WEBVTT

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My name is Alicia Montoya. I'm the district 
manager and tax administrator for the 19

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Pueblo's District. I see some familiar faces in this 
audience, including our governor, Governor James

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Naranjo. Thank you so much for coming, Governor. 
Um, but I do see some new faces and anytime I get

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in front of a crowd where I get to talk about 
the 19 Pueblo's District, I will do so. And so,

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I'm going to uh bend your ear for a moment and 
talk to you about the 19 Pueblo's District. Who

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are we? Well, as you know, this is the Indian 
Public Cultural Center. You've heard of Indian

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Pueblo Marketing and the Indian Pueblo Entrepreneur 
Complex. But around 12 years ago, Pueblo leadership

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came together and they saw the need to have a 
government here on their federal trust land to

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do oversight and to ensure the development 
here abides by certain laws and ordinances.

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And so they created a very unique structure, a 
structure unlike anything in the United States,

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unlike anything in the tribal nations. And 
basically what it is is that the 19 Pueblo

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governors sit as our governing council. And they 
they are the ones who are the authority over this

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land over these 70 acres. And they um are install 
the laws, you know, do the decisions for it. And

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I meet with them every quarter. Under them are 
my seven commissioners who I meet with monthly

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and those seven commissioners are appointed 
by the governors. Seven by the northern,

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three by the northern, three by the southern and 
one is commissioner at large. And then the staff

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is myself and Kyle Chicharello who is our executive 
assistant and that's it. That's our government.

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And how do we do this work here? Well, we work 
in collaboration with the Indian Pueblo marketing

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and Indian Pueblo cultural center. and I meet 
monthly with Monique Fragua and we have wonderful

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discussions, vigorous discussions. We laugh a 
lot every month and it's b it is the government

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and the business working together hand in hand 
to ensure that we're working on behalf of the

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19 Pueblos. And what does the government do? Well, 
like I said, we have ordinances. We have a liquor

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control ordinance. We have a business registration 
ordinance. We have food safety, completely

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different from the City of Albuquerque. And we 
also have a cooperative tax agreement with the

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state of New Mexico. So I collect taxes and fees 
and everything. And what do I do with that? Well,

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through the leadership of our Pueblo governors, we 
give it out equally to the 19 Pueblo communities.

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And so everything that is done here is given back 
so that the Pueblo Zia, Ohkay Owingeh, Zuni, they have a

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foothold in the Albuquerque market and they get 
money back back from the lands of their ancestors,

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their ancestral lands. And so every time you come 
here and we encourage you to come back and enjoy

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everything here. Um the hotels, they're very 
safe. We have wonderful security force here.

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The 12th Street Tavern has some wings. Go to Itality
has some fresh pressed juice. Go to La Montinita,

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get some groceries. Every time you do that, you're 
giving back to the 19 Pueblos. And what do they do

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with that money? Well, it's their money as they 
see fit. Not giving them a grant. This is their

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money. And they build roads. They do elder care, 
child care, college scholarships. So, everything

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we do here is giving back. And it's a it's it's an 
honor. And I'm grateful to be a public servant to

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these 19 Pueblo communities. And how do we get here 
today? Why are we here doing RECA today? Well, the

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other thing that we do is the Pueblo Administration 
Collaboration summits. It's another way that we

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back last year we decided Kyle and I to give 
back in another way not just financially but

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to bring Pueblo's together because all the Pueblos are 
in different uh spaces throughout New Mexico and

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sometimes they don't get be able to get together 
to have those important conversations and to

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share knowledge and it's hard for them to get to 
Albuquerque to get the resources here. So we host

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those um meetings and at the last meeting we have 
the New Mexico Department of Health. Thank you

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Kalee for being there. And they uh talked about 
RECA and we heard um a lot of information about the

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need for that. And so as soon as that meeting was 
over, we began to put that into place to have this

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meeting here today. And we reached out beyond the 
Pueblos. We wanted to reach out to the to the tribes

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and the nations as well because this affects so 
many people and it is um an important moment to

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be able to do that. And I really want to give a 
shout out to Kyle Chicharello. He was instrumental

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in putting this together. so seamlessly. Um, 
and so thank you so much, Kyle, for that.

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Um, you should, and if you don't, uh, we have 
an agenda. Um, it's in the front there. You

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can always step out and grab an agenda if you'd 
like to see who's going to presenting today. And,

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um, you know, the people coming here today, I I 
am just honored to have them. Um, as you can see,

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they they are truly people who gave their time 
and their energy and their commitment and their

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talents to ensure that there is compensation for 
this tragedy. I can't say the

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word. It's so emotional. This unfortunate event 
that happened here in New Mexico that claimed

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lives and victims and has impacted generations 
um here in New Mexico. And so you'll hear from

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um Miss Tina Cordova who will speak to the history 
and the facts and the data and her personal

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experience and is through the her her and her team 
her advocacy that we are brought here today and

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it s shows like how community organizers make a 
difference you know in the state in the nation. Uh

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Miss Frasier Miss Schaefer and Mr. Fernandez from 
the New Mexico Department of Health will address

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frequently asked questions of RECA. And you know, 
there's a lot of scams out there. There's a lot of

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issues and so the New Mexico Department of Health 
is here to address those uh big picture items.

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Miss Gina Grimes is going to touch touch upon 
uh uranium workers and the RA applications. So,

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she's going to touch a little bit on both because 
those affect uh people and certain personnel

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in different ways. And so that's important to 
understand the difference between those two. Um

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we also have Miss Terry who is the branch manager 
of special collections at the library. And this is

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really interesting because as you go through 
this application um you have to prove you're

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in the state of New Mexico. And that may seem 
simple. You know you know your families. They've

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been here forever. But as far as documentation 
within the Pueblo or the tribes or even like in

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rural northern New Mexico, rural southern New 
Mexico, it's really hard to figure out how to

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to prove that you your family member or you were 
here during that specific amount of time. So,

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special collections at the library is here to 
address that issue as well. And we also have

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um Miss Anderson and Mr. Mononttoya from the New 
Mexico School of Clinical Law and they're going

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to provide some valuable step-by-step information 
about the application because if if you've looked

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on the application, it's very intimidating and 
they're going to be able to walk through that with

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you and they're also willing to go out to your 
communities to talk one-on-one to have that like

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case manager experience with them and they have 
that's just just an amazing ability to do that.

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So, we hope everyone here today gained some 
valuable practical and even life-changing

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insight about this application. And our goal is to 
provide resources and knowledge that empowers you

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and your families going forward. And for those who 
are unable to attend today, this is being recorded

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um by the City of Albuquerque. So, I'm very 
grateful for the City to um join in in this

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in this endeavor. A special shout out to Brandi 
Ahmie who's just an amazing tribal liaison for the city. I really

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enjoy working with her. Of course, Yvette as well. 
Thank you for being here. And so that's going to

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be recorded. So if you can go back, there's going 
to be a lot of information. You can refer back.

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It will be posted on the website. And please 
share this um wide with everyone you know. And

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um because this is something that was long 
overdue, this compensation for what happened

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for this tragedy that occurred here in the state 
of New Mexico because the citizens of this state

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were the first victims of uh this nuclear 
bomb. So we are happy and we're grateful

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to be able to host this important meeting and 
again we hope that you gain a lot of knowledge

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from it. Good morning everyone and thanks for 
joining today. I'm hoping that we'll be able

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to share quite a bit of information with you all 
that's new. But more than just new information,

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I hope it's information that will inspire you 
all to go back to wherever you have come from

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to encourage people in your community to apply for 
this compensation. Not only because we deserve it,

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but because it's a life-changing amount of money 
for many, many people. And just to encourage that

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along, let me just say that as of last week, 
and we haven't checked this week, they have

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approved over 550 claims in New Mexico. That's 
$55 million. Just downwinder claims, $55 million.

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They have over 4,500 claims pending. That's $450 
million. They have only rejected three claims in

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New Mexico so far. And those people did not meet 
the qualifications. It wasn't because they didn't

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uh submit properly. They just didn't meet the 
basic qualifications. And so I hope that that

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will encourage you. For years I've been saying 
we're not going to bring millions of dollars back

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to New Mexico. We're going to bring hundreds of 
millions of dollars and potentially billions of

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dollars. And we're on track to do that, folks. 
They're receiving about 900 uh downwinder claims

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a week and they're only approving about 150. 
And just so you know, the law states that if

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they don't adjudicate your claim, if they don't 
review and make a decision about your claim,

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within one year of issuing you a claim number, 
your claim is going to get processed and you

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will be approved. I want to uh before I get into 
the presentation, acknowledge a couple of things.

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uh Alicia and and Kyle, you all have been amazing 
to work with. We have a a great planning committee

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that's been working for weeks to plan this. All of 
you participated in that. I want I want to thank

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you. Um this is very important that we bring 
this information back to our Pueblos and tribes.

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Uh but it has been a joy to work with Alicia and 
Kyle. Kyle has done a fantastic job. I told him

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yesterday I do a lot of these events and he's been 
on top of all the details like no one else. So,

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thank you, Kyle. I also want to thank the Indian 
Pueblo Cultural Center for having us here today.

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It's wonderful to be in this beautiful facility. 
Uh, for those of you who haven't ever eaten at the

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restaurant here, it's probably the best food in 
Albuquerque. So, uh, encourage you to come back.

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I want to thank the governors who are supporting 
this effort, the governors from the Pueblos. It's

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important for you to support this effort so 
that everyone in your community understands

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the importance of doing this. So, I would highly 
recommend that everybody get on board with this

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process again so that we can bring back billions 
of dollars to the people of New Mexico. I want

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to acknowledge Phil Harrison. When we started this 
work, uh people didn't understand or know anything

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about it, right? And we landed up forming not just 
a statewide coalition and a national coalition,

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but an international coalition. And my brother 
Phil from the Navajo Nation has been working on

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this with me for gosh, I don't know, more than 
16 years. And so, Phil, I always appreciate you

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and everything that you do within your community 
and everything that you've done for the people

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of New Mexico and fighting this battle with us. 
The first slide that I have is basically the logo

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for the Tulosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. I'm 
just going to call it the TBDC for short. I want

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to tell you a little bit about the organization. 
We founded this organization 21 years ago. We've

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been doing this work for 21 years to bring 
attention to the negative health effects

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suffered by the people of New Mexico as a result 
of them being overexposed to radiation from the

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Trinity bomb. Little did we know at the time that 
we were not only downwind of the Trinity bomb, we

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were also downwind of the 93 explosions that took 
place in the desert of Nevada. And I'll talk a

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little bit more about that later. We also learned 
after starting this organization 21 years ago,

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that there had been a fund established in 1990, 
so 36 years ago, to pay compensation to people who

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lived downwind of the Nevada test site. Imagine 
they were paying people who had suffered and

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sacrificed the same way we had, but they had never 
included us. And we were the first people exposed

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to radiation any place in the world as a result 
of an atomic bomb. And we were left out. And so

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we started an organization to bring attention to 
this. We're a structured organization. We have a

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steering committee. We meet every Monday evening 
almost without fail. I want to recognize that two

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of our uh steering committee members are here with 
us today. First, Bernice Gutierrez and then Paul

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Pino. We're volunteers folks. None of us get paid 
for doing this work. We have traveled all across

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the nation doing this work. We have gone countless 
times to DC to lobby and we have traveled on our

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own dime. Um and so I just want to acknowledge 
that this work is is a is a team. There is a

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team behind the work that we do. Uh and it has 
been a team effort and these people need to be

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recognized for for the work that they do. I also 
want to ask Michelle who I own a business. Uh,

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the way that I I used to have a friend that 
would say the way I buy my daily tortillas

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is that I also own a business. So, I actually am 
a roofing contractor for 36 years. And Michelle,

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uh, right here at the table works at my business, 
but these days 75% of her work is dealing with the

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calls coming in about RECA. We probably receive 
about a 100 calls a week at our office. She's

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helping countless people. And I wanted to 
recognize Michelle for doing that hard work,

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but also because she can be a resource for you 
guys as you move along through this. 

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I've already acknowledged our steering committee. We have 
members from all across this the state from Chama

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all the way to Los Cruces. And so we get a good 
we have a good profile of people who can bring

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back to us uh the issues they're facing in their 
communities. Here's a picture of us in Washington

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DC for a trip we made uh to lobby there. Again, 
speaking to the fact that we have traveled all

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over the place to do this work. So, my objectives 
today are pretty simple. I want to tell you guys a

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little bit more about the qualities of the Trinity 
bomb and why it overexposed us to radiation,

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how our lifestyles set us up for uh or predisposed 
us for a really awful outcome with an atomic bomb.

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I want to talk about the multi-generational uh 
component of this and the fact that we lost babies

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in record numbers after Trinity. And I want to 
talk about how we worked for 21 years to get

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this to happen. And then I'm going to talk about 
RECA, what it is, what it means, what it does, and

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um and then we'll be done with the presentation. 
So the unique characteristics of the bomb. Some

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of this you may know and some of it you may not 
but it's a little bit important to understand.

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It was the first time our government conducted 
a test any place in the world. Right? And people

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oftentimes tell me Tina they didn't know what 
they were doing. Nothing could be further from

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the truth. They knew exactly what they were doing. 
They were creating a weapon of mass destruction.

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They were going to test it someplace. And they 
chose to test it in the desert of New Mexico.

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They knew that radiation was dangerous to human 
health. That was a wellestablished fact. And

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furthermore, they did a pre-est of Trinity in 
May of 1945 where they took a 100 tons of we of

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conventional explosives, laced it with radiation, 
and detonated it out at the Trinity site. Why did

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they do that? Because they wanted to see what 
was going to happen with the fallout. And what

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happened? The fallout went all over the place 
and they traced it. They tracked it. So they

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knew when they detonated the bomb at Trinity 
that it was going to disperse radiation all over

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our state. They also had parameters where they 
said we will not detonate the bomb under these

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conditions. And one of them was that they would 
not detonate the bomb if it was raining. Well,

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the history is that it rained very very hard 
the evening of the Trinity bomb. And there was

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a break in the weather. The bomb was supposed to 
be detonated overnight. The weather broke early in

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the morning and so at about 5:30 a.m. they decided 
to go ahead and detonate the bomb. And they did.

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And we had some of the heaviest rain that day 
after the bomb was detonated. The other thing that

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they didn't know was how much plutonium will it 
take to cause this explosion. So they overpacked

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the bomb. It was incredibly inefficient. They put 
13 lbs of weapons grade plutonium with a halflife

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of 24,000 years in the bomb. Only 3 lbs were 
necessary for the fision process, which means

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10 lbs went up in the fireball that they say 
estimated to have traveled over 50,000 ft past

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the atmosphere penetrating the stratosphere. Once 
that radiation got into the stratosphere, it went

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around the world, folks. But one of the things 
that also happened is that the bomb produced more

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heat and more light than the sun. 10,000 times 
the heat of the sun. It incinerated everything

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in the immediate vicinity. The dirt, the sand, the 
animal and plant life, created that fireball that

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produced an enormous amount of fallout. The ash 
fell for days from the sky and got on everything.

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Why is that important? Well, I'll talk about that 
in a minute. But the oral histories that we've

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collected through throughout the time doing this 
work, people have told us that one of the things

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they remember was number one the concussive force 
of the bomb which knocked people out of their

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beds, broke windows, cracked walls, okay? But they 
also remember for days afterwards and ash fell in

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1945 because we didn't have electricity. Nobody 
had air conditioning. So what did people do?

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They left their doors and windows open and they 
hung wet bed sheets in their doors and windows

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to create a cool draft through their homes. And 
people have told me that in the days afterwards,

00:18:59.360 --> 00:19:04.560
they had to take down those sheets, rinse them 
out, and hang them up constantly because the

00:19:04.560 --> 00:19:11.600
ash was creating this film on those sheets, and 
the sheets were basically black with ash. All of

00:19:11.600 --> 00:19:18.000
that was getting into people's homes. Here's a 
photo taken of the bomb. Immediately afterwards,

00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:22.960
you can see the big mushroom cloud that kept 
ascending. And let me tell you something, they

00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:28.560
learned at Trinity that to create destruction, 
because Trinity didn't create destruction,

00:19:28.560 --> 00:19:34.080
it created fallout. They never they never did 
another test like this because of the fallout.

00:19:34.080 --> 00:19:39.280
They realized that they had so overexposed people 
to radiation. So the bombs in Japan, just to give

00:19:39.280 --> 00:19:45.840
you an idea, were detonated at 1,600 and 1,800 
ft respectively. And those bombs, the concussive

00:19:45.840 --> 00:19:51.760
force of those bombs came down and then went out 
across the earth. Trinity came down, intercepted

00:19:51.760 --> 00:19:58.080
the earth, and then took all that stuff up to 
create the fallout that came down on us. So, how

00:19:58.080 --> 00:20:04.000
did this affect us? Well, our lifestyles set us 
up for a terrible outcome. Number one, we didn't

00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:08.480
have running water in most of the villages of New 
Mexico. There was probably running water in most

00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:13.840
of Albuquerque and Santa Fe, but in the village 
I grew up in, Tulosa, there was no running water.

