very good track record because they have broken every one of those treaties.

So, these recommendations that come to us through this Advisory Committee, through the Working Group, the Interagency Working Group, is nothing new when we have to make these painful trips to Washington. You know, like Ms. Plaza alluded to here, we would like to see more offices in close proximity to our Indian lands. We would like to see hearings like this, where our people can be numerous like this in the audience and address their concerns directly to the experts, directly to the Interagency Working Groups, directly to representatives like Ms. O=Toole and hopefully, the heads of the agencies, themselves, like Hazel O=Leary, but that has yet to be come a reality, you know. We always just see representatives, you know, we talk about sometimes being token Indians, well, we always see token bureaucrats, you know. And we are tried of it, you know. Our recommendations to the working group is that RECA be amended to include strip miners. We were told throughout this 30 period that the contaminants dissipate into the air and the exposure levels were minimal. But, why is it that like on the Navaho nation, we have increased numbers of deaths related to cancer and non malignant respiratory illnesses among our people.

We see the growing number of deaths on a daily basis and the correlation is that the majority of these people are strip miners, that worked in the Jack Pile Mine over 30 years period. What is even, what is even more devastating is that people that live in the Puwati village, who never worked in the mine, but because they lived 1,000 feet from this operation, are now getting cancer themselves, and they received any type of monetary compensation, just because of where they live.

I don=t think this bill should just include downwinders who are impacted by downwind operations by this Government. If someone lives a thousand feet from a radioactive contaminated area, they also should be considered under this legislation. And if you are going to amend the legislation, you have to include innocent people, innocent women, and innocent children, who never received one bit of compensation from this mining process. So it is our recommendation that you come and you look at these 400 millions tons of ore that we removed from mother earth. I have heard an expert allude to the fact that if you took these 400 million tons and dumped them right here in Washington, D.C. they would cover the metropolitan area to halfway to its depth. And I think that should be done to make these people open their eyes and ear and realize what we have to live with on a daily situation.

The total acreage of the mine was almost 8,000 acres. The majority of ore that was mined from this strip mine in New Mexico, went to the Atomic Energy Commission to build bombs, just like the Navaho mining experience in their crude underground mines had to live with.

The production value in 1976 made the Laguna Indians the fourth leading producers of uranium in the world. Laguna contributed some 30 million tons of uranium with the royalty value of 90 million dollars and a production value of 590 million dollars. Believe we have paid our dues. You know, at any time this Government wants to amend legislation that is a positive sovereign situation, that impacts Indians, they will. But, it is amending legislation that puts forth our human rights, then we have to jump through these bureaucratic, federal agency loopholes, time and time again. And believe me we are sick and tired of it. Thank you.

MS. PLAZA: Questions?

MR. SEA: My name is Geoffrey Sea, the Atomic and Reclamation and Conversion Project.

I am very disturbed by some of the things I have heard here. I sat through the Advisory Committee=s deliberations on this issue at their July in 1995. And what we have heard today, as a summary of their recommendations is not accurate. And the summary that is printed in the statement, in the IWG=s report of the Advisory Committee=s recommendation is not accurate. So let me read the Advisory Committee=s recommendation.

AThe Advisory Committee recommends to the Human Radiation IWG, that it together with Congress give serious consideration to amending the provisions of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, relating to the uranium miners, in order to provide compensation to all miners, who develop lung cancer after some minimal duration of employment underground, without requiring a specific level of exposure.@ And it goes on from there, AWithout requiring a minimum level of exposure.@ And you are talking about revising and revisiting the Act, to set a new minimum level of exposure. It is not what they said. And if you go on and read what they said, or go back into the minutes of their meeting, the reason why they made a stronger recommendation as they did, was to avoid what the situation we have got into, which you have heard described elegantly, which is that all the money goes into science and administration and none of the money is getting to the people. They wanted to do away with the eligibility requirements and the applications and the forms. And give the money directly to the people, all they have to do is say they were a uranium miner and prove that they were there for a certain amount of time. Now that may mean that some of you may be out of work. But, you have to face up to that possibility.

Now, Issue number 2, we, the Task Force and the Survivors Community, were promised inclusion and we were told that that meant a place at the table, when the IWG came up with its recommendations. Now, you have set up in a group, part of the IWG, to review and revise, as you put it, these recommendations on uranium mining. Seven people, four scientists, and three lawyers. Well, I don=t see where we have a place at the table. Now, you think you had done an important job, but if I can summarize this, you have too many chiefs and not enough Indians on your committee.

