Kathleen Tsosie, a two-time cancer survivor and advocate for radiation victims, is bringing together lawmakers, tribal leaders and survivors for the 2025 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act and Downwinders Educational Seminar on Saturday, Oct. 11, at the Farmington Civic Center.
The daylong event at the center, 200 W. Arrington St., aims to empower those affected by nuclear fallout with information and hope. It runs 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and includes lunch and guidance on compensation eligibility, application steps and required documents.
Tsosie, the event’s organizer, serves as a volunteer independent of any organization and focuses on “downwinders.”
She grew up in Cove, Arizona, one of the areas most affected by uranium exposure. Her cousin, Phillip Harrison, helps miners with radiation poisoning.
Tsosie said representatives of U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich and Reps. Ben Ray Luján and Teresa Leger Fernandez will attend, along with state Reps. Joseph Hernandez, Wonda Johnson, Shannon Pinto and Farmington City Councilor Herman Buck. She invited Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren.
She thanked Mayor Nate Duckett for waiving the Civic Center fee.
Tsosie worked with Purpose Focused Alternative Learning Corporation to secure a grant from the Robert W. Umbach Cancer Foundation, which will fund the purchase of food for the seminar.
In July 2024, she and other RECA board members went to Washington, D.C., to seek support for radiation victims. In mid-September, about 35 members of the Navajo Nation Uranium Victims Committee and other Tribal representatives traveled to the capital.
Tsosie said they worked with Lily Adams and Kevin Davis, from the Union of Concerned Scientists, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They participate in a Zoom meeting every two weeks, she said.
“So that’s what we do, and we collaborate with one another and by supporting each other, and what’s new, what the Congress is doing, what’s their next step, and what we should do, and also how to inform the people,” Tsosie said.
At the seminar they will extend a tribute to the family of Carol Ann E. Rogers, who was an activist in numerous protests.
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, is a federal law that provides partial restitution to individuals who developed certain serious illnesses following exposure to radiation from the U.S. nuclear weapons program, or their survivors. It was designed as a nonadversarial alternative to litigation.
Tsosie said the RECA bill is “kind of like a bittersweet” for those who had previously been compensated with $50,000. Tsosie said those who were born before 1962 will and diagnose with one or more of 20 different forms of cancer will be eligible to receive $100,000.
A petition to amend the RECA law, making those who received $50,000 in the past, eligible to receive an additional $50,000. will be presented at the seminar. Tsosie said it was “pulled out” at the last minute from the new RECA bill, amounting to another “injustice.”
Growing up in the uranium mining town of Cove, Arizona, Tsosie was exposed to toxic air, soil and water.
“They’ve done so many studies, epidemiology studies on health, the women and children and also the people that live there and on our livestock,” Tsosie said.
Working with the Eastern Navajo Against Uranium Mining in Crown Point, Tsosie did community outreach for seven years, organizing conferences and concerts to raise money for legal fees in Washington, D.C.
“I know what it feels like to have cancer, like I said, I walk the talk,” said Tsosie. “And there’s a lot of people out there, they’re still suffering from cancer.”
Tsosie recommended visiting the Teresa Leger Fernandez website, fernandez.house.gov, for more information. Uranium impact assessment information is available at sric.org.
Downwinders are people who developed cancers after presumed exposure to radiation released during the atmospheric nuclear tests conducted in the U.S. A qualifying downwinder must meet two essential criteria, it states at justice.gov. Downwinders must have been physically present in an affected area for one of the following durations:
“The affected areas under RECA’s downwind provisions include the states of Idaho, New Mexico, and Utah, as well as the following counties: in Arizona, the counties of Coconino, Yavapai, Navajo, Apache, Gila and Mohave; in Nevada, the counties of White Pine, Nye, Lander, Lincoln, Eureka, and Clark County townships 13 through 16 at ranges 63 through 71,” they state.
Tsosie organized the Farmington Women’s Cancer Support Group to share information and support other cancer survivors, with meetings the second Wednesday of the month at the San Juan Regional Cancer Center, 711 W. Animas St., in Farmington. For information call (505) 609-6089.
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