00:20:13.840 --> 00:20:19.520
So, what did we do for water? Well, we collected 
it in cisterns. There's still cisterns in parts of of

00:20:19.520 --> 00:20:26.080
Tulosa. We collected it off our rooftops into 
cisterns. Those were enclosed spaces uh where

00:20:26.080 --> 00:20:30.480
we held water and water was precious because 
nobody could turn on a tap and and get water

00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:38.000
out of a tap. Um and we depended on our our acequias. 
Tulosa, where I'm from, has the largest acequias or

00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:43.600
ditch system in the whole state of New Mexico. We 
had holding ponds in Carrizozo, which was 35 miles

00:20:43.600 --> 00:20:48.880
from ground zero. They actually had a holding pond 
and that was north of town and people would walk

00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:53.760
there every day and collect the water that they 
needed. So water was precious. And now all of our

00:20:53.760 --> 00:20:58.800
water was contaminated because that ash became 
part of our water. We didn't have electricity

00:20:58.800 --> 00:21:03.760
into people's homes in 1945. Our government hadn't 
invested in that kind of infrastructure. And that

00:21:03.760 --> 00:21:08.960
didn't happen until after the war. So, we didn't 
have refrigeration, no grocery stores. There were

00:21:08.960 --> 00:21:14.080
mercantile stores, and you bought things like 
sugar, coffee, flour, rice, cereal, but you

00:21:14.080 --> 00:21:17.840
couldn't buy dairy. You couldn't buy produce. 
You couldn't buy meat. All of those things were

00:21:17.840 --> 00:21:24.240
produced by your family and by your own means. We 
had cows and pigs and chickens, and we grew all

00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:28.800
sorts of fruits and vegetables. Now, all of that 
was contaminated because the ash became part of

00:21:28.800 --> 00:21:35.120
the soil and part of the food chain. There's three 
ways you're exposed to radiation. Inhalation,

00:21:35.120 --> 00:21:40.160
and as that ash is falling from the sky, you're 
breathing it. And now it gets into your lungs. You

00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:46.160
only have to inhale one particle of plutonium with 
a half-life of 24,000 years. It remains in your

00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:52.080
lungs for the remainder of time. It's decaying 
there. It's giving off radiation. It's irdiating

00:21:52.080 --> 00:21:58.400
your cells. and eventually you develop tumors. 
There's also another way that you are exposed

00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:03.200
to radiation ingestion and I described that very 
well. It was in our water and our food. But one of

00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:08.160
the routes that people don't talk about that often 
is absorption through your skin. And if you don't

00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:14.880
have running water, you don't bathe as often. So 
people bathed weekly. If in fact you were present

00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:19.680
in those days afterwards and that ash fell from 
the sky and it got on your scalp or on your skin,

00:22:19.680 --> 00:22:24.880
it likely stayed there. you were absorbing it into 
your body until the time that you were able to

00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:31.680
bathe. We were never warned before or afterwards. 
No warning. And when they detonated the bomb,

00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:37.280
they lied about it. They said it was an ammunition 
dump out at the Alamagordo bombing range. No one

00:22:37.280 --> 00:22:42.320
was harmed. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to 
see here. Go about doing what you've always done,

00:22:42.320 --> 00:22:49.280
which essentially was poisoning ourselves. So we 
have um this really horrid overexposure with no

00:22:49.280 --> 00:22:56.320
warning, no way to take care of ourselves. I put 
this picture in um to emphasize the fact that you

00:22:56.320 --> 00:23:01.360
can see Sierra Blanca White Mountain which is 
on the Muscalero Apache Reservation that was

00:23:01.360 --> 00:23:06.960
the source of water for so many people snowcapped. 
Uh and then there's photos here that I shared of

00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:13.840
grapes growing and and pecan orchards all things 
that existed in 1945 and still exist today. So,

00:23:13.840 --> 00:23:18.320
what are the documented effects of all of this? 
Well, I'm going to talk first about the babies

00:23:18.320 --> 00:23:25.440
that died that summer. Uh, Bernice was born 8 
days before the bomb in Carrizozo, 35 miles from

00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:32.800
ground zero. Eight days before the bomb, she was 
a baby, an infant. Her mother was not warned about

00:23:32.800 --> 00:23:40.240
taking precautions. Women, just like all mammals, 
concentrate the radiation in their mammary glands.

00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:44.640
So every mother that was nursing a baby that 
summer was adding to the poison that the baby

00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:50.640
had already received. Bernice has done amazing 
work. She's looked at every death certificate

00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:57.680
available to us for children under the age of one 
in New Mexico in 1945. And what have we found? We

00:23:57.680 --> 00:24:03.200
found that we went from losing around 30 babies 
per thousand to losing over a hundred babies per

00:24:03.200 --> 00:24:08.080
thousand that summer. Not all of our babies 
are documented. And why is that? Because they

00:24:08.080 --> 00:24:13.280
were born at home. And if they were born at home 
that summer and their births weren't registered,

00:24:13.280 --> 00:24:18.800
their deaths were not registered either. But we've 
heard horrendous stories. When you read through

00:24:18.800 --> 00:24:23.920
those death certificates, it's heartbreaking. The 
number of babies that were still born, the number

00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:29.200
of babies that were born with congenital malf 
formations, some described horribly. The number

00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:34.800
of babies that died because their gastrointestinal 
tracts, their stomachs couldn't function properly.

00:24:34.800 --> 00:24:39.680
They couldn't keep anything down. and they were 
doing everything they could to keep them alive,

00:24:39.680 --> 00:24:46.880
but nothing was working. Uh, in my family, I'm 
the fourth generation to have cancer since 1945.

00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:52.880
I had two greatgrandfathers alive at the time in 
Tulosa. Uh, they were living off the, you know,

00:24:52.880 --> 00:24:59.040
living off the land like everyone else. And in 
1955, both of my great-grandfathers were told

00:24:59.040 --> 00:25:04.160
they had stomach cancer. We'll never know because 
there was really no diagnostic process back then.

00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:08.400
They were given morphine and sent home to die. 
And they did. They suffered a great deal and then

00:25:08.400 --> 00:25:14.160
they died. Both my grandmothers who were alive 
at the time of Trinity developed cancer. My dad,

00:25:14.160 --> 00:25:18.640
who was a four-year-old child, dipping water out 
of the cistern and drinking mass quantities of

00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:25.920
fresh cow's milk, developed cancer of the tongue 
twice. Two primary cancers of the tongue, which

00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:31.120
is unheard of. My dad didn't drink much, didn't 
smoke, would have never put chewing tobacco in his

00:25:31.120 --> 00:25:37.440
mouth, and had no viruses. And when I asked the 
oncologist, "How in the world does a man get oral

00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:43.360
cancer twice without risk factors?" And the doctor 
told me, "It doesn't happen, but we see it all the

00:25:43.360 --> 00:25:48.560
time in New Mexico." In between those two cancers, 
my dad had prostate cancer, which was a walk

00:25:48.560 --> 00:25:54.800
in the park after what he went through with the 
cancer of the tongue. Um, I have one sister. She's

00:25:54.800 --> 00:26:01.280
had cancer. My mom's being followed for a parotted 
tumor that so far is benign. I have two brothers.

00:26:01.280 --> 00:26:06.640
My youngest brother was diagnosed with kidney 
cancer 18 months ago. His daughter at the age

00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:12.240
of 23 was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, the same 
cancer that I had. We don't ask if we're going

00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:16.800
to get cancer. We ask when it's going to be our 
turn because I'm sorry to tell you folks, that's

00:26:16.800 --> 00:26:23.120
the history of the state of New Mexico. We have 
the genetics for this now. We carry the genetic

00:26:23.120 --> 00:26:30.160
footprint. Bernice always says this is our past, 
our present, and our future. When they detonated

00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:35.040
that bomb at Trinity and then they detonated 
those bombs in the Nevada desert desert, we were

00:26:35.040 --> 00:26:42.000
forever destined. This is the legacy left behind 
for us. My family's not unique. 19 years ago,

00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:46.640
I developed a health survey. We've been collecting 
them for 19 years through a voluntary process and

00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:51.360
we've documented thousands of families just 
like mine displaying four and five generations

00:26:51.360 --> 00:26:58.480
of cancer. Bernice's family has the same history. 
Paul's family has the same history and on and on.

00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:06.800
So we started this organization to bring attention 
to all of this and we lo we organized locally,

00:27:06.800 --> 00:27:11.920
nationally and internationally. In the beginning, 
no one wanted to hear this. No one believed it.

00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:17.200
No one wanted to engage with us about it. But 
we continued this work. This past Saturday,

00:27:17.200 --> 00:27:24.800
we had our 17th annual candlelight vigil in the 
village of Tulosa. We light a luminadia. On those

00:27:24.800 --> 00:27:31.040
luminadas are names of people who've died. That 
community is a community of about 32 to 3,500

00:27:31.040 --> 00:27:37.040
people. We read over 900 names. People who've died 
of cancer. These are just people that somebody has

00:27:37.040 --> 00:27:41.200
come forward and given given us their names. I 
always say if we went door to door in Tulosa,

00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:45.840
we wouldn't light hundreds of can I luminadas. 
We'd light thousands. We call out each of their

00:27:45.840 --> 00:27:51.280
names. We decided long ago to bring attention to 
this at least once a year. We would acknowledge

00:27:51.280 --> 00:27:56.880
all those people that our government long ago 
forgotten. So, we've formulated partnerships

00:27:56.880 --> 00:28:03.440
with other organizations that are likeminded and 
we worked very, very hard to get RECA expanded. I

00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:09.360
mentioned already our partnership with Phil and 
the uranium workers from uh the Navajo Nation.

00:28:09.360 --> 00:28:14.880
We also worked very closely with the uranium 
workers from Lagona and Acoma Pueblo. Uh this

00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:20.240
kind of work is not easy work to do, folks. It's 
been tough. We've traveled from Santa to Santa Fe

00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:27.600
to lobby to DC to lobby and uh we've met with 
even the White House when President Biden was

00:28:27.600 --> 00:28:33.040
president. I had an opportunity uh to go to 
an event with Senator Lujan and I got to meet

00:28:33.040 --> 00:28:37.440
President Biden and it was pretty interesting 
because everybody wanted a selfie with him and

00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:41.120
I told him I don't want a selfie. I want to 
talk to you about something very important.

00:28:41.120 --> 00:28:45.920
And there's a picture of him with both of his 
hands on my shoulder as I told him this history

00:28:45.920 --> 00:28:53.520
quickly about how we had suffered so much in New 
Mexico. And after we met with him and uh all of

00:28:53.520 --> 00:28:58.800
that happened, he wrote a letter of support for 
the radiation exposure compensation act. And no

00:28:58.800 --> 00:29:04.640
president had ever acknowledged our sacrifice 
and suffering or written a letter like that.

00:29:06.320 --> 00:29:12.240
I've testified in four congressional committee 
hearings about the need to expand RECA. It's been

00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:18.560
an honor of a lifetime to do this work. And I just 
want to brag about something. New Mexico is the

00:29:18.560 --> 00:29:26.640
only state, the only state that lined up all five 
members of Congress to support this effort. The

00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:34.000
only state. Utah didn't do it. Arizona, Nevada, 
Montana, no one did it but us. And the only reason

00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:40.240
we have RECA is because we have five amazing members 
of Congress who understand this history and have

00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:45.520
been willing to keep this alive when other people 
told us it's going to cost too much. Imagine

00:29:45.520 --> 00:29:50.160
telling people who bury their loved ones on a 
regular basis that it's going to cost too much to

00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:56.960
take care of us after they harmed us. More photos 
of us in DC at a press conference. Uh photos of

00:29:56.960 --> 00:30:02.160
some of us in Flagstaff, Arizona for a film 
festival. I'll talk about the film in a moment.

00:30:02.960 --> 00:30:09.760
Uh so what is RECA and and and what does it mean? 
Well, we finally got an amendment passed to the

00:30:09.760 --> 00:30:17.040
Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in 2025 
and it was signed into law on July 4th. The

00:30:17.040 --> 00:30:22.800
amendment added uh all of New Mexico. We're very 
very fortunate because we're not picked apart by

00:30:22.800 --> 00:30:29.440
county or by zip code. The entire This applies 
to the entire state of New Mexico. Uh there's

00:30:29.440 --> 00:30:37.280
a payment of $100,000 to an to an individual who 
meets the qualifications. The qualifications are

00:30:37.280 --> 00:30:41.440
pretty straightforward and simple. You have to 
prove that you lived here for one year between

00:30:41.440 --> 00:30:49.120
1944 and 1962 and that you've had one of the 19 
compensible cancers. At our table here, we have

00:30:49.120 --> 00:30:53.520
all of this information listed, so you don't 
have to try to write it all down. Just pick up

00:30:53.520 --> 00:30:58.720
flyers from our table. We also have applications 
available if you want to take one so that you can

00:30:58.720 --> 00:31:05.440
look it over and prepare yourself to file a claim. 
There are 19 compensible cancers covered. Like I

00:31:05.440 --> 00:31:12.560
said, you can apply on behalf of yourself or a 
deceased spouse, deceased child, deceased parent,

00:31:12.560 --> 00:31:19.280
or a deceased grandparent. Uh the application 
period is currently set to expire on December

00:31:19.280 --> 00:31:25.840
31st, 2027. Please do not wait till the last 
minute. We've got to start getting our documents

00:31:25.840 --> 00:31:30.560
together. Getting your documents together is the 
hardest part. Filling out the application is very

00:31:30.560 --> 00:31:38.400
straightforward. Thank you. Um, this is this slide 
is a little bit dated. I will tell you that as

00:31:38.400 --> 00:31:43.680
of last week, and I mentioned it earlier, they've 
they've paid quite a number of claims. So, we need

00:31:43.680 --> 00:31:52.640
to get that, you know, we need to keep that going. 
Um, the qualification period 44 to 62. Let me

00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:58.800
explain that because I mentioned the Nevada test 
site earlier. 1944 is when our government started

00:31:58.800 --> 00:32:05.040
doing the first what are called radioactive 
lanthemum tests in New Mexico. Uh during the

00:32:05.040 --> 00:32:10.160
Manhattan project because they were building 
this these bombs. They had to do some tests and

00:32:10.160 --> 00:32:15.680
the first tests they used radioactive lanthemum 
and released radiation into our environment. So

00:32:15.680 --> 00:32:22.560
that's how we got the date set at 1944. 1962 
is when they did the last above ground test

00:32:22.560 --> 00:32:30.720
in Nevada. We know because they had monitoring 
stations all over New Mexico. Okay, we know that

00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:37.920
fallout came to New Mexico from those tests. And 
I just want to say that very soon we're going to

00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:43.120
know a lot more about this because a paper's going 
to be published that's going to speak to how much

00:32:43.120 --> 00:32:50.000
fallout there was produced by these tests and 
actually where it went. Um, so the Department

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:55.600
of Justice is who adjudicates the claims and they 
have recently admitted that they're think they

00:32:55.600 --> 00:33:01.120
think there could be as many as 50,000 claimants 
in New Mexico. 50,000. We're nowhere close to that

00:33:01.120 --> 00:33:07.120
number yet. That's why we've got a lot of work 
to do. That would mean $5 billion in payouts. So,

00:33:07.120 --> 00:33:11.760
we've got to work hard to make sure that that 
happens. And I just want to remind everybody,

00:33:11.760 --> 00:33:18.800
we know the physiological effects of all this, 
right? It's it's disease. It's cancer. It's death.

00:33:18.800 --> 00:33:24.720
But what we never talk about are the psychosocial, 
social, or financial effects of overexposure to

00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:30.560
radiation and what happens to you as your family 
is destroyed one by one. And it was Paul that

00:33:30.560 --> 00:33:35.280
first brought this to our attention. I remember 
him saying one time in one of our meetings,

00:33:35.280 --> 00:33:41.040
imagine the social problems that develop out of 
people not having adequate resources to address

00:33:41.040 --> 00:33:46.080
their health problems. you know, and we see it 
all the time because in rural areas of New Mexico,

00:33:46.080 --> 00:33:50.160
there's no hospital. You almost always have to 
travel to get treatment, to get diagnosed and

00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:56.160
treated. And so, what we do know is that New 
Mexico is one of the states carrying some of

00:33:56.160 --> 00:34:02.320
the highest medical debt in the country. We have 
about 2 million people living here. We're carrying

00:34:02.320 --> 00:34:10.160
881 million, almost a billion dollars in medical 
debt. That's not sustainable, folks. It's it's the

00:34:10.160 --> 00:34:17.120
leading cause of bankruptcy filings, divorce, and 
the list goes on. So, we all need to work together

00:34:17.120 --> 00:34:24.960
because our state has suffered greatly as a result 
of this. Um, so I just want everybody to know,

00:34:24.960 --> 00:34:32.000
please, please, please, if you are one of 
those people that is able to access documents,

00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:36.880
don't be a roadblock to people. I'm going to say 
something right now. The New Mexico Department of

00:34:36.880 --> 00:34:43.600
Health has been as helpful as they can be, but we 
have a tumor registry in New Mexico that will not

00:34:43.600 --> 00:34:48.880
provide us with our own records. Okay? They'll 
let you know whether they have a record on you,

00:34:48.880 --> 00:34:53.440
but they won't provide you with the record. And 
all of the congressional offices, I've already

00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:59.680
talked to all of you all. You guys need to know 
I didn't give up on this effort and I didn't work

00:34:59.680 --> 00:35:05.760
for 21 years so that a rogue government agency 
can stand in the way of the people of New Mexico,

00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:10.800
Utah, and Nevada, where the tumor registries 
readily supply people their information,

00:35:10.800 --> 00:35:17.360
have filed twice as many claims. This is 
unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. And

00:35:17.360 --> 00:35:22.000
I'm going to go to the ends of the earth. I've 
already said it. to make sure that our tumor

00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:30.960
registry falls in line and does what all tumor 
registries do in other places. This is ridiculous.

00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:35.040
So, if you are the holder of a record 
or somebody who has access to records,

00:35:35.040 --> 00:35:40.000
cooperate with people. Don't be a roadblock. Why 
would anyone want to be a roadblock? I had a lady

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:45.920
recently who who works at an institution 
that holds records. She actually told me,

00:35:45.920 --> 00:35:52.640
"This isn't going to help me in any way. 
So, I don't know why I should cooperate."