(Applause.)

MR. SEA: And I think you need not to have these, not to have Phil and the others come and speak to you for an hour or so, you need them on your committee.

And just a summary point in relation to NBAC, the Bioethics Advisory Committee, the same point and we have a slogan, and you had better consider it because you will hearing it a lot, and that is NBAC to the drawing board.

MR. ALLINGHAM: My name is Fred Allingham and I am with the National Association of Radiation Survivors. I think, I am really concerned, I was going to make some comments, but I am concerned about time here. We still have these other people we have to heard from. And I would suggest that we heard from the rest of the panel and then we have the discussion because some people can eat into their lunch periods and you know, go from there.

MS. PLAZA: I have two people who want to speak. It is your decision. Okay. Is Al Waconda around? Okay.

MR. WACONDA: Al Waconda from Village of Puwati, from the Laguna Reservation.

Recommendation seven and its findings are totally unacceptable. You have heard Dr. Samet, Phil Harrison, Manual Pino, on all the health problems that the underground miners have contracted. As open pit miners, we have the same problems. The exact same problems.

It is another injustice to our people that you do not include us in this RECA.

MS. PLAZA: Can I clarify that? We are, this particular group that is going to implement the changes that we will suggest to the Congress, is going to hear from and go out to the communities. We will be inclusive in that sense. So that is a clarification, I think from what has been said here earlier.

And I am really sorry that we haven=t gotten the word out to all the communities, but I do think that we are in touch with some community representatives.

MR. WACONDA: Okay, have you visited Puwait, itself, the Jack Pile Mine?

MS. PLAZA: Not that particular mine, no, I have been to the Navaho and to New Mexico and --

MR. WACONDA: Were you aware that was the world=s largest mine, open pit mine?

MS. PLAZA: I am sure that the people who are working on the committee are aware of that.

MR. WACONDA: Okay, I just want to tell my story.

Blasting and mining operations create a very dusty condition. The continue exposure to radioactive dust particles makes us eligible for inclusion in RECA. We have the same the same health problems that the underground miners have contracted. My father worked in the mine, and died from leukemia. My wife has had four miscarriages. My family has not been the only one to be affected. Please don=t come and study us. We have been studied long enough. You have all the information you need, radiation is deadly.

Do provide us with compensation and proper medical care. Please make amendments to RECA. Do away with the working level months. Other documentation that we have provided to the committee in Santa Fe. Blasting and destruction to our homes, also the mine, itself, the company provided chewing tobacco to our workers in the underground mines. Exposure levels of underground mines after 1971 were still very high. Using bonus money as incentive to workers in underground mines to produce more ore, to spite high exposure levels. Very little information to workers on dangers of radiation and inadequate health check-ups. Please consider all these information that we constantly provide you as testimonials. You need to look into our situation. Thank you.

MS. PLAZA: Okay. At this point, what I would like to do is more onto a discussion of the Marshall Islanders, after we go through --

(Pause.)

MS. PURLEY: Good morning to everyone. My name is Dorothy Purley. I am a Native American Indian from the Pueblo of Laguna. The Pueblo of Laguna is one of the 19 Pueblos located at West Central, New Mexico. I have lived in Laguna on the reservation all my life. The village where I come from is called Puwati. One of the seven villages located on the Laguna Reservation. It is where you can find the ghost of what was once the Anaconda Jack Pile Mine.

With the mine in full operation, life seemed to be great for the most part. My people were living very comfortably with their fat paychecks. We tried to close our eyes and not notice that our land was being destroyed. We were all concerned about raising our families. I cannot ever recall anyone talking about radiation. And even really knowing about it. Once in awhile I remember seeing a white man carrying small radial, I guess this is what they called the Geiger counter. I never bothered to ask what he was doing. Growing up as a Native American, we were always told to not to ask questions because you are bound to get into trouble.

I recently learned that Anaconda Jack Pile Mine Company knew high levels of radiation as way as 1953, that is when the mine opened. But, there is a document evidently in a letter which was sent to the Bureau of Mines of U.S. Department of Interior. It stated that the Anaconda Jack Pile Mine should be aware that a two minute exposure to high level radiation at the mine was dangerous. They needed to take precaution. This must have been a tightly kept secret because my people were never aware.