00:35:52.640 --> 00:35:56.880
At last, let me tell you about our 
award-winning documentary. Lois Litman,

00:35:56.880 --> 00:36:02.720
who is the producer of the documentary here 
today, um has has produced this award-winning

00:36:02.720 --> 00:36:08.160
documentary. You'll have an opportunity to see 
it in the Albuquerque area on August 30th. Go

00:36:08.160 --> 00:36:15.200
to their website, firstwebomb newxico, uh.com. 
Firstwebomb newxico.com. I think there's some

00:36:15.200 --> 00:36:20.560
um postcards at our table. You'll get to see 
the documentary on August 30th if you've not

00:36:20.560 --> 00:36:25.520
seen it. It's an award-winning documentary. We 
should get a streamer. We deserve a streamer.

00:36:25.520 --> 00:36:31.600
Everybody needs to know this story, especially at 
a time when every day we have to wonder if there's

00:36:31.600 --> 00:36:39.280
going to be the use of a nuclear weapon in Iran or 
Ukraine. We live on this really dangerous nuclear

00:36:39.280 --> 00:36:45.600
precipice and we're the history of where it all 
began. We need a streamer for our documentary.

00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:52.640
I also want to just let you all know that I 
have been um one of the highest honors of my

00:36:52.640 --> 00:37:00.240
lifetime will be that at the end of August I'll be 
traveling to the United Nations and they will be

00:37:00.240 --> 00:37:09.760
having what's called a high level plenary meeting 
of the general assembly of the United Nations

00:37:09.760 --> 00:37:15.520
and for the first time ever in the halls of the 
United Nations everybody who will be that there

00:37:15.520 --> 00:37:24.000
that day will hear the words Tularosa and Carrizozo 
and Socorro and New Mexico and I will be there to

00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:28.800
tell them the history of what we have been through 
so that our history is never forgotten. It's the

00:37:28.800 --> 00:37:35.040
reason we all need to work together to make sure 
that it is never forgotten. So what can you do

00:37:35.040 --> 00:37:40.960
to help? Tell everybody about the program. Sign 
up to volunteer. We need to enlist volunteers

00:37:40.960 --> 00:37:47.440
in every Pueblo. Those volunteers just need to 
set up maybe once a week to meet with folks,

00:37:47.440 --> 00:37:52.880
help them file the paperwork, help them get their 
documents in order. It's not a lot of trouble. And

00:37:52.880 --> 00:37:57.600
once you become expert at it, you'd be surprised 
at how quickly you can get through it. But we need

00:37:57.600 --> 00:38:04.880
volunteers in every Pueblo to do that. Uh, call the 
governor's office and let them know that it's not

00:38:04.880 --> 00:38:10.240
okay, that the tumor registry does not supply 
us our documentation. Those are records that

00:38:10.240 --> 00:38:16.000
should belong to each one of us. we pay taxes 
so that that organization exists and we should

00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:24.480
be able to access those records without any sort 
of um block to that. Um and then at our table we

00:38:24.480 --> 00:38:29.440
have a sign up sheet. You can sign up uh for our 
newsletter that we publish at least once a month

00:38:29.440 --> 00:38:36.640
that keeps people up to date. You can also go to 
our website which is www.trinityownwinders.com.

00:38:36.640 --> 00:38:42.480
Don't just put in the word downwinders because 
that will take you to one of the bad actors

00:38:42.480 --> 00:38:47.680
that has established a website in New Mexico 
claiming they're us and they're even telling

00:38:47.680 --> 00:38:51.920
people you just have to give a contribution to 
the Downwinders and we'll file the paperwork for

00:38:51.920 --> 00:38:58.000
you. There are bad actors. Imagine they know they 
can get a percentage of billions of dollars. So,

00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:02.880
of course, they're here. They've set up shop. 
They're promising all sorts of things. I got a

00:39:02.880 --> 00:39:08.480
call from a lady who who wanted to thank 
us uh for doing this work and she said,

00:39:08.480 --> 00:39:14.160
"I went with an attorney a year ago and I got 
my payment just this past week." It took a year,

00:39:14.160 --> 00:39:17.680
folks. But they're telling everybody, 
"We'll move you to the front of the line.

00:39:17.680 --> 00:39:24.240
You'll get compensated quicker. We can guarantee 
results." All of those things are false. Okay?

00:39:24.240 --> 00:39:29.920
Remind everybody, you don't need an attorney. You 
don't need an outside agency to do this for you.

00:39:29.920 --> 00:39:35.600
We have volunteers and it's not a difficult 
process. You just have to gather your documents

00:39:35.600 --> 00:39:41.440
and we're also telling people we highly recommend 
you do it online. Um, we've known people that have

00:39:41.440 --> 00:39:46.000
mailed all those documents in. They're sensitive 
documents, right? They've mailed them all in

00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:53.200
certified return receipt and the DOJ lost them. 
Not the post office, the DOJ. So, please use the

00:39:53.200 --> 00:40:06.560
online system. That's the best way to do it. And 
with that, I will end. Thank you all so very much.

00:40:06.560 --> 00:40:12.320
Thank you so much for that very informative 
presentation. It's it's um it's eye opening to

00:40:12.320 --> 00:40:18.240
say the least. Uh we are now going to welcome 
um uh the department New Mexico Department of

00:40:18.240 --> 00:40:24.080
Health to speak. A quick housekeeping note 
though. Uh Representative Stansbury is here

00:40:24.080 --> 00:40:32.560
today. Uh she yes she is in she is in the out 
in the Pueblo courtyard. Oh in the patio. So

00:40:32.560 --> 00:40:37.120
um be sure and say hi if if people come in and 
are looking for her. She is out there though. So

00:40:37.120 --> 00:40:43.680
um but with that I would like to 
turn it over to you. Thank you.

00:40:43.680 --> 00:40:47.440
Oh I guess I'm up here by myself for 
the moment. Um come on Department of

00:40:47.440 --> 00:40:52.880
Health folks. Come on up. Uh my name is Amanda 
Frasier. I'm one of the assistant uh attorneys,

00:40:52.880 --> 00:40:58.800
general counsel attorneys at the Department 
of Health. Also with me is Madison Schaefer.

00:40:58.800 --> 00:41:04.160
She's the helpline director. She's going to talk 
to us you all about the helpline that we have

00:41:04.160 --> 00:41:08.960
and Leo Fernandez who's with vital records 
because one of the things that we can do as

00:41:08.960 --> 00:41:14.320
Department of Health is help you get your vital 
records to show, you know, where you were born,

00:41:14.320 --> 00:41:20.240
um death certificates, things like that we can 
help with. Um, and in the interest of time, I'm

00:41:20.240 --> 00:41:25.840
going to kind of scoot through some of the history 
because Tina did a fantastic job of covering a lot

00:41:25.840 --> 00:41:33.920
of that. Um, so I know there's a lot of folks 
who are also going to be presenting today. Um,

00:41:33.920 --> 00:41:40.720
so I think everyone here, Tina, like I said, 
covered the RA issues. Um, it's a it's a federal

00:41:40.720 --> 00:41:48.000
law that compensates people who are uh subject 
to radiation exposure. And through Tina's and

00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:54.160
uh the downwinders efforts, it's been expanded 
from just uranium miners and folks in Nevada

00:41:54.160 --> 00:42:08.400
to what it is today. Um so I'm going to move 
through here because I know we have some time. Uh

00:42:08.400 --> 00:42:13.200
so again, the expansion has expanded it to 
everyone in New Mexico and then there's also

00:42:13.200 --> 00:42:18.720
expansions for folks in other states. So 
if you are not if you have lived in other

00:42:18.720 --> 00:42:24.880
states that are covered in addition to New 
Mexico, you may also qualify that way. So

00:42:24.880 --> 00:42:29.360
don't limit yourself to saying, "Oh, I haven't 
lived in New Mexico during the time because I

00:42:29.360 --> 00:42:34.640
was born in Nevada or I was born in Utah." 
You may also qualify if you were born in

00:42:34.640 --> 00:42:41.040
one of those other states in Arizona as well and 
Alaska. So it's not just limited to New Mexico.

00:42:41.040 --> 00:42:47.440
There's quite a few other states that are 
included. Um, and the again the compensation

00:42:47.440 --> 00:42:55.840
just includes all the downwinders and if you 
qualify you qualify for a $100,000 recovery

00:42:55.840 --> 00:43:02.480
and this is not prrated. It is not adjusted 
or anything. So what this means if your if

00:43:02.480 --> 00:43:09.840
you have grandparents or parents or children who 
were affected by this and they have passed you

00:43:09.840 --> 00:43:16.400
can still recover on their behalf. So the money 
would go to you if it's for your parents it would

00:43:16.400 --> 00:43:22.400
be split between yourself and your siblings. 
If your siblings are don't exist anymore if

00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:26.880
they've passed then it would be the children 
of your siblings if they have those kids that

00:43:26.880 --> 00:43:32.480
would go through that. So don't think because 
my grandmother passed I can't collect. You can

00:43:32.480 --> 00:43:39.360
still collect and it's not divvied up for each 
claim it's $100,000. And right now as far as I

00:43:39.360 --> 00:43:46.320
know they haven't put a limit on how much money 
these claims can in total be. So like Tina said

00:43:46.320 --> 00:43:54.800
this could be a lot of money and everyone who 
qualifies will get the same amount of money.

00:43:54.800 --> 00:43:59.440
And I'm going to jump through this because Tina 
did an awesome job on that. This also covers

00:43:59.440 --> 00:44:07.600
uranium workers. And so there uh if you're a 
miller, a minor, an or transporter, remediation,

00:44:07.600 --> 00:44:13.120
um you have to have done the work in Arizona, 
Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, North Dakota,

00:44:13.120 --> 00:44:19.200
Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, 
or Wyoming. So again, if you had a family member

00:44:19.200 --> 00:44:23.840
who was working in this area, they don't have to 
have been working in New Mexico. There could be a

00:44:23.840 --> 00:44:29.040
lot of different places. They just live here now. 
So, um, a lot of people are going to be eligible

00:44:29.040 --> 00:44:40.160
for this program. And there's issues in Missouri, 
Tennessee, Alaska, and Kentucky. And I'm not going

00:44:40.160 --> 00:44:44.560
to go through the diseases because I want to make 
sure we have enough time for everyone to talk. Um,

00:44:44.560 --> 00:44:51.120
but the diseases are available through various um 
thing. Uh, folks have them available. I'm sorry,

00:44:51.120 --> 00:44:57.680
I'm a little discombobulated because I'm trying 
to cut this down. Um, so again, be cautious

00:44:57.680 --> 00:45:02.720
about supplying things through mail. If you're 
going to do it through the mail, you can give

00:45:02.720 --> 00:45:08.240
people copies. You don't have if they ask for your 
originals, you can keep a copy for yourself. You

00:45:08.240 --> 00:45:13.200
can find out about getting certified copies, but 
again, hold on to the documents that you do have

00:45:13.200 --> 00:45:18.960
or make a copy of them because they do get lost. 
Like Tina said, the DOJ sometimes loses things,

00:45:18.960 --> 00:45:26.720
too. Um, and you don't need an attorney to file. 
And I'm going to have Madison talk about the DO

00:45:26.720 --> 00:45:32.320
helpline, which will help you understand things 
that you need to do um, and answer questions

00:45:32.320 --> 00:45:40.400
about that. Um, and I don't know which one is 
your slide, but I'm going to have Madison uh,

00:45:40.400 --> 00:45:48.240
talk about the helpline now. Is there more? 
There you go. Okay, I'm here. All right. So,

00:45:48.240 --> 00:45:54.640
I'm Madison Schaffefer. I'm the director for 
the NMDOH helpline. Uh for anybody who isn't

00:45:54.640 --> 00:46:03.120
familiar with us, we do a whole lot of things. 
So, um we take about 10,000 calls a month. And

00:46:03.120 --> 00:46:09.280
prior to 2020 and COVID, um if you were trying to 
get a hold of somebody at Department of Health,

00:46:09.280 --> 00:46:14.080
we had a whole lot of different phone numbers. Um 
depending on what you were calling about, you had

00:46:14.080 --> 00:46:19.280
to dial a completely different number. folks were 
constantly getting lost and ending up in the wrong

00:46:19.280 --> 00:46:26.720
place. And so with COVID and after uh we sort 
of decided gosh it would be nice if Department

00:46:26.720 --> 00:46:33.200
of Health were a little bit easier to reach for uh 
the people of New Mexico. So we built all of those

00:46:33.200 --> 00:46:39.200
numbers together into one line. Uh so across all 
the different programs at Department of Health, if

00:46:39.200 --> 00:46:45.600
you're trying to reach us, you can just call one 
number which is that 833 Southwest Nurse number.

00:46:46.640 --> 00:46:53.280
makes it a little easier for folks. Um, we 
do a whole lot of different things. Uh, one

00:46:53.280 --> 00:46:58.880
of our primary functions, sort of the most calls 
that we get is helping people with vital records

00:46:58.880 --> 00:47:05.040
questions. This includes RA. So, I'm going to talk 
in a minute about what specifically we do with RA.

00:47:05.040 --> 00:47:10.720
Uh, we also handle a lot of stuff with infectious 
disease, as you might imagine. And then one of our

00:47:10.720 --> 00:47:15.680
big goals is getting people connected to health 
care. So, if you've never used the help line,

00:47:15.680 --> 00:47:21.600
if you call us, we can help folks find a primary 
care provider. Uh we have teaalth programs to

00:47:21.600 --> 00:47:27.920
help people with all different kinds of uh health 
care issues. We'll help people schedule vaccines

00:47:27.920 --> 00:47:34.320
or find medication if their pharmacy is out of 
it and they don't know where to look. Um we just

00:47:34.320 --> 00:47:39.360
do all these different things. You name it, we 
can probably help you with it. And our big thing

00:47:39.360 --> 00:47:43.760
uh that I tell people is we don't give up, right? 
It takes the time it takes. We want to make sure

00:47:43.760 --> 00:47:49.120
everybody walks away and has their needs met. 
So if we have to spend two hours calling around

00:47:49.120 --> 00:47:55.200
to find you a pharmacy, something like that, we'll 
do it. Um we also are really big on health equity.

00:47:55.200 --> 00:48:03.360
This also pertains to RECA. Uh we have uh about half 
of our staff are bilingual and also speak Spanish.

00:48:03.360 --> 00:48:10.400
Uh we have a translation service. It does include 
DA. um for other languages, if somebody spoke

00:48:10.400 --> 00:48:17.120
a different language, we work very closely with 
our office of the tribal liaison. We work closely

00:48:17.120 --> 00:48:22.720
um with our office of community engagement and so 
we have been able to find folks to translate for

00:48:22.720 --> 00:48:31.520
us. So how are we helping with RECA specifically? 
Um when folks call us, we can give them general

00:48:31.520 --> 00:48:37.920
information. We get a lot of calls asking what 
RECA is, uh, how people might qualify, those types

00:48:37.920 --> 00:48:44.640
of things. As Tina mentioned, the RECA application 
looks like a whole lot. Uh, when you first take

00:48:44.640 --> 00:48:49.920
a look at it, it's pretty long. Uh, it's actually 
more simple than people think. And so, we'll take

00:48:49.920 --> 00:48:54.400
the time to walk through it with people to make 
sure that they understand what the different

00:48:54.400 --> 00:48:59.680
pieces are to help them understand that they don't 
need to hire an attorney and they are able to

00:48:59.680 --> 00:49:03.920
do that themselves. um and just work with them 
to make sure they understand all the different

00:49:03.920 --> 00:49:10.560
pieces. Uh NMDOH of course can't determine 
eligibility, but we can educate folks about what

00:49:10.560 --> 00:49:16.000
those eligibility criteria are. So if people have 
questions about that, we'll go over it with them.

00:49:16.000 --> 00:49:22.960
Um one of the big pieces of RECA is obtaining vital 
records. So birth and death certificates, uh also

00:49:22.960 --> 00:49:28.400
marriage licenses, divorce decrees, those types 
of things. We work really closely with our vital

00:49:28.400 --> 00:49:33.760
records office uh to ensure that people have clear 
instructions to make sure that they know how to do

00:49:33.760 --> 00:49:39.040
that. In some of these situations, uh Leo is going 
to talk about this. It's a little bit complicated

00:49:39.040 --> 00:49:45.200
because people may have records that are under, 
you know, baby girl, those types of names,

00:49:45.200 --> 00:49:50.400
or you know, these are older records, so there may 
be challenges. They may have been born at home and

00:49:50.400 --> 00:49:55.360
just simply, you know, never registered with the 
state and those types of things. So, we work with

00:49:55.360 --> 00:50:00.480
people to make sure that they are able to get 
those vital records in a timely fashion um and

00:50:00.480 --> 00:50:06.880
to have their needs met. Uh we get a lot of calls 
from folks who have siblings or they themselves

00:50:06.880 --> 00:50:11.760
were born in another state. They need their birth 
certificates. They need death certificates. We'll

00:50:11.760 --> 00:50:17.120
connect them with vital records in other states to 
ensure um that they're able to get their needs met

00:50:17.120 --> 00:50:25.600
and get those documents. Uh we also help folks 
um navigate some of these resources like Family

00:50:25.600 --> 00:50:31.440
Search, uh the census documents. Those websites 
can be a little intimidating especially for older

00:50:31.440 --> 00:50:37.200
folks. So we'll walk that um walk through those 
with people to ensure that they're able to have

00:50:37.200 --> 00:50:44.960
their needs met. Uh you know, do what we can to 
help there. Um, we also give people information

00:50:44.960 --> 00:50:51.200
about some possible resources that they can use 
to prove residency. As Tina mentioned, that can

00:50:51.200 --> 00:50:57.760
really be a challenge for folks, especially, 
you know, this was potentially 75 years ago and

00:50:57.760 --> 00:51:02.800
people may not have documents from that time 
period. So, we work really closely with them

00:51:02.800 --> 00:51:09.840
um to ensure that they have that information about 
where to find things. And then as also as Tina did

00:51:09.840 --> 00:51:14.960
a great job with her presentation of covering all 
of these things, but it can be really difficult to

00:51:14.960 --> 00:51:21.280
find medical records from that far back. And so we 
do what we can to work with people uh to help them

00:51:21.280 --> 00:51:27.120
think of avenues to find that. We can help people 
find autopsy reports um those types of things. So,

00:51:27.120 --> 00:51:32.560
we work closely with people to do what 
we can even though there is that 10-year

00:51:32.560 --> 00:51:37.680
um record retention limitation for medical 
records in New Mexico that can make it a little

00:51:37.680 --> 00:51:44.800
more difficult. Um I'm going to talk very briefly 
about the tumor registry. I just want to emphasize

00:51:44.800 --> 00:51:51.200
um NMDOH and the tumor registry are two different 
entities. So, the tumor registry is administered

00:51:51.200 --> 00:51:58.800
by um UNM. we have no control over what they 
choose to give folks. Um, Department of Health

00:51:58.800 --> 00:52:04.400
is doing everything that we can uh to give 
people the information that they need out of

00:52:04.400 --> 00:52:11.600
that registry. Um, one thing sort of to note is 
that there is a box on the Department of Justice

00:52:11.600 --> 00:52:18.320
um application, the RECA application that allows DOJ 
to talk directly with the tumor registry to get

00:52:18.320 --> 00:52:25.520
the records out of the tumor registry. So, that 
is an option for people. Um, we also are able to

00:52:25.520 --> 00:52:32.320
look up whether somebody is in the cancer registry 
or they are not. Um, unfortunately we don't have

00:52:32.320 --> 00:52:38.480
information about their diagnosis. This is what 
do was given by the tumor registry. It's all we've

00:52:38.480 --> 00:52:44.960
got. I realize um it's not a a perfect solution, 
but we are hopeful that we can help people with

00:52:44.960 --> 00:52:50.720
that if that is a question they have whether their 
loved one is in there um or not. So, we're happy

00:52:50.720 --> 00:52:58.080
to assist with that. Um, and then I'll just uh in 
the interest of time, we have cards. We have many,

00:52:58.080 --> 00:53:03.280
many cards. They are over there uh on the N&M 
health table. Please feel free to take those,

00:53:03.280 --> 00:53:07.680
distribute them to your communities, to your 
constituents. We're here. We're really happy to

00:53:07.680 --> 00:53:13.280
help folks. Um, we're excited to be working with 
people and supporting them in this RECA application

00:53:13.280 --> 00:53:18.400
process. Um, and just to emphasize, all of 
our services are completely free. So, anybody

00:53:18.400 --> 00:53:24.560
who is calling us for help, we do not charge 
anything for that, we're taxpayer funded. So,

00:53:24.560 --> 00:53:29.440
um we're very happy to help folks and if it takes 
a few hours to go through something with someone,

00:53:29.440 --> 00:53:35.440
we will take that time. So, just want to emphasize 
that. Um and then I'll pass it over to Leo. You

00:53:35.440 --> 00:53:41.680
want to do vital record to talk? We just push down 
on this thing here. I think so. Okay. Okay. Just

00:53:41.680 --> 00:53:48.000
push forward. Just Oh, forward. Okay. Thank you. 
Let's see. Fingers crossed. There we go. There we

00:53:48.000 --> 00:53:52.880
go. Well, thank you everybody for inviting the 
vital U. I'm Leo Fernandez with the Bureau of

00:53:52.880 --> 00:53:57.200
Vital Records and Health Statistics. I appreciate 
you guys inviting us out so we can kind of walk

00:53:57.200 --> 00:54:01.760
you through the process of applying for birth 
and death certificates and kind of explain too

00:54:01.760 --> 00:54:07.280
that we do a lot more and like Madison and uh was 
talking about we do a lot more than what people

00:54:07.280 --> 00:54:10.560
think. It's just applying, you know, how hard is 
it to apply for a birth certificate and a death

00:54:10.560 --> 00:54:16.000
certificate, right? But we also do amendments. 
We also do adoptions. We also do fraternities.

00:54:16.000 --> 00:54:20.480
um you know we register cases all the way 
from the hospitals to midwives on that. We

00:54:20.480 --> 00:54:24.560
also register from funeral homes. So we do a 
lot of other things other than just reissuing

00:54:24.560 --> 00:54:29.360
out the burser. We are the permanent custodians 
of these records. I do have to tell Tina uh we

00:54:29.360 --> 00:54:33.760
are not a roadblock. So I just want to tell you 
that right now we are the custodians but we are

00:54:33.760 --> 00:54:40.000
not going to be the roadblock in this case for RECA 
at all. Okay. So that's why we are partnering up.

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:47.120
We have great partners with uh the O helpline and 
our legal team. Uh we are adapting as we go and

00:54:47.120 --> 00:54:52.480
we are here to help all of our our New Mexicans 
get through this process as as streamlined and

00:54:52.480 --> 00:54:56.800
as smooth as possible. We have actually cut 
down our weight times, our turnaround times

00:54:56.800 --> 00:55:01.280
on applications. We were at 6 to 12 weeks at one 
time, especially with CO uh when COVID happened,

00:55:01.280 --> 00:55:06.160
but we brought that all the way down to I'm 
going to say that now is up to four weeks. So

00:55:06.160 --> 00:55:10.880
when you submit your application turnaround time 
is normally within a week, but you know if it's

00:55:10.880 --> 00:55:15.680
more complex situations, it could be up to four 
weeks. But we are working on uh bringing that

00:55:15.680 --> 00:55:20.320
down as well. Okay. So I just want to go over a 
few things slides here. So we I know we have time

00:55:20.320 --> 00:55:24.800
constraints here. So this is a discussion topic. 
So I wanted to talk about how to apply for a birth

00:55:24.800 --> 00:55:31.120
and desert because that is what most of our um RECA 
calls are coming in as and our constituents coming

00:55:31.120 --> 00:55:35.680
into our office to apply for in our office. And 
we also have 25 other public health office that

00:55:35.680 --> 00:55:40.800
assist us with issuing birth certificates 
only. They do not issue death certificates.

00:55:41.520 --> 00:55:44.720
So, we're going to talk about that. We'll talk 
about IDs that you're going to need to apply for

00:55:44.720 --> 00:55:49.360
your birth certificate and a death certificate. Uh 
go over our search applications because we do get

00:55:49.360 --> 00:55:53.440
a lot of questions on how do I fill this out and 
who's supposed to be the applicant and who's the

00:55:53.440 --> 00:55:58.400
uh you know, who's the registrant on the record 
that you're looking for. Um disclosure, birth and

00:55:58.400 --> 00:56:02.560
death records because we do have uh family members 
like immediate family members are always going to

00:56:02.560 --> 00:56:06.800
be entitled, but we do have uh not immediate 
family plans applying. So, I want to kind of

00:56:06.800 --> 00:56:12.240
go over that with you guys as well on what our 
process is to approve those to be issued out. Um,

00:56:12.240 --> 00:56:17.040
third party requests, we do are and like Tina 
was talking about, uh, we do have attorneys,

00:56:17.040 --> 00:56:24.080
we do have uh, uh, third party applicants applying 
for their their the people who retain them for

00:56:24.080 --> 00:56:30.000
their services. So, we wanted to talk about that 
and what that process would be. Uh, we also want

00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:34.720
I wanted to show some examples of the letters 
that we are issuing specifically to Farica. Um if

00:56:34.720 --> 00:56:40.400
there's any case that where we we're searching for 
your record and for some reason it was not filed

00:56:40.400 --> 00:56:43.760
with our office. We don't create the records. 
Remember that vital records they are filed with

00:56:43.760 --> 00:56:48.720
it to us. We are the permanent retention on those 
records. So if we do not have the record, we still

00:56:48.720 --> 00:56:54.560
wanted to provide some type of documentation that 
proves that you guys have applied for the birth

00:56:54.560 --> 00:56:58.480
certificate or a death certificate and that 
shows that we did a thorough search and that

00:56:58.480 --> 00:57:03.680
we're providing you with a certified letter. This 
is a new process for us. We do have these letters

00:57:03.680 --> 00:57:07.680
for any situation with vital records, but we are 
specifically certifying these specifically for

00:57:07.680 --> 00:57:14.640
for the RECA applicants that are calling in for 
our services with vital records. Um, and then

00:57:14.640 --> 00:57:20.320
just to let you know what other services that 
we can provide and how we're partnering up. So,

00:57:20.320 --> 00:57:26.000
this is what I was talking about is our main 
office in Santa Fe. U, this is our address.

00:57:26.000 --> 00:57:30.640
Uh we are and also we were talking about 25 other 
public health offices that we are partnered up

00:57:30.640 --> 00:57:35.360
with so that you can for you don't have to travel 
all the way to Santa Fe to get your record. You

00:57:35.360 --> 00:57:42.640
can stop in for your birth certificate at 25 
other locations in New Mexico. We also have online

00:57:42.640 --> 00:57:48.800
services. We have a approved authorized expedited 
services which is called Vital Check. Now, the one

00:57:48.800 --> 00:57:53.360
thing I want you to be very cautious of is when 
you're uh if your family members are like that,

00:57:53.360 --> 00:57:59.120
if you do not Google vital records, because you're 
not always going to get our specific helpline,

00:57:59.120 --> 00:58:05.680
uh our our website. So, I wanted to make sure 
if you do want to apply for a birth certificate

00:58:05.680 --> 00:58:09.920
or a death certificate online, so it's more 
convenient, especially if our New Mexicans that

00:58:09.920 --> 00:58:14.880
live out of state, uh it's more convenient for 
them. This is our website. It's vital check.com.

00:58:14.880 --> 00:58:19.440
Uh there is an additional fee on that on top 
of our fees and I'll go over our fees here in

00:58:19.440 --> 00:58:24.400
a minute. Uh but then there's our phone number 
as well. So we do have online services available

00:58:24.400 --> 00:58:28.480
to anybody else on that and expedited with 
shipping as well. So if they need it a little

00:58:28.480 --> 00:58:36.000
bit sooner. Um so our fees on this one for uh all 
uh birth certificates is searches. I just wanted

00:58:36.000 --> 00:58:40.320
to make it clear that not always guaranteed 
a birth certificate. That's one thing is in

00:58:40.320 --> 00:58:44.720
our regulations, which why I put that on here, 
is the $10 is going for a thorough search. We

00:58:44.720 --> 00:58:50.880
are searching our archives, our our vaults, our 
our databases, and we do a very thorough search

00:58:50.880 --> 00:58:56.400
and a lot of resources involved in that to make 
sure uh that we can make sure that we find that

00:58:56.400 --> 00:59:01.440
record that you're looking for. And that's 
what the $10 goes towards on that. Uh it's

00:59:01.440 --> 00:59:06.960
$5 for a death application search as 
well. We do the same thing with the death

00:59:10.240 --> 00:59:15.760
uh in form of payments. Right now uh we are taking 
in our offices and the public health offices we

00:59:15.760 --> 00:59:21.040
are taking cash, check and money orders. Uh we 
are working in the process right now of taking

00:59:21.040 --> 00:59:25.920
credit cards in our office so that we don't have 
to turn customers away to go to ATM on that. So

00:59:25.920 --> 00:59:33.680
we're we're excited about that. So very excited. 
Yes. Modernizing. Okay. So, I just wanted to show

00:59:33.680 --> 00:59:38.880
this was uh when you're applying for a birth 
certificate, we do require that we have a valid

00:59:38.880 --> 00:59:45.440
uh ID, driver's license. Uh we wanted to make a 
list here that we do take terrible IDs, passports,

00:59:45.440 --> 00:59:52.960
Mexican matriculas, and military ID. Now, in these 
situations, I still encourage all our New Mexicans

00:59:52.960 --> 00:59:58.160
to call us. I know every situation is different. 
Everything's case by case that we can work with

00:59:58.160 --> 01:00:05.360
you. So, especially incarcerations of of people 
coming out of uh prisons and recovery programs,

01:00:05.360 --> 01:00:09.360
I know that's going to be very challenging to 
have an ID. So, I just want to make it clear,

01:00:09.360 --> 01:00:14.240
don't be that as a deterrent. You still contact 
our office. You contact Madison's helpline. You

01:00:14.240 --> 01:00:19.840
call that line. They will get you assistant, 
give you options, and then if they if they need

01:00:19.840 --> 01:00:27.680
uh vital vital records assistance, 
they'll forward it on to us. Okay.

01:00:27.680 --> 01:00:33.280
So this is just an example of our birth uh birth 
record applica search application. Uh on the top

01:00:33.280 --> 01:00:37.440
I just wanted to make it clear on the top of 
this application. It is specifically for who's

01:00:37.440 --> 01:00:41.120
applying for it. It's not the person that's 
on the record. It's the person applying for

01:00:41.120 --> 01:00:47.280
it. Can be immediate family, could be a cousin, 
an aunt, uncle, whatever it may be. Okay. Uh and

01:00:47.280 --> 01:00:52.240
then the middle section is just showing how you're 
related. And then the third part over here is the

01:00:52.240 --> 01:00:57.040
information. And this part is very important for 
us because we need to have this search categories

01:00:57.040 --> 01:01:01.760
in order to find that record. It helps us uh 
you know eliminate process elimination because

01:01:01.760 --> 01:01:06.880
we have millions of millions of records that we 
retain at the vital records office. So in this

01:01:06.880 --> 01:01:12.000
case we would ask for the registrants's name at 
birth, their date of birth, the county that they

01:01:12.000 --> 01:01:16.720
were born in, right? Their mother's maid and 
name and then if there's a father on record,

01:01:16.720 --> 01:01:20.320
we would like to have that information as well. 
Now don't make that as a determent. You just put

01:01:20.320 --> 01:01:24.720
as much as you can on here to eliminate that. We 
will still do a search with the information that

01:01:24.720 --> 01:01:28.880
you have. So, we're going to make sure you 
get your money's worth on that search. So,

01:01:28.880 --> 01:01:35.520
that's the birth search application. We have death 
application as well. Oops. What did I do? Well,

01:01:35.520 --> 01:01:40.880
okay, here we go. The death is the same. So, the 
only difference on the death is the date of death,

01:01:40.880 --> 01:01:46.720
the deedent at the time uh whenever they passed 
away, the name that they had on their record

01:01:46.720 --> 01:01:56.320
um on that one. So, but it's pretty similar on 
that one as there's a line for it on the top. So,

01:01:56.320 --> 01:02:01.200
we just want to talk about who is entitled to a 
birth certificate and a death certificate. Um,

01:02:01.200 --> 01:02:04.560
it's of course the registering. If it's your 
record, you can apply for it. Immediate family

01:02:04.560 --> 01:02:11.680
members uh and who has legal tangible interest in 
the vital record. So this one on the bottom here

01:02:11.680 --> 01:02:18.480
says immediate family members is mother, father, 
grandmother, grandfather, grandchild, sibling or

01:02:18.480 --> 01:02:22.880
spouse. That is what we consider immediate family 
members. And then it goes in if if anybody else

01:02:22.880 --> 01:02:28.400
is blind outside that then we do ask for direct 
legal tangible and then we can uh kind of explain

01:02:28.400 --> 01:02:36.560
that as we go forward. Legal tangible is if you 
are not the the registrant or immediate family

01:02:36.560 --> 01:02:40.880
members could be used as power of attorneys. 
Legal guardianship. It could be are under 18

01:02:40.880 --> 01:02:46.400
and over 18. Uh legal representative. So that's 
mostly like attorneys if they're representing

01:02:46.400 --> 01:02:54.400
you and you retain them. Uh CFD exparte orders 
if the child is in custody in their custody.

01:02:55.360 --> 01:02:59.280
So this is just some examples of the third 
party agencies that we do still require a search

01:02:59.280 --> 01:03:03.680
application notorized letter of authorization 
from the applicant to notoriize the letter

01:03:03.680 --> 01:03:09.360
um from the legal representative giving them 
permission to work on their behalf. Uh letter of

01:03:09.360 --> 01:03:14.720
justification for the letter legal representative 
contract or documentation proving affiliation with

01:03:14.720 --> 01:03:19.280
the legal representative uh IDs and credentials. 
We want to see who's actually applying for

01:03:19.280 --> 01:03:24.640
this. We'll need that photo ident uh power of 
attorney. In some cases, we'll we'll require that,

01:03:24.640 --> 01:03:30.640
but not all. So, I wanted to put out some 
examples. So, in the last one, I did work

01:03:30.640 --> 01:03:36.080
with the the library. The last presentation in 
Albuquerque, so I appreciate hosting that. Um,

01:03:36.080 --> 01:03:43.120
we got a lot of suggestions or requests to kind of 
give examples of what we're issuing out to the RECA

01:03:43.120 --> 01:03:49.360
callers that are coming in and asking for records. 
And if we don't find them, this is what we are

01:03:49.360 --> 01:03:54.240
providing. Uh in this case one that what Madison 
was talking about there's sometimes a baby boy,

01:03:54.240 --> 01:03:59.040
baby girl. What this means is that it just 
never we got it filed in our office from a

01:03:59.040 --> 01:04:04.560
facility or a midwife. But that means is that 
it just never got named. So it just at this

01:04:04.560 --> 01:04:10.320
point it just they registered it and it never got 
named at this point in our regulations. We're not

01:04:10.320 --> 01:04:13.920
able to release that. Even though we are the 
retention of that record, we cannot release

01:04:13.920 --> 01:04:18.960
it. And if they've already been deceased, it's 
in our laws. We can't amend that record. So,

01:04:18.960 --> 01:04:22.640
we're not able even though we do have a record, 
but it's incomplete. So, we can't release it until

01:04:22.640 --> 01:04:27.600
it is and it won't be able to since the register 
is deceased. So, we replied this letter explaining

01:04:27.600 --> 01:04:35.040
the law and it gives you demographic information 
at the bottom here that has all the information

01:04:35.040 --> 01:04:40.000
we have on that record. So, the necessary 
information that you need and then we can

01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:47.600
put that on there and then of course we certify 
it with our seal and then we send that out. Okay.