About in the >70s, we started to hear about health issues, more and more people started to die of cancer. So far I have counted 62 people, plus my babies, I miscarried three babies and a grandbaby who never got to see the world. It is seemed like an epidemic. We started to hear about people being affected by upper respiratory problems, like emphysema, tuberculosis and numerous allergies. Our children and babies were starting to be born with birth defects, mental retardation, heart problems. Childhood leukemia was one on the rise. People developed mysterious tumors, skin rash, skin cancer. We wondered what was going on, still did not realize we were being poisoned by radiation.

In 1975 I started my employment with the Anaconda Copper Mine, my main job was to transport high grade ore to the crushing site. I also directed traffic at many different ore stockpiles. It was really bad when the wind blew. We were never told to wear safety equipment to minimize our exposure. We were never told anything at all. I was employed at the mine for eight years. During the time of my exposure to radiation was great, as a result I have developed neurophoma, which is cancer of the immunity system.

As time went on, my health started to deteriorate, I started to lose weight, develop a cough that would go away. I noticed two lumps under my arm and my right breast. I was so frightened. I didn=t want to tell anybody. My doctor performed a biopsy one week later. I was informed, I did have cancer. My cancer was diagnosed as being a rare cancer. I was told by my doctor only three other people in the world had cancer similar to mine. My doctor and tumor -- had to decide the course of treatment which consists of high dose of keotherapy. The keotherapy took about eight months, although the keotherapy has helped my body deal with cancer, it has also damaged a lot of my body. I have lost sensation in my hands and feet, I have migraine headaches, fall frequently and that is why I have to use a cane. My vision is blurry and I am losing all my teeth.

All through this physical hardships, can never compare to the time I may lose my children and beautiful grandbabies. I cannot guarantee my cancer is cured. It never really is there, only remission. There are so many others who have lost their lives due to daily life altering radiation. I have a list of 62 people that have died plus a grandbaby, three of my children, who never made it to this world. I want you people to stand up and give a moment of silence to these 62 people that have died in my village. I would really appreciate it.

(Pause.)

MS. PURLEY: Thank you very much for your time.

MR. DASHENO: I just wanted to make a real quick comment and observation. I am sorry, I am Walter Dasheno from Centacare, Pueblo, Lieutenant for our Tribe. I made a statement yesterday, but I support what the gentlemen are saying from Navaho and Mr. Waconda. And there are two recommendations I would like to have considered at this time.

One specifically is that the hearings that are going to be taken place before the Senate on March 12th, that in addition to the hearing here in Washington, I would ask Senator Glenn to hold field hearings. Those important because that is where the people are that are being most impacted. Not people here in Washington. If you are going to pay someone to come to Washington, I think you should go out there to the Navaho Reservation, to the Laguna Reservation, to Oak Ridge, to Hanford, and you sit on this side of the table we sit on the other side of the table. You listen to our concerns. We want to address our issues. That is one recommendation.

The second recommendation is that the bodies that you are talking about, the commissions, I would recommend in addition to what is being recommended from the gentleman from Akima, that the Native Americans be put on these commissions. Not just a matter of saying, yes, we will consider or yes, we will think about it. But, a commitment today that as part of the record, that Native Americans be put on these commissions. Otherwise, the rhetoric is going to be going back to wherever the recommendations are going to be made to finally. I realize that they will probably be made to the Administration, but I suggest and recommend that a support be given to that issue.

Lastly, the stories that you have heard this last two days, are not just being made up, they are fact. They are a fact of life where many of us in our reservations. I live approximately 14 miles north from Los Alamos National Laboratories, there are admissions that are being admitted by the smoke stacks that are in that area. There are various horror stories that you hear, but you don=t hear those here in Washington, D.C. I wish I could bring my people like some of you that are fortunate here. So I suggest you, as citizens of United States, there was someone that made a statement, I think it was Tara O=Toole, that said yesterday that we, the Government, well, we are the government, each and every one of us. If you truly believe in the United States Constitution as the forefathers developed, then where is it that you as the people that are in government are making these decisions for us, whether or not we as citizens involved in those decisions.

I leave that thought with you. Are we truly the people of the United States of America, are we truly following the Constitution as adopted under the Bill of Rights by our forefathers?

Thank you.