01:04:47.600 --> 01:04:50.720
And then in the case of the where you're applying 
for a birth certificate and you don't have a birth

01:04:50.720 --> 01:04:55.680
record and these cases are that there was no 
birth record who was never registered with us

01:04:55.680 --> 01:05:00.400
and the person is still alive. It's no there's 
no roadwalk there. We can still have a process

01:05:00.400 --> 01:05:05.040
is called a DBR. It's just a delayed birth 
registration. Anything over one year requires

01:05:05.040 --> 01:05:10.400
uh documentation to prove that they were born in 
New Mexico. Okay. So this is another letter that

01:05:10.400 --> 01:05:15.280
we supplied for. So with this, the reason I put 
this here is that we don't want this because this

01:05:15.280 --> 01:05:18.960
process here could take a while to get documents. 
It's just like the RECA. You got to get try to find

01:05:18.960 --> 01:05:23.280
proof residency and you got to prove your birth 
and where you're born, your parents documents

01:05:23.280 --> 01:05:30.080
and their names on it. It's a lot of uh time taken 
for that. But we didn't want that time to uh delay

01:05:30.080 --> 01:05:34.400
your process for RECA. So this letter should work 
for you as well because we did a thorough search

01:05:34.400 --> 01:05:41.600
and it just shows that we couldn't we don't have 
anything at this time for any reason that is there

01:05:41.600 --> 01:05:46.720
is uh no record this is the cases where they may 
have been born out of state. So we do get a lot

01:05:46.720 --> 01:05:50.720
of applicants that come in and they just didn't 
know where their family members were born. So we

01:05:50.720 --> 01:05:55.120
will uh do a thorough search and at this category 
of no record this will show you the categories

01:05:55.120 --> 01:06:00.080
that you've supplied to us that shows all the 
information you gave us. We did a thorough search

01:06:00.080 --> 01:06:03.920
and we could come up with nothing but we didn't 
want to give you nothing. We want to provide

01:06:03.920 --> 01:06:08.000
you with something you know so provide with RECA 
application. So this one is just shows that it's

01:06:08.000 --> 01:06:15.520
a no record statement and certified. And these 
ones I put on here just because uh we do also have

01:06:15.520 --> 01:06:20.400
uh cases that are still being filed. Uh they're 
maybe just not ready yet. So like I said, they get

01:06:20.400 --> 01:06:24.480
filed with our office and they still go through 
the process like the DBR process of delayed that

01:06:24.480 --> 01:06:29.360
may be going through that process but you may need 
to know a status. So, we have this letter in place

01:06:29.360 --> 01:06:34.000
to tell you that yes, we are working on it, but 
it's still recent event and it still has not been

01:06:34.000 --> 01:06:40.400
registered and filed permanently in our office. 
I just wanted to give you guys a little bit of

01:06:40.400 --> 01:06:44.080
data. I know I'm sorry I'm taking too much time 
here, but uh just a little bit of data here. This

01:06:44.080 --> 01:06:50.160
is what we've collected since we started uh RECA. Uh 
we just wanted to show uh the number of issuances

01:06:50.160 --> 01:06:55.360
here since February. And you can see that we have 
a steady increase of of actual successful birth

01:06:55.360 --> 01:07:00.160
certificates being issued out specifically for 
RICO. We do a lot more than this, believe me. Um,

01:07:00.160 --> 01:07:05.200
but I also wanted to show a graph here on how the 
no record statements that we actually sent that I

01:07:05.200 --> 01:07:10.000
gave you examples of is very small. So that's a 
good thing. That means that we are finding those

01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:16.560
records and we're giving them out to our New 
Mexicans constituents. There's death as well.

01:07:16.560 --> 01:07:20.960
We have a steady increase on the one and a very 
low amount of uh data that shows that we could

01:07:20.960 --> 01:07:27.120
not find the death records that they were looking 
for. This a little bit of call data for RECA. This

01:07:27.120 --> 01:07:32.400
is just kind of shows what type of calls that 
were going through the call New Mexico helpline

01:07:32.400 --> 01:07:38.880
and that they were able to specifically for RECA 
coming down on this one and then just a small

01:07:38.880 --> 01:07:44.240
amount of this one. That's why this partnership 
is is working great. um the small amount that's

01:07:44.240 --> 01:07:47.600
coming to us for RECA that means they're very 
complex and we have to work through them either

01:07:47.600 --> 01:07:52.080
amending a record uh doing a thorough search and 
then sending them out these certified letters that

01:07:52.080 --> 01:07:59.040
I showed you. So, I just want to give you guys 
some information that uh Madison had already show

01:07:59.040 --> 01:08:03.360
shared with you. The helpline available time is 
Monday through Friday 7 to 8:00 p.m. The weekends

01:08:03.360 --> 01:08:10.240
from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Um, their number 
is listed here. And our Santa Fe vital records

01:08:10.240 --> 01:08:16.960
office is from 8:30 to 4:00 operational 
hours and our phone number there as well.

01:08:19.040 --> 01:08:22.000
So resources, this is a very important 
one because I was telling you before of

01:08:22.000 --> 01:08:25.680
googling vital records. We get a lot of 
there's a lot of third parties out there

01:08:25.680 --> 01:08:34.160
um that are uh taking on charging a lot more money 
uh to our constituents to get records from us at

01:08:34.160 --> 01:08:39.120
sign vital records. So you really want to write 
this one down is our actual website. Okay. So that

01:08:39.120 --> 01:08:43.760
you can provide get applications any information 
you need for vital records. And then just a couple

01:08:43.760 --> 01:08:50.880
of our laws that here I wanted to list as well. 
Okay. I just wanted to tell you too, I did bring

01:08:50.880 --> 01:08:55.600
in some fact sheets with me today. I didn't have 
a table to set up on. So, uh I do have some fact

01:08:55.600 --> 01:08:59.840
sheets and some examples of the letters that I 
that you've seen on this one. So, if you need to

01:08:59.840 --> 01:09:08.560
would like a copy of those, just see me or to my 
table. Okay. Well, thank you very much everybody.

01:09:18.400 --> 01:09:24.720
Thank you so much. It's really reassuring to put 
a face to um all the paperwork and data that you

01:09:24.720 --> 01:09:29.520
have to submit and to know that there's actual 
people out there who can get you that information

01:09:29.520 --> 01:09:34.000
and get you the right resource and be able to 
work directly with who you should be working

01:09:34.000 --> 01:09:41.280
with instead of um other third parties. Uh, I'd 
like to now introduce Miss Gina Grimes from the

01:09:41.280 --> 01:09:54.240
nuclear she's nuclear worker advocate radiation 
control bureau. So, please welcome her. Thank you.

01:09:54.240 --> 01:10:00.960
Habi. My name is Gina Grimes. I'm a member of 
the Washer Tribe of Nevada and California. I

01:10:00.960 --> 01:10:06.160
also work for the state of New Mexico Environment 
Department Inside Radiation Control Bureau as the

01:10:06.160 --> 01:10:13.440
nuclear workers advocate. So, not only do I 
do RECA claims, I also um file and carry case

01:10:13.440 --> 01:10:19.520
load of former Department of Energy workers, 
contractors, subcontractors, and also uranium

01:10:19.520 --> 01:10:27.600
workers and survivors. Um, so I'm very busy. Our 
little office is very busy. Um so I'm here to talk

01:10:27.600 --> 01:10:38.080
to you today about uh the application process 
and some common challenges that we encounter.

01:10:38.080 --> 01:10:45.200
So we talked a lot about downwinder um and they 
shouldn't be lumped together. Um I know that in

01:10:45.200 --> 01:10:50.080
in talking we do lump them together but you know 
we can't forget our uranium workers as well. So

01:10:50.080 --> 01:10:59.280
these are the compensible diseases for our um 
downwinders. There are 19 different cancers.

01:10:59.280 --> 01:11:03.600
So what is needed to apply? There are three 
elements needed to apply for a complete

01:11:03.600 --> 01:11:10.240
application. You need proof of identity, proof of 
disease, and proof of residency. Proof of disease,

01:11:10.240 --> 01:11:15.760
there are three options. There is the tumor 
registry. I discourage it. Um I use it as

01:11:15.760 --> 01:11:20.560
last resort because we don't know what's in 
that what's in there with their reporting.

01:11:20.560 --> 01:11:27.280
Two is a certified medical record. And the third 
option is if if it's on the death certificate,

01:11:27.280 --> 01:11:33.680
the cause of death. Um, and proof of residency. 
The proof of presence or proof of residency or

01:11:33.680 --> 01:11:37.760
proof of presence. That seems to be the hardest 
one. Getting those documents from the 40s, 50s,

01:11:37.760 --> 01:11:47.040
and 60s. So, proof of presence in this state uh is 
from November 24th, sorry, sorry, September 24th,

01:11:47.040 --> 01:11:54.320
1944 to November 6th, 1962. These are just 
some examples of what we can use. Tax records,

01:11:54.320 --> 01:11:58.160
um, stamped letters, envelopes, 
a driver's license, home deeds,

01:11:58.160 --> 01:12:05.200
a warranty, life insurance policies, employment 
records, church records, school records, diaries,

01:12:05.200 --> 01:12:12.400
uh, sibling. So, if you were born in 1960, 
1961, um, we can use those older siblings. If

01:12:12.400 --> 01:12:17.040
you have older siblings, we can use their birth 
certificates, school records. Um, and it works.

01:12:17.040 --> 01:12:21.840
I know that because I filed for someone in 
February and they were awarded um based on

01:12:21.840 --> 01:12:29.680
their older siblings birth certificate. Um the 
1950 census they're saying certified I'm not

01:12:29.680 --> 01:12:35.840
too sure might need some clarification if they're 
taking certified records. Um I'm hearing hearing

01:12:35.840 --> 01:12:43.440
different stories on that. Um also a Q clearance 
or a top secret clearance document. Um and a DD214

01:12:43.440 --> 01:12:50.720
are some examples. um inside the application. 
I know the paper application it looks it's very

01:12:50.720 --> 01:12:57.280
complicated. Um but the online application is 
much easier. Um for tribal enrollment this is

01:12:57.280 --> 01:13:04.160
an option. You don't have to select it. You can 
select yes or no. Um Pyute. I'm also Pyute on my

01:13:04.160 --> 01:13:09.120
mother site and it's actually in the drop down 
on the application. So I selected Pyute. Um you

01:13:09.120 --> 01:13:16.000
enter your census number. Um and then they will 
reach out to the vital records or to membership

01:13:16.000 --> 01:13:24.400
enrollment office and verify your ID there if you 
don't have a birth certificate. Uh another option

01:13:24.400 --> 01:13:32.160
for proving proof of presence is the National 
Archives and Records Administration or NAR. I

01:13:32.160 --> 01:13:38.720
know we as natives way back then didn't have a lot 
of documentation. Um my grandmother herself didn't

01:13:38.720 --> 01:13:45.440
speak English. So my mom doesn't have report cards 
and all that documentation. So this is one option

01:13:45.440 --> 01:13:51.520
that we have. We have the census records. BIA 
is also in here. BIA records, school records,

01:13:51.520 --> 01:14:00.720
boarding school records, employment records, and 
military service records are all on this website.

01:14:00.720 --> 01:14:05.360
This is under NAR again. Administrative records 
related to American Indian and Alaskan Native

01:14:05.360 --> 01:14:09.520
schools. So this is some of the documents 
that are contained here from the boarding

01:14:09.520 --> 01:14:15.360
schools. Uh journals, annuals, attendance 
records, correspondence, financial documents,

01:14:15.360 --> 01:14:23.280
medical records, photographs, registers, reports, 
school applications, and school censuses.

01:14:23.280 --> 01:14:31.920
This is the 1950 census. This is what it 
looks like inside when you click on it.

01:14:31.920 --> 01:14:36.640
This is a 1950 census. This is 
an Indian reservation schedule.

01:14:36.640 --> 01:14:42.320
I chose one here. This one is the Hola 
family from Miss Letta. And it says,

01:14:42.320 --> 01:14:48.720
I don't know if you can see that it's pretty 
small. It says Indian reservation schedule.

01:14:48.720 --> 01:14:53.120
The next one is from my hometown area of 
Gardenerville, Nevada. It does not say

01:14:53.120 --> 01:14:57.440
Indian reservation schedule. So, there's 
two different ones. They same thing,

01:14:57.440 --> 01:15:05.680
1950 census. They're just two different 
um schedules of how they appear. Here's

01:15:05.680 --> 01:15:09.920
a list of the New Mexico boarding schools 
and the dates that they were in service or

01:15:09.920 --> 01:15:18.080
in operation. Those records are held 
at the National Archives in Denver.

01:15:18.080 --> 01:15:23.200
This next picture I'm going to show 
you is actually attached to this

01:15:23.200 --> 01:15:29.360
um information on the NAR site.

01:15:29.360 --> 01:15:37.920
This is from 1910. This is the 
Albuquerque School, Indian School.

01:15:37.920 --> 01:15:45.520
These requests can be made online to NAR's 
general mailbox, denver.archives@nara.gov.

01:15:45.520 --> 01:15:47.600
The Denver office holds all these records,

01:15:47.600 --> 01:15:53.600
permanent records created by federal 
agencies and courts from New Mexico.

01:15:53.600 --> 01:15:57.520
Also, you can request your military 
service records online right here.

01:15:57.520 --> 01:16:08.000
A DD214 is free to next of kin. Um, and you can 
also request it by fax and mail as well. In 1973,

01:16:08.000 --> 01:16:13.120
there was a fire. So, some of those records 
are gone for uh, US Army and Air Force

01:16:13.120 --> 01:16:22.160
veterans. Those time periods are listed here 
as well. Another option that we have of of uh,

01:16:22.160 --> 01:16:33.840
providing residency is our IHS medical records. 
Here is the release for this information.

01:16:33.840 --> 01:16:39.280
And so let's not forget our uranium 
workers. Um I also have invited

01:16:39.280 --> 01:16:47.280
uh Phil Harrison here. Phil Harrison, Lesie 
Beay, Rosco Scott, and Lucy Scott of the

01:16:47.280 --> 01:16:57.120
sorry the Navajo Uranium Victims Radiation 
Committee. uran Navajo uranium radiation

01:16:57.120 --> 01:17:07.760
victims committee and they have worked 
tirelessly advocating for uranium workers

01:17:07.760 --> 01:17:11.840
and I have experience filing some uranium 
claims but I'm going to ask Phil Harrison

01:17:11.840 --> 01:17:21.280
to come on up to help help me with that. Um, 
also we have Leslie Beay um is a US Marine. Um,

01:17:21.280 --> 01:17:27.360
came home from Vietnam and is a double lung 
transplant recipient. He was a minor also,

01:17:27.360 --> 01:17:34.160
but this is Phil Harrison. Come on up. Um, on 
the screen here are the list of compensible

01:17:34.160 --> 01:17:39.520
diseases for uranium workers. There are only 
two cancers listed. Um, so what I'm told is that

01:17:39.520 --> 01:17:45.760
uranium likes the lungs and the kidneys. And so 
you see the these diseases are related to those

01:17:45.760 --> 01:17:51.760
two organs. Um so our uranium workers are our 
miners, millers, drillers, transport workers,

01:17:51.760 --> 01:17:59.760
and remediation workers. And I will let Phil 
take over from here. Thanks Gina. Good morning

01:17:59.760 --> 01:18:07.520
everyone. Phil Harrison um the enroll member 
of Nav Nation and I'm a Red House clan uh born

01:18:07.520 --> 01:18:17.120
around the four corners and um uh coming from Cove 
Arizona, northeastern Arizona and that's where the

01:18:17.120 --> 01:18:26.880
uh one of the first uranium mining took place 
from uh 1950 to uh 1966 and I so happened to be

01:18:26.880 --> 01:18:36.800
from that community. I grew up and my father and 
uncles were all they all went to work in that area

01:18:36.800 --> 01:18:41.440
late 7 this is in a nutshell I'm going to just 
really quick go through this I don't want to don't

01:18:41.440 --> 01:18:49.920
want to take a whole lot of time there's just 
a lot to share but in the late 70s around 76778

01:18:49.920 --> 01:18:57.440
in uh duly college chapter meeting an elderly 
man named uh Frank Smith senior uh brought out

01:18:57.440 --> 01:19:04.240
the issue of Look, he said our our boys are dying. 
These are people that engage in mining. We got to

01:19:04.240 --> 01:19:09.360
do something about that. So, a grassroots 
organization was formed and I so happened

01:19:09.360 --> 01:19:16.720
to be there. I was one of the appointed to 
help with to push for uh compensation. So,

01:19:16.720 --> 01:19:22.960
which we did. We went to work with other members 
there. Some of them have gone and uh we have new

01:19:22.960 --> 01:19:29.920
volunteers like Leslie, Rosco, and Lucy here. Uh 
Elvin, John. So uh we did that first law with the

01:19:29.920 --> 01:19:37.200
late uh secretary of interior uh Stuart Udall and 
our late uh Nav Nation attorney Albert Hill. We

01:19:37.200 --> 01:19:44.160
did the 1990 law going back to Washington and back 
that was for underground only. Then later on we

01:19:44.160 --> 01:19:51.600
uh submitted changes in about 1994 95 and we 
got the amendment done in 2000. That's where the

01:19:51.600 --> 01:19:56.720
uh eee came out came about with home care and 
things like that. what was not included. We

01:19:56.720 --> 01:20:02.240
were told by Congress to bring it back. 
So, we submitted another proposed changes

01:20:02.240 --> 01:20:13.600
uh July of 2009 with then President um Joe 
Shirley and um um Jonathan NZ. So since 2009,

01:20:13.600 --> 01:20:19.040
we've been going back and forth and Tina was 
right along there with us too with uh Trinity

01:20:19.040 --> 01:20:23.920
and then other people across the United States 
like the Manhattan Project. They all came on

01:20:23.920 --> 01:20:32.800
board Kentucky, Ohio and I believe uh Texas too. 
So that took 16 years 16 years to get that done

01:20:32.800 --> 01:20:42.480
in the HR1. So it's been a struggle. It's been a 
big fight. And now a year ago, we got this uh uh

01:20:42.480 --> 01:20:49.120
uh RECA law passed. We're very happy about that. 
That covers everybody. Uh we help uh Lagona to

01:20:49.120 --> 01:20:54.000
form a grassroots committee. So I don't know where 
they're at with their with their struggle there,

01:20:54.000 --> 01:21:00.400
but uh we did help a lot of people. Now bring it 
up to date here. There's a backlog about people

01:21:00.400 --> 01:21:06.400
that has filed. Uh they have requested social 
security uh administration earning statement.

01:21:06.400 --> 01:21:12.240
We call it work history. Uh we have people that 
been waiting for about nine months, seven months,

01:21:12.240 --> 01:21:20.400
six months. We lost two miners waiting for their 
SSA and their medicals were qualifying. They were

01:21:20.400 --> 01:21:26.640
ready to file for them and these gentlemen died. 
So now we got to wait for their work history and

01:21:26.640 --> 01:21:33.440
then we have to refile for for the spouse. So 
again that takes work. Uh we also had there's a

01:21:33.440 --> 01:21:39.840
backlog of Department of Justice uh paying out the 
uh compensation and I imagine they're good people.

01:21:39.840 --> 01:21:46.000
I imagine they're flooded with claims but uh I 
have sent word back to DC. I spoke with Senator

01:21:46.000 --> 01:21:51.920
Hinrich's office the other day letting them know 
about the backlog of things. But this has been a

01:21:51.920 --> 01:21:59.280
struggle for us and we only have the rest of this 
year and next year to do this. So I think we have

01:21:59.280 --> 01:22:07.280
some plans uh about extending the program another 
two years and I heard five years. So I hope that

01:22:07.280 --> 01:22:13.920
uh the extension would be would be made. It it's 
hard to get the work history uh documented. It's

01:22:13.920 --> 01:22:19.280
hard to get your diagnosed letters for medical and 
I heard about the vital records. Uh we're trying

01:22:19.280 --> 01:22:26.240
to amend some death certificate and we're teaching 
people about telling their doctors what they have

01:22:26.240 --> 01:22:31.840
encountered mining and milling that they should 
tell the doctor that they have lung disease. So

01:22:31.840 --> 01:22:37.440
if they die from other illnesses at least under 
the bottom of that death certificate where it says

01:22:37.440 --> 01:22:43.200
other significant condition it can be noted as 
lung disease or anything that has to do with renal

01:22:43.200 --> 01:22:48.240
failure. And we're struggling with one right now. 
were trying to get the death certificate amended.

01:22:48.240 --> 01:22:56.240
So this poor widow is waiting for 6 months now 
uh from a civil uh house bill. So there again,

01:22:56.240 --> 01:23:00.960
I don't think they understand or they're too 
busy. So we're struggling with the process and

01:23:00.960 --> 01:23:08.320
I'm glad that you guys all here. I I'm learning a 
lot. So um I um I do appreciate the the time Gina

01:23:08.320 --> 01:23:14.480
allowed me. So So hopefully that we will get 
this taken care of and we're here to help too.

01:23:14.480 --> 01:23:19.920
My office is in Farmington, New Mexico and 
we have a weekly work session in Gallup.

01:23:19.920 --> 01:23:26.320
Every Monday we come to Gallup. All these miners 
come in, we do intake, order their SSA records,

01:23:26.320 --> 01:23:32.800
we do med medical screening, referrals, uh we 
bring documents, vital records. So that's what we

01:23:32.800 --> 01:23:39.440
do. So Monday we're going to be in Gallup at Lines 
Club building. Uh and then for your information,

01:23:39.440 --> 01:23:45.040
uh we have to say thank you to members of 
Congress, the state of New Mexico congressional

01:23:45.040 --> 01:23:50.400
members. We really appreciate the work that you 
have all did to help us. So we're going to do our

01:23:50.400 --> 01:24:00.560
first anniversary of uh appreciation lunchon and 
gifts uh August 6 in Gallup. So we have an agenda

01:24:00.560 --> 01:24:05.760
and we're inviting people and we're going to serve 
meals. I think 100 meals. So, if you can make it

01:24:05.760 --> 01:24:12.000
to Gallup to attend that, we're just on that uh 
historic uh 66 highway where at the east end,

01:24:12.000 --> 01:24:16.080
a place called Dickies, there's a there's a big 
conference room. So, that's what we're going

01:24:16.080 --> 01:24:21.280
to do. We have to say thank you to members 
of Congress and uh on behalf of everybody,

01:24:21.280 --> 01:24:27.760
we like to do that. So, we're going to be there 
uh August 6 during the Gallup ceremonial. It's

01:24:27.760 --> 01:24:33.200
going to start around about 1:00 and I have 
an agenda and the time is not made yet. So,

01:24:33.200 --> 01:24:38.960
uh, that that's what we're going to be doing to to 
say to say thank you to members of Congress. So,

01:24:38.960 --> 01:24:49.040
that's about it. Thank you for 
the time that's allowed for me.

01:24:49.040 --> 01:24:54.000
Thanks, Phil. Uh, so as he was talking 
about uh those social security wages,

01:24:54.000 --> 01:24:59.040
um, one example that I have is a uranium worker 
that came into my office. He had been waiting

01:24:59.040 --> 01:25:05.120
almost nine months for his uh certified wages 
to come in. They're about $96 for those wages.

01:25:05.120 --> 01:25:12.080
It comes in a nice little envelope with a red 
ribbon on it. Um but the social social security

01:25:12.080 --> 01:25:16.480
is promising 120 days. It took almost nine 
months for this gentleman and he is a kidney

01:25:16.480 --> 01:25:22.080
transplant recipient. Um or you can wait. The 
other option that you have to verify employment

01:25:22.080 --> 01:25:27.920
is wait for the DOJ to verify that employment 
with social security. Um, another another issue

01:25:27.920 --> 01:25:38.400
that came up with this particular minor that 
I had um waiting for his wages is that he um

01:25:38.400 --> 01:25:45.840
sorry I lost my thought here. I've got so much 
going on up here trying to get through this. Um he

01:25:45.840 --> 01:25:51.840
worked for Kermag. He worked for Kermag between 72 
and 76. He told me Kermag destroyed his employment

01:25:51.840 --> 01:25:57.200
records. So when Social Security pulled its 
preliminary report, those wages are shown,

01:25:57.200 --> 01:26:01.520
but it does not show the employer. So we had 
to wait for the certified wages statement to

01:26:01.520 --> 01:26:08.720
come in and it shows um it shows the employer. 
So they say 120 days, but please if you have any

01:26:08.720 --> 01:26:15.120
uranium workers out there, get going on those 
uh wages the the request as soon as possible.

01:26:15.120 --> 01:26:21.120
Um this is what the inside the online application. 
This is what the document looks like. uh you enter

01:26:21.120 --> 01:26:26.640
your mining your your mine uh barrack Nevada or 
homestake mining from the the time that you were

01:26:26.640 --> 01:26:34.960
employed and then there's a drop down of your um 
employment type the mine the state your job title

01:26:34.960 --> 01:26:41.760
the description you want to be very descriptive 
on what you did in the mines um and finally for

01:26:41.760 --> 01:26:48.880
those that are approved uranium workers you 
have you may be eligible for compensation for

01:26:48.880 --> 01:26:53.440
an additional compensation of a $50,000 and 
medical benefits under the energy employees

01:26:53.440 --> 01:27:00.560
occupational illness compensation program act 
parts B and E. Um and that program is administered

01:27:00.560 --> 01:27:08.080
by the department of labor and that's my other 
job. That's what I do. Um so and these medical

01:27:08.080 --> 01:27:15.040
benefits are accepted for accepted conditions 
only. So if you have diabetes, um it's only for

01:27:15.040 --> 01:27:19.760
what you were accepted for. If you're having uh 
if you have silicosis or say pulmonary fibrosis,

01:27:19.760 --> 01:27:27.680
it's only for those conditions. Um these I I work 
both out of Santa Fe and Albuquerque. My co-orker

01:27:27.680 --> 01:27:34.560
Desiree Lucero works up in Santa Fe. So we file 
claims up there. We file for um free. We don't

01:27:34.560 --> 01:27:39.840
charge anybody. Um and we will see it through till 
the end. We will help you create your account,

01:27:39.840 --> 01:27:45.440
file all your documents. Um, and back to some of 
those proof of presence documents. I've even filed

01:27:45.440 --> 01:27:51.760
um scanned in someone's little eyeglasses from 
1954. It still had the doctor's name on them,

01:27:51.760 --> 01:27:57.920
the original case, and the mom had the um 
optometry optometry prescription for that.

01:27:57.920 --> 01:28:03.600
And I scanned it in. I copied it on the 
scanner and I sent it in as support. So

01:28:03.600 --> 01:28:10.080
hopefully they're going to get their $100,000. 
Um, is there any questions? Does anyone have

01:28:10.080 --> 01:28:18.560
any questions? No. Okay. Thank you so much. Yes, 
sir. Go ahead. Thank you for your presentation.

01:28:18.560 --> 01:28:30.080
Just a real quick question. Does this also 
include I know for communities in our area.

01:28:30.080 --> 01:28:36.480
Does that also include railroad workers 
who may transport through the railroad?

01:28:38.080 --> 01:28:48.880
Bill, is that for for rail or is that just 
for driving transport? I don't think it's

01:28:48.880 --> 01:28:59.040
just a transport worker, but I didn't hear that.

01:28:59.040 --> 01:29:06.000
You can file that. So, I'm not 
sure about your question. So,

01:29:06.000 --> 01:29:11.840
I can kind of elaborate on this. I'm with 
Navo Nation Department of Health. We did Oh,

01:29:11.840 --> 01:29:20.480
sorry. My name is Quinn. I'm with Navo Nation 
Department of Health. Um, we did process one

01:29:20.480 --> 01:29:26.640
claim for a railroad worker out in Flagstaff. 
They were processing a uranium. Basically,

01:29:26.640 --> 01:29:33.600
the uranium was um basically compacted in 
some barrels. And basically you just have

01:29:33.600 --> 01:29:38.400
to provide the documentation that 
you were exposed to that specific

01:29:38.400 --> 01:29:44.800
um transportation but also you have to track down 
the basically your mailing site see where they

01:29:44.800 --> 01:29:50.960
had the mailing transcripts and also the logistics 
portion that that would be the qualifying criteria

01:29:50.960 --> 01:30:00.320
for that. So that's just my firsthand knowledge on 
that. Thank you though. Thank you very much. Yes.

01:30:00.320 --> 01:30:05.680
For clarification, the tribal enrollment 
verification, is that proof of ID or can

01:30:05.680 --> 01:30:11.840
that be proof of residency, too? I know it's proof 
of ID. I'm not sure if it's proof of residency,

01:30:11.840 --> 01:30:17.920
Phil. Do what is your experience with that 
about the tribal enrollment verification? I

01:30:17.920 --> 01:30:23.840
know that's for ID. Um, and that's there is an a 
question on the application that says if you don't

01:30:23.840 --> 01:30:30.320
have your birth certificate, we can call um the 
membership. So I I'm not sure if that is related

01:30:30.320 --> 01:30:38.080
to presence. Uh we we had a experience about 
a lot of NAVO people that were born at home.

01:30:38.080 --> 01:30:43.200
our wedding took place on the rural area uh for 
a birth certificate that we've been sending them

01:30:43.200 --> 01:30:49.680
to the Navon Nation vital records office where 
they could uh apply for what they call an AOB

01:30:49.680 --> 01:30:55.920
affidavit of birth and so so that's what that's 
where they've been getting it uh on marriages

01:30:55.920 --> 01:31:02.000
same thing they can uh uh pursue through 
judicial and apply for what they call it

01:31:02.000 --> 01:31:09.440
um uh the marriage thing the um oh gosh what 
um petition for marriage uh they could do

01:31:09.440 --> 01:31:14.320
that too. So we had a lot of problems with 
Navajo Nation vital records back in 07, 08,

01:31:14.320 --> 01:31:21.600
09. There was such a low number for uh Navajo 
downwinders. We asked why the the extreme uh

01:31:21.600 --> 01:31:25.840
the separation of things like that. They said 
it was all related to vital records. So we've

01:31:25.840 --> 01:31:31.840
been going back out to the community and telling 
people to update their vital records. So yeah,

01:31:31.840 --> 01:31:36.240
I apologize. I'm not sure if that's going to be 
considered a part of proof of presence or just

01:31:36.240 --> 01:31:45.920
identity. Gina. Um, we worked with the Mecro 
Apache reservation and we actually asked them to

01:31:45.920 --> 01:31:53.360
develop a document that certified people resided 
on the reservation because they do have a census

01:31:53.360 --> 01:31:58.640
and they do know when you lived on the reservation 
and that has worked. I know two people that have

01:31:58.640 --> 01:32:05.040
utilized that out of Mecalero and it did work. So 
it's just a a letter that their attorney developed

01:32:05.040 --> 01:32:09.600
basically certifying that the tribe will keep 
the you know the tribe keeps these records and

01:32:09.600 --> 01:32:21.440
they can certify that the the individual lived 
there during which time frame. Okay. Thank you.

01:32:21.440 --> 01:32:28.240
And I've I've been filing now for almost a 
year of these applications. Um I've probably

01:32:28.240 --> 01:32:35.120
filed over a hundred so far. Um, go ahead. 
Good morning everyone. I'm uh Christy Lopez

01:32:35.120 --> 01:32:43.120
from Malar Pete Reservation. You know, with this 
application uh things going on. I started on mine

01:32:43.120 --> 01:32:50.080
my late wife's you know they they they asked for 
everything. I'm still going through the process.

01:32:50.080 --> 01:32:56.560
You think you finish it and they you go take 
it back. They'll ask for something else. and

01:32:56.560 --> 01:33:02.400
especially the medical records. I'm having a 
hard time getting the medical records for my

01:33:02.400 --> 01:33:09.520
late wife and you know it's this is a ongoing 
process and I'm getting frustrated and some of

01:33:09.520 --> 01:33:15.920
our people that doing the same thing they get 
frustrated and they don't they just quit on

01:33:15.920 --> 01:33:25.520
it. So I I think you know we just uh I don't know 
what what to expect now. You know I just going on

01:33:25.520 --> 01:33:35.920
and on and on. So you know it's it's it's hard 
to it's a hard process doing that application.

01:33:35.920 --> 01:33:42.640
Thank Thank you. And I'll and I'll talk to 
you as well after um after the event is over.

01:33:42.640 --> 01:33:50.080
Sir I'm sorry. uh on on your his question 
here. Um we had similar problems with that

01:33:50.080 --> 01:33:56.560
uh with the spouse uh uh leaving and uh especially 
a marriage marriage certificate. The other thing

01:33:56.560 --> 01:34:03.600
is medical records was uh AHS had did these uh 
changes uh policy that they said that you have

01:34:03.600 --> 01:34:09.680
to establish what they call an executor of the 
estate or more or less for the Navajo version it's

01:34:09.680 --> 01:34:19.200
um probate thing. So lately um our agency has 
been doing the ROIs release of information and

01:34:19.200 --> 01:34:26.080
um lo and behold that we're getting their medical 
records now instead of the individual. So we had

01:34:26.080 --> 01:34:32.240
some uh success now that it has if it's going to 
an agency I I don't know about attorney but we

01:34:32.240 --> 01:34:38.240
don't use attorney. So u we've been su uh success 
about getting medical records. I don't know if

01:34:38.240 --> 01:34:48.560
uh the hospital there would uh to would do that. 
So that's something that we're experiencing too.

01:34:48.560 --> 01:34:52.480
So Christie, I'm sorry that you're having 
difficulties, but we'll do what we can to

01:34:52.480 --> 01:34:57.520
help you. I have a question and I want to clarify 
something just so everybody knows. If the death

01:34:57.520 --> 01:35:03.680
certificate for your wife lists a compensible 
cancer, you don't need any medical records.

01:35:03.680 --> 01:35:09.680
I want to stress that because if the death 
certificate lists a compensible cancer,

01:35:09.680 --> 01:35:23.280
that's all you need. You don't have to 
worry about medical records. Um, go ahead.

01:35:23.280 --> 01:35:26.400
Okay. So, we'll work with you on 
that directly because that is not

01:35:26.400 --> 01:35:32.960
true. You don't need any medical 
records if the death certificate.

01:35:32.960 --> 01:35:37.040
we'll work with you on it. We'll find 
somebody to volunteer to help you. Um,

01:35:37.040 --> 01:35:42.880
our law students I know would be glad to help 
you with all of this. And so we have help. I

01:35:42.880 --> 01:35:47.120
The other thing I'll I'll mention, Christie, 
do you know any of the council members in

01:35:47.120 --> 01:35:57.040
Mescalero? Do I I thought so. That's why I asked 
the question. You guys need to go to your go back

01:35:57.040 --> 01:36:01.840
to your reservation and we need to find some 
volunteers there. We're willing to train them.

01:36:01.840 --> 01:36:07.040
we'll come in and train them, okay? So that you 
guys have adequate help because you shouldn't have

01:36:07.040 --> 01:36:12.400
to be going through this much trouble. It can 
be very straightforward and very easy as long

01:36:12.400 --> 01:36:17.920
as we have volunteers within the tribe. And I'll 
tell you, Christie, I've volunteered to come over

01:36:17.920 --> 01:36:22.400
and over to Mecalero and do a presentation 
there, but I have not been invited in to do

01:36:22.400 --> 01:36:27.920
that. So let's let's not go through this any 
longer. Let's work together to make sure you

01:36:27.920 --> 01:36:44.640
guys have all the resources that you need inside 
meos. So people don't have to go through this.

01:36:44.640 --> 01:36:50.080
Good morning everybody. My name is Brian Lee. 
I'm with Senator Luhan's office. We have every

01:36:50.080 --> 01:36:58.240
federal entity who is here to help. And if you 
get questions from federal agencies and you don't

01:36:58.240 --> 01:37:04.960
know how to answer them or who to go to, come to 
us. We have people in IHS who are assigned to us,

01:37:04.960 --> 01:37:12.160
people in BIA who are assigned to us, people in 
DOJ, people who are assigned to us who answer

01:37:12.160 --> 01:37:19.520
our questions, who pick up the phone from us, 
who will talk to us. Hinrich's people are here.

01:37:19.520 --> 01:37:28.320
Ben Ray's people are here. Dress of Legends people 
are here. Vasquez and um Melanie Stansbur's people

01:37:28.320 --> 01:37:36.080
are here. We are here to help. We have we put this 
law through to make sure compensation happens and

01:37:36.080 --> 01:37:41.920
we're going to see it through. We're going to make 
these things possible. We have a commitment from

01:37:41.920 --> 01:37:48.160
every person in the state to do this and we're 
going to fulfill that commitment on behalf of the

01:37:48.160 --> 01:37:54.080
entire delegation. We're going to we stand here 
ready to help. We're going to be here till this

01:37:54.080 --> 01:37:59.760
is over. We're going to answer every question. 
We have partners that we've established within

01:37:59.760 --> 01:38:05.040
every region of the state to make sure that we 
we are working with you. We have state people

01:38:05.040 --> 01:38:14.480
that are responsive to us and we are making sure 
that every application goes through has as much

01:38:14.480 --> 01:38:23.040
if not adequate information possible to get them 
done. We've had only three uh applications denied

01:38:23.040 --> 01:38:30.560
this goround and they were because of they were 
non-compensatable uh cancers and we're sorry

01:38:30.560 --> 01:38:37.040
that's happening and they're working to fix 
that and in fact we've been hearing from from

01:38:37.040 --> 01:38:43.600
constituents that I have this cancer because of 
this and it's not compensable. We're looking to

01:38:43.600 --> 01:38:50.480
make sure we can make sure that that's possible. 
So, time's ticking, guys. And if you still have

01:38:50.480 --> 01:38:57.200
tons of questions, don't be afraid to call us. 
We're everywhere. I mean, we have district offices

01:38:57.200 --> 01:39:03.040
in many parts of the states. And if you can't find 
us, Tina knows how to call me. Tina knows how to

01:39:03.040 --> 01:39:09.280
call Ben. Tina knows how to call Martin. Tina 
knows how to call um Melanie. I mean, she's she's

01:39:09.280 --> 01:39:15.680
got direct access, trust me. So, Phil does, too. 
I know Phil's been quite adamant about doing these

01:39:15.680 --> 01:39:22.560
things, but thank you. Thank you. Thank you for 
coming to the table today and making sure you're a

01:39:22.560 --> 01:39:29.760
part of this process. We are very, very happy that 
we are seeing you guys come to the table making

01:39:29.760 --> 01:39:35.600
these things possible. And everybody else who's 
been a part of this process from the attorneys,

01:39:35.600 --> 01:39:41.040
from the state departments and stuff, and to 
the volunteers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

01:39:41.680 --> 01:39:49.040
Thank you so much. We do have two more presenters, 
so I respect the time so that they can bring

01:39:49.040 --> 01:39:54.080
um their information up now, but we will have 
time after for additional questions. I just

01:39:54.080 --> 01:40:00.800
want to leave you real quick with some numbers. 
As of this morning, there are 18,986 pending

01:40:00.800 --> 01:40:09.440
downwinder applications. Uh 88 I'm sorry, 98 
came in overnight. So, get in line. Thanks,

01:40:15.760 --> 01:40:21.440
Thank you so much. This reminds me of a quote 
from Lone Man of the Tetons Nation saying,

01:40:21.440 --> 01:40:27.360
"And any great undertaking, it is not enough for 
a person to depend simply upon himself." And so

01:40:27.360 --> 01:40:32.880
this is a great undertaking and it's inspiring 
to see how we are working together on this.

01:40:32.880 --> 01:40:38.000
With that, I would like to introduce Miss 
Terry uh Renoso from the branch manager from

01:40:38.000 --> 01:40:51.600
the special collections library as we have been 
talking about establishing residency. Thank you.

01:40:51.600 --> 01:40:56.480
Good morning everybody. Thank you so much for the 
invitation to speak today. I'm so glad to spread

01:40:56.480 --> 01:41:01.280
this news and this information with you all. 
So, if you've not been to Special Collections,

01:41:01.280 --> 01:41:06.960
this is a picture of it right here. It is the uh 
oldest public library in the city of Albuquerque

01:41:06.960 --> 01:41:13.120
and the oldest continually operating library in 
the state of New Mexico. So, the building right

01:41:13.120 --> 01:41:19.360
here is right after it was built in 1925. Uh, but 
the public library in Albuquerque was founded in

01:41:19.360 --> 01:41:28.080
1901. So, this little building right here has 125 
years of information stuffed inside of it. So, um,

01:41:28.080 --> 01:41:34.240
as we know, RECA passed last July, but it was this 
past spring that we started to get a lot of people

01:41:34.240 --> 01:41:38.720
coming into the library to establish residency. 
We have a large collection, as pictured here,

01:41:38.720 --> 01:41:42.720
of city directories and phone books, which 
is perfectly acceptable for the Department of

01:41:42.720 --> 01:41:49.360
Justice for establishing residency. Um, but we 
were getting requests in email, walk-ins, over

01:41:49.360 --> 01:41:55.440
the phone, in our sister department, genealogy, 
which is in downtown main library. We were getting

01:41:55.440 --> 01:42:00.720
duplicate requests. So uh we all met together both 
departments to figure out a way to streamline the

01:42:00.720 --> 01:42:07.600
process so we weren't doubling work or not having 
any um requests falling through the cracks. So uh

01:42:07.600 --> 01:42:13.920
together we established an online form to request 
the information. We provide the documentation

01:42:13.920 --> 01:42:19.680
back as a PDF which is the requirement for the 
Department of Justice and um it can upload right

01:42:19.680 --> 01:42:25.760
online to the to the application and it was it 
just got a little frustrating for these elders

01:42:25.760 --> 01:42:30.480
who were trying to teach them how to use their 
smartphones to scan a document and we finally

01:42:30.480 --> 01:42:37.040
said let's just do it. So where can you find 
the form? If you go to abq library.org or it's

01:42:37.040 --> 01:42:45.520
right there front and center RECA reg residency 
re research form right there hard to miss you

01:42:45.520 --> 01:42:52.800
can Google it and it will come up we also you can 
also locate it here if you visit our genealogies

01:42:52.800 --> 01:42:58.960
web page which same screen but you can see just a 
little drop- down menu there under research then

01:42:58.960 --> 01:43:05.520
genealogy takes you to the genealogies website 
and if you go all the way down in those lime bars

01:43:06.240 --> 01:43:13.120
They're actually a dedicated RECA downwinders 
assistance page. This is what it looks like. So,

01:43:13.120 --> 01:43:18.640
it offers a lot of resources answering a lot of 
questions and then the form itself is located

01:43:18.640 --> 01:43:25.360
here. So, this is what the form looks like. 
There's the web address of the form itself if you

01:43:25.360 --> 01:43:31.360
want to skip all the other parts. Uh, we'd give 
a little disclaimer about we are the Albuquerque

01:43:31.360 --> 01:43:35.760
Bernalo County Public Library. So, that is the 
majority of our information. And a lot of our

01:43:35.760 --> 01:43:41.440
information is actually print. So we are pulling 
books off the shelf to find these residencies.

01:43:41.440 --> 01:43:49.680
Uh we ask to allow 14 business days for response. 
It's usually way less than that so far. Um we also

01:43:49.680 --> 01:43:54.240
list here what we do not provide. So that's school 
records, birth, death, marriage certificates,

01:43:54.240 --> 01:44:01.120
and medical records. The form itself, I know 
you guys have to fill out another form, but

01:44:01.120 --> 01:44:06.720
uh it's pretty straightforward and it eliminates a 
lot of back and forth we were having with just um

01:44:06.720 --> 01:44:13.120
walk-ins and um phone requests. You know, you know 
how many people have they go by their nickname,

01:44:13.120 --> 01:44:18.240
the nicknames in the on the vital record like 
Yeah. So, this the form itself just eliminates all

01:44:18.240 --> 01:44:25.760
that. We do request an email. We will offer print 
uh documentation if the person does not have email

01:44:25.760 --> 01:44:32.640
but again we try to we want to give this all to 
you digitally. So uh it you can upload it to the

01:44:32.640 --> 01:44:38.880
application online. Also we retain every single 
one of the requests and all the documentation

01:44:38.880 --> 01:44:44.480
involved. We are going to retain this the entire 
process because we know how it goes. Things get

01:44:44.480 --> 01:44:50.320
lost things in the mail apparently as well. uh you 
know you're going through a million emails and the

01:44:50.320 --> 01:44:54.800
documentation's lost. So we have it and we will 
retain it through the whole entire process. This

01:44:54.800 --> 01:44:59.280
is the second part of the list. We have a little 
section of please you know tell us anything you

01:44:59.280 --> 01:45:04.080
think we might need to know. We're having a lot 
of military that um they lived on the base. So

01:45:04.080 --> 01:45:10.560
uh to know that really helps the process. So the 
resources we use phone books, city directories,

01:45:10.560 --> 01:45:16.800
Catholic church records, uh the 50 census, 
newspaper articles and obituaries and yearbooks.

01:45:16.800 --> 01:45:22.880
The newspapers um are not a primary resource, 
but we can use it to back up other resources,

01:45:22.880 --> 01:45:27.920
especially the 50 census. So, if uh we can 
get them before or after the 50 census in

01:45:27.920 --> 01:45:35.120
the newspaper, that really helps. This is just 
a fraction of what we use. So, I will tell you

01:45:35.120 --> 01:45:40.560
again, the majority of our collection is for 
Albuquerque, but we are happy to review any

01:45:40.560 --> 01:45:49.520
request in the state of New Mexico. uh we will um 
try our darnest and uh g our genealogy department

01:45:49.520 --> 01:45:53.680
is way better at finding individual peoples than 
special collections. We're more about things and

01:45:53.680 --> 01:46:01.680
places. So we have a a great support staff to 
find and we will never turn anyone away if we are

01:46:01.680 --> 01:46:06.720
not able to locate the residency. We will provide 
you the resources to go to next. There is no one

01:46:06.720 --> 01:46:11.840
leaving the public library without the information 
they need or the documentation they need.

01:46:13.600 --> 01:46:18.080
So again, we do not have medical records, 
school records outside of yearbooks,

01:46:18.080 --> 01:46:25.360
um and any of the vital statistic certificates. 
So uh if you do not know the public library of

01:46:25.360 --> 01:46:29.840
Albuquerque and Bernalo County's mission 
statement, it is connecting people with

01:46:29.840 --> 01:46:41.600
resources and services. So this does doesn't mean 
books or story times. This means a vital part of

01:46:41.600 --> 01:46:49.920
support in this enri. So um me personally, it is 
my honor to serve my community like this and I

01:46:49.920 --> 01:46:56.720
uh stand by the statement of we will get you 
that residency as hard as we can try. So here

01:46:56.720 --> 01:47:04.640
is special collections um contact information. 
Um take a screenshot of that or but um yes. So,

01:47:04.640 --> 01:47:22.720
thank you again and please reach out. We 
really, really, really want to help you.

01:47:22.720 --> 01:47:27.520
Thank you so much. I am a big uh library 
girl fan. I think libraries are amazing,

01:47:27.520 --> 01:47:31.040
a wonderful resource in our community. 
So, thank you so much for stepping up

01:47:31.040 --> 01:47:36.240
for this important endeavor in the state 
of New Mexico. Next, I'd like to introduce

01:47:36.240 --> 01:47:41.840
uh Miss Miss Melissa Anderson and Mr. 
uh Chimontoya from the UNM School of Law

01:47:41.840 --> 01:47:47.280
Clinical Law Program. And they're going to give 
you some vital information about applying and how

01:47:47.280 --> 01:47:55.600
they are a resource not only here, but can be 
a resource out in your communities. Thank you.

01:48:03.520 --> 01:48:12.080
Okay. All right. Let's see if we've got the 
technology down first. Great. Hi. Um, my name

01:48:12.080 --> 01:48:20.320
is Melissa Anderson and and I'm She Montoya and 
we are students at the University of New Mexico

01:48:20.320 --> 01:48:27.440
School of Law. Um, we are in the clinical law 
program. um which means that we've spent the

01:48:27.440 --> 01:48:35.600
summer working with individuals and um working on 
RECA. So, we're going to tell you a little bit about

01:48:35.600 --> 01:48:40.800
what the clinic can offer to your communities. Um 
and we're just kind of putting our names out here.

01:48:40.800 --> 01:48:46.160
We're going to keep it really short and sweet 
um so that we can all wrap it up and um if you

01:48:46.160 --> 01:48:56.400
guys have any questions, feel free to track us 
down. So um of course it would not be a lawyer

01:48:56.400 --> 01:49:03.520
uh presentation if we didn't say that we are 
not your attorneys and this is not legal advice.

01:49:07.600 --> 01:49:14.560
All right. And um I just wanted to also say like 
as NMDOH was saying like you don't need attorneys

01:49:14.560 --> 01:49:20.720
to file RECA applications and I think that's 
something important for people to realize cuz

01:49:20.720 --> 01:49:25.040
they see the application process and think 
how complicated it is and you have to hire

01:49:25.040 --> 01:49:30.240
someone and like we just need dedicated people 
of the community to like help with these things.

01:49:30.240 --> 01:49:36.880
So, um, everyone that is a student at the 
UNM School of Law has to go through, uh,

01:49:36.880 --> 01:49:47.760
clinicals. And what clinicals are are a practical, 
um, application of becoming a lawyer to experience

01:49:47.760 --> 01:49:54.560
what it's like. And so, um, as part of that, 
what we have to do is a special project. And so

01:49:54.560 --> 01:50:06.720
the special project that we have chosen is to uh 
help people with RECA applications and RECA claims. So

01:50:06.720 --> 01:50:15.120
what that looks like is um with the school of law, 
we'll have people come in and they'll talk to us

01:50:15.120 --> 01:50:21.120
about the RECA applications. will take emails 
from them and generally help them out with

01:50:21.120 --> 01:50:29.120
uh filing REA RECA applications. So, yeah, 
it's something that we at the University

01:50:29.120 --> 01:50:36.480
of Mexico Law School do and participate in 
and want to help our community with. Um so,

01:50:36.480 --> 01:50:43.520
just to do a very quick overview so that you 
know what to expect. Um the the people who

01:50:43.520 --> 01:50:50.320
are working on RECA are students. We're student 
attorneys, so we're like put into the bar under

01:50:50.320 --> 01:50:56.480
a special rule for a short period of time. Um but 
we are supervised by a licensed attorney. This is

01:50:56.480 --> 01:51:03.200
Professor Naen Padilla. She is the attorney who is 
supervising the RECA project and started it um back

01:51:03.200 --> 01:51:10.320
in September of 25. Um so if you see her out on 
the street, tell her that we did a great job and

01:51:11.840 --> 01:51:21.760
Um, and the project has kind of morphed into a 
twoarmed um, a sort of two avenues that we want

01:51:21.760 --> 01:51:28.960
to help people apply for RECA and spread awareness 
and help our communities. So, we're going to talk

01:51:28.960 --> 01:51:38.000
a little bit about that. Um, I do want to say that 
I know that people have um, reservations about

01:51:38.000 --> 01:51:44.400
working with students. Um, I know that for me 
and for Sheay that this is something that we are

01:51:44.400 --> 01:51:51.680
very passionate about. Um, students might be the 
dumbest attorneys that you've ever met, but they

01:51:51.680 --> 01:52:01.680
are also the most hardworking and um really really 
care about their clients and about doing the good

01:52:01.680 --> 01:52:10.080
work. And so I definitely um encourage you all to 
overcome the you know the initial like wow these

01:52:10.080 --> 01:52:26.640
kids they're they're so young of it all and uh 
and let us um have the honor of assisting you. So

01:52:26.640 --> 01:52:35.440
So you want to talk about the one arm? Yeah. Yeah. 
So, um, as one of the, um, things that we as a law

01:52:35.440 --> 01:52:40.800
school want to do is go out to the different 
communities, go out to the Pueblo and all the

01:52:40.800 --> 01:52:48.080
communities throughout New Mexico and do community 
outreach workshops. And so, um, in the past,

01:52:48.080 --> 01:52:54.640
we've already done two of them. One of them was 
the AC at the Akima Pueblo back in November of 2005.

01:52:54.640 --> 01:53:02.720
and the other one was at the main library here 
in downtown Albuquerque in April of 2006. And

01:53:02.720 --> 01:53:08.640
um generally what we do at those workshops is 
start off with like a presentation similar to what

01:53:08.640 --> 01:53:16.080
has been given to everybody today with informing 
everyone on what RECA is and the resources and how

01:53:16.080 --> 01:53:22.880
to file applications. And then afterward we would 
do there would be an opportunity for all of the

01:53:22.880 --> 01:53:29.520
students to meet with any community members 
that are filing RECA applications to help them

01:53:29.520 --> 01:53:36.080
uh actually file these applications. We sit 
down with them. We could answer questions about

01:53:36.080 --> 01:53:44.000
specific things that they're struggling with with 
applications um getting the application started.

01:53:44.000 --> 01:53:49.840
And uh we also just go through and help 
people file the entire application. So

01:53:49.840 --> 01:53:58.000
that's what we do and what we want to do with 
the outreach to the different communities.

01:53:58.000 --> 01:54:04.800
So um the second arm and kind of what we've 
been developing this summer in the clinic has

01:54:04.800 --> 01:54:10.960
been the individual assistance. So, we've 
had several people who have um come from

01:54:10.960 --> 01:54:17.200
the Akimma Pueblo presentation who the first time 
that they interacted with the clinic was there,

01:54:17.200 --> 01:54:23.680
they sat down, they you know talked to 
a student about um their claim and about

01:54:23.680 --> 01:54:31.040
what documents they would need to gather. They've 
spent the last of one family spent about the last

01:54:31.040 --> 01:54:37.440
uh like 10 or 11 months gathering all those 
documents. there were 12 siblings. So, you know,

01:54:37.440 --> 01:54:43.920
it can get to be a really heavy lift when you have 
a lot of people that you have to account for. Um,

01:54:43.920 --> 01:54:52.080
but I know that technology is a big barrier for 
the application process. I personally don't love

01:54:52.080 --> 01:54:58.720
using technology, but um what I dislike even more 
than that is sending my original documents through

01:54:58.720 --> 01:55:06.640
the mail. And so, yeah. Oh my gosh. Um, so one 
thing that we've been doing this summer that

01:55:06.640 --> 01:55:13.040
has been really satisfying for us and I think 
really helpful for people is that if you come

01:55:13.040 --> 01:55:18.160
into the clinic, you've got all your documents 
or you know everything that you you have in the

01:55:18.160 --> 01:55:24.400
moment. What we have been doing with people 
um is going ahead and scanning all of those

01:55:24.400 --> 01:55:30.880
documents in with our big fancy printer 
scanner monstrosity. We put it in a file.

01:55:30.880 --> 01:55:39.600
um it's secure, it's safe, it's confidential. Um 
and then once we have everything that we need,

01:55:39.600 --> 01:55:45.440
we go ahead and we sit down with the applicant 
and we go ahead and we create the account for

01:55:45.440 --> 01:55:50.800
them. We link it to their email so that they're 
the ones who are getting um all of the followup

01:55:50.800 --> 01:55:58.400
from DOJ and then we go ahead and just do the do 
the online application right there. Um, and then

01:55:58.400 --> 01:56:07.280
we're able to upload the doc the documents um, and 
connect them and be available if you know like if

01:56:07.280 --> 01:56:12.800
they get a kickback from DOJ or a request for more 
information, we're always there to like to keep

01:56:12.800 --> 01:56:20.080
following up. But that has been I think really 
helpful for people because scanning things can be

01:56:20.080 --> 01:56:27.200
challenging and dealing with is it a PDF and like 
oh it cut off half of my birth certificate like it

01:56:27.200 --> 01:56:34.720
can be really stressful. So um we are definitely 
available to people for anything from just

01:56:34.720 --> 01:56:41.360
answering a really specific question to scanning 
all the documents and submitting it together. So,

01:56:41.360 --> 01:56:47.200
um, that has been a really cool thing that 
we've been able to develop and we are really

01:56:47.200 --> 01:56:56.720
hoping to push the community like education 
arm of our clinic project this fall so that

01:56:56.720 --> 01:57:05.440
we can also get more of those individuals in 
um, and get more of those applications filed.

01:57:05.440 --> 01:57:14.960
On that note, we want to hear from you. Yes. 
As Shay mentioned, we um are willing, able,

01:57:14.960 --> 01:57:23.600
and very excited to come out to your community, 
wherever it is. We'll make it work. Um I know

01:57:23.600 --> 01:57:30.720
that one thing that we're trying to make it down 
to Zouri um in the fall for a couple of days. Um

01:57:30.720 --> 01:57:38.880
we would also like to um I think get with Tina 
about training people in the community as well.

01:57:38.880 --> 01:57:47.040
Um, so yeah, that's that's what we're doing. 
Anything to add? Yeah. So, one of the last

01:57:47.040 --> 01:57:53.440
things that I wanted to add is when we go 
out to do these uh community workshops, um,

01:57:53.440 --> 01:58:02.720
I was recently just talking with Miss uh, Austera. 
I hope I'm saying that correct. Austerlo. Um, and

01:58:02.720 --> 01:58:09.520
the New Mexico State Libraries is a great resource 
because they have connections throughout all the

01:58:09.520 --> 01:58:16.960
Pueblo with the libraries that are on the Pueblo. 
And so like having the resources there already

01:58:16.960 --> 01:58:25.760
in the communities helps out a lot. and we can use 
those facilities to create our community outreach

01:58:25.760 --> 01:58:33.760
to help people and to continue working on this in 
the different communities that we all live in. So

01:58:33.760 --> 01:58:41.680
I think that's all. Yeah, that is everything we 
have. So thank you guys very much for having us.

01:58:41.680 --> 01:58:48.960
What do we do about this? I 
think just leave it. Okay.

01:58:55.120 --> 01:58:59.360
Thank you so much, Melissa and Shay. 
Apologies for mispronouncing your name. Um,

01:58:59.360 --> 01:59:05.040
just a quick housekeeping note. 
Um, Miss K from the uh radi the

01:59:05.040 --> 01:59:11.040
um I'll get this right. Radiation control 
bureau wanted to let you all know that she

01:59:11.040 --> 01:59:18.240
has radon test kits with her. And so please see 
her. She's right here in the purple. And so please

01:59:18.240 --> 01:59:22.720
uh visit her if you would like more information 
on those radon test kits and to pick some up.

01:59:22.720 --> 01:59:27.200
And with that, I would like to introduce 
Brandy Ammy with the city of Albuquerque

01:59:27.200 --> 01:59:36.160
uh for a quick note on what the city is 
doing on behalf of this endeavor. Thank you.

01:59:36.160 --> 01:59:42.320
Thank you, Alicia. I'm just going to get out of 
this real quick. Uh like Alicia said, my name is

01:59:42.320 --> 01:59:48.640
Brandy. I am the liaison for the office of Native 
American affairs for the city of Albuquerque. If

01:59:48.640 --> 01:59:53.600
you didn't know that Albuquerque has an office 
of Native American affairs, it is fairly new.

01:59:53.600 --> 02:00:01.600
I like to say it is still a baby. Um, we sit 
underneath the Office of Equity and Inclusion,

02:00:01.600 --> 02:00:07.920
which is a whole office that oversees and helps to 
work with our community and different demographics

02:00:07.920 --> 02:00:13.760
um to make sure that they have information, that 
they have the resources, the connections, and

02:00:13.760 --> 02:00:22.240
also to try to make it um simpler for folks to be 
able to utilize the resources that the city has.

02:00:22.240 --> 02:00:27.680
One of the benefits that I have of my job is 
being able to work with so many amazing different

02:00:27.680 --> 02:00:33.440
individuals like the district and bringing all 
of this together. Um, and so what I would say

02:00:33.440 --> 02:00:39.120
is that if you are trying to figure out the 
best place to find this information, sorry,

02:00:39.120 --> 02:00:44.320
I we just made this live this morning, so I'm 
trying to get it to pull up the web page, but it's

02:00:44.320 --> 02:00:54.400
searching instead of pulling it. um the city is 
able to host and create sites that um are able to

02:00:54.400 --> 02:01:00.080
collaborate the information in one space. One of 
the things that I worked on was for the libraries

02:01:00.080 --> 02:01:06.640
to have a collective resource in order to be able 
to share this information with one another. Sorry,

02:01:06.640 --> 02:01:10.800
I'm just going to have to go through my page. The 
link should work in Oh, here we go. I just needed

02:01:10.800 --> 02:01:15.440
to scroll down a little bit. The link should 
work. The only thing that we're uh you might not

02:01:15.440 --> 02:01:20.960
be able to see it is in Google because it is live 
today. It hasn't had enough searches in it for it

02:01:20.960 --> 02:01:28.640
to come up actively. So, you'll want to use the 
cabq.gov/ri. And what we've done is we've created

02:01:28.640 --> 02:01:35.920
just a brief snippet for folks to be able to see 
um how they can, you know, navigate the library

02:01:35.920 --> 02:01:43.600
resources. What we saw is that our libraries are 
this beautiful opportunity to be able to utilize

02:01:43.600 --> 02:01:50.640
this um um knowledge and access resources. So 
we've tried to collectively look at the regions

02:01:50.640 --> 02:01:57.280
of New Mexico and seeing which libraries are able 
to actually support because some have limited

02:01:57.280 --> 02:02:03.680
capacity. Some don't always have the same access 
to different resources. Um, so I've touched base

02:02:03.680 --> 02:02:09.120
with most of the libraries that I can at this 
point and we've compiled lists of what they

02:02:09.120 --> 02:02:15.040
actually have available to them as well so that 
folks can go to the site, take a look real quick,

02:02:15.040 --> 02:02:20.160
see if this is some place that they can reach out 
to at least as a starting point and then navigate

02:02:20.160 --> 02:02:25.200
from there. But we also have the connecting points 
of the Department of Health and the the New Mexico

02:02:25.200 --> 02:02:30.880
uh state public library as well. So, we're we're 
also actively trying to compile the resources.

02:02:30.880 --> 02:02:36.000
More than likely, we'll add UNM to this list as 
well. Um, but we do know that there's a couple

02:02:36.000 --> 02:02:40.160
different places that people can find information. 
So, we're we're doing our best to try to make

02:02:40.160 --> 02:02:45.600
sure we collaborate and put it in a in a place 
where people are able to access the information.

02:02:45.600 --> 02:02:50.400
But really, um, of course, as the Office of 
Native American Affairs, my my main focus has been

02:02:50.400 --> 02:02:56.160
getting this out to the tribes, making sure our 
tribal communities are aware of how to get this

02:02:56.160 --> 02:03:02.080
information for free because we know that this 
can be a challenge and a and an issue for those

02:03:02.080 --> 02:03:08.800
that haven't had the access or they maybe don't 
know where to start. So, the biggest piece for me

02:03:08.800 --> 02:03:14.080
is to make sure that um everyone's able to connect 
and know who to talk to and they're getting to the

02:03:14.080 --> 02:03:20.000
right individuals. So, as the city, if people 
are calling me, I'm redirecting them back to

02:03:20.000 --> 02:03:25.840
the right individuals to speak with. My office 
specifically doesn't have um the opportunity to

02:03:25.840 --> 02:03:30.480
help with applications. I'm technically an office 
of one and a half. We have one other individual,

02:03:30.480 --> 02:03:35.680
our injured tribal governmental leaison, Terry 
Sloan, who does support, but um like I said,

02:03:35.680 --> 02:03:40.960
for for me and the city, my main goal is making 
sure that we host and have a space for those

02:03:40.960 --> 02:03:46.960
that are living in the urban setting to understand 
where to navigate. And later on, we will have this

02:03:46.960 --> 02:03:52.400
recording available posted as well. So, um the 
city of Albuquerque has a great team that we call

02:03:52.400 --> 02:03:58.640
Gov TV. They will record presentations for us. 
they will provide um all of these recordings for

02:03:58.640 --> 02:04:03.760
free for the public for public use. And so once 
this link is available, it will go on the website

02:04:03.760 --> 02:04:07.760
and we'll share it with Department of Health and 
other folks as well so that you can continue to

02:04:07.760 --> 02:04:13.520
share this information. We want to put it in a 
platform that is readily accessible for folks and

02:04:13.520 --> 02:04:19.440
they don't always have to go somewhere to um to be 
part of an info session. That's one of the biggest

02:04:19.440 --> 02:04:24.000
challenges we see with our rural communities is 
transportation. they're not always able to get to

02:04:24.000 --> 02:04:29.280
places to get the information. Um, so I'm trying 
to think of this very dynamically from myself

02:04:29.280 --> 02:04:33.920
being a public person living on the reservation 
and understanding what those challenges can be.

02:04:33.920 --> 02:04:39.680
Um, I'm trying to do my best at the city to make 
sure that we find and help um the resources get

02:04:39.680 --> 02:04:45.120
to the best uh place possible for the folks so 
that they can move forward with these claims.

02:04:45.120 --> 02:04:52.000
Like we've stated before, the current timeline 
is December 31st, 2028 for the applications. That

02:04:52.000 --> 02:04:57.600
might change like they've been saying, but we want 
people to get this started. We want people to move

02:04:57.600 --> 02:05:03.600
forward. We want there to be as minimal barriers 
as possible. So, please continue to reach out to

02:05:03.600 --> 02:05:09.760
the folks in the room, utilize the resources that 
are here, make those connections, get the cards,

02:05:09.760 --> 02:05:15.440
set up the uh sessions in your own communities 
so that you can reach your your tribal members.

02:05:15.440 --> 02:05:19.680
Uh but that's what we're we're really trying to 
do from the city standpoint is just make sure

02:05:19.680 --> 02:05:25.120
that everyone is connected and has the proper 
resources to move forward. So, that being said,

02:05:25.120 --> 02:05:31.600
uh the like I said, the website is live. So, if 
you were to go to cab.gov, GV/ria. This is the

02:05:31.600 --> 02:05:36.880
page that you'll land on. If you are somebody that 
wants to be listed as a resource, just reach out

02:05:36.880 --> 02:05:46.720
to me. My uh email is b a hm icabq.gov. I'm back 
at the table over here behind the the video and I

02:05:46.720 --> 02:05:52.720
have cards. Um so you can reach out to me as well 
if you need additional information or support. So,

02:05:52.720 --> 02:05:57.600
uh, again, we're just here to try to make sure 
that everyone has all of the information because

02:05:57.600 --> 02:06:02.960
we don't want anyone, uh, spending money on things 
that they can get for free, and we want our our

02:06:02.960 --> 02:06:09.920
community members to receive all of the, you know, 
for all the things that we've experienced. We want

02:06:09.920 --> 02:06:14.480
our community members to be compensated. But for 
all of those that are here in the room filing on

02:06:14.480 --> 02:06:19.600
behalf of your deceased loved ones, I just want 
to take a moment to acknowledge you as well and

02:06:19.600 --> 02:06:27.360
to say that I I cannot imagine what this is like 
to consistently try to fight for what you are

02:06:27.360 --> 02:06:33.680
earning or earn or not just earned but deserving 
of because of what the government has done. So,

02:06:33.680 --> 02:06:40.400
I just want to say that we are all here coming 
from a place of love and support and we all are

02:06:40.400 --> 02:06:46.240
trying to do as much as we can because I know that 
coming from Lagona, having our largest one of the

02:06:46.240 --> 02:06:52.320
largest open uranium pit mines in my own community 
in my backyard, my parents have been affected. Our

02:06:52.320 --> 02:06:57.680
communities are continuing to see this fallout. 
And that's why I've pushed, you know, myself so

02:06:57.680 --> 02:07:03.680
hard to to work to support this effort because 
all of New Mexico has been impacted in significant

02:07:03.680 --> 02:07:08.720
ways, but I feel like our tribal communities have 
been at a disadvantage for a very long time. So,

02:07:08.720 --> 02:07:12.880
thank you again for showing up, for being present, 
and for taking a time out of your day to listen to

02:07:12.880 --> 02:07:17.920
all this information. Please volunteer if you 
can. We need as much of support and and people

02:07:17.920 --> 02:07:23.040
on the ground as possible to make sure that 
these claims are going through. Thank you.

02:07:28.400 --> 02:07:33.680
I like

02:07:33.680 --> 02:07:39.040
my

02:07:39.040 --> 02:07:48.000
Oh my god.

02:07:48.000 --> 02:07:57.120
Okay. Thank you so much um for your attendance 
this morning. It is really amazing what's been

02:07:57.120 --> 02:08:03.520
said here today and and the the good feelings, 
the positive energy, the collaboration. Um it

02:08:03.520 --> 02:08:08.880
really reflects a commitment to learning and 
strengthening tribal and public communities

02:08:08.880 --> 02:08:13.920
and addressing something that should have been 
addressed many years ago and addressing bringing

02:08:13.920 --> 02:08:18.800
bringing healing to this time in this space. 
So very very grateful for that. So thank you

02:08:18.800 --> 02:08:23.680
so much to our presenters. Uh one last round 
of applause for all our presenters. They were

02:08:23.680 --> 02:08:32.160
just wonderful. Um these these stories uh were 
inspiring to me and and I hope that this is the

02:08:32.160 --> 02:08:38.080
jumping off place for continued collaboration 
and reaching out to uh everyone that was here

02:08:38.080 --> 02:08:42.560
and uh utilizing the online resources. And 
thank you again to the city of Albuquerque

02:08:42.560 --> 02:08:48.880
and GovTV for putting this out here. Um, with 
that we will close this meeting today. Uh,

02:08:48.880 --> 02:08:54.240
because Kyle and I are are overachievers. We 
have another meeting right after this. And so,

02:08:54.240 --> 02:08:57.600
um, you're going to see a lot 
of movement as, uh, uh, this,

02:08:57.600 --> 02:09:02.880
uh, meeting ends and another meeting begins. But 
again, we're here for you. Please email us if you

02:09:02.880 --> 02:09:09.440
would like more additional resources, information, 
and we're happy to send that out. Thank you again.