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- By Elyse Wild
Maggie Billman (Diné) was at the Eastern Navajo Fair, in Crown Point, New Mexico, last month, when she noticed something that didn't look right.
She approached a booth that was advertising assistance with the new Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) applications. The Act provides financial compensation to individuals who are chronically ill from radiation exposure caused by federal uranium mining and atomic bomb testing. It was reinstated and expanded in July under President Trump's sweeping spending bill.
Billman explained to the booth attendants that she was a downwinder — a term for someone exposed to nuclear radiation downwind from the Nevada Testing Site, where the federal government tested nuclear weapons for decades — from Sawmill, Ariz. As Billman glanced through the paperwork presented to her, she became alarmed. The forms had spaces for people to fill in their name, social security number, phone number, and the hospital where they received treatment.
Billman, a member of the Sawmill Warriors — a grassroots group made up of advocates and radiation survivors on the Navajo Nation — knew that the RECA claim filings in New Mexico were not yet open. What she was holding was not an official application.
"I looked at the woman and I said, 'This is not RECA. Why don't you give me your business card, and I'll be in touch. I know a lot about this bill.' That's when they stopped talking to me, and I walked away," she said.
Billman's encounter is emblematic of RECA scams that the New Mexico Department of Justice is warning people about. The schemes have emerged in the past month since RECA was reinstated and expanded after it expired last year, with fraudsters targeting radiation survivors who may qualify for compensation under the program, which can range up to $100,000.
Since the program's launch in 1990, it has paid out more than $370 million to Native people, around 13% of its total payout as of July 2024.
According to the announcement from the New Mexico DOJ, organizations and attorneys' offices have been soliciting people to file claims with them under the false pretenses that their services are necessary and guarantee approval.
Loretta Anderson (Pueblo of Laguna), co-founder of the advocacy group Southwest Uranium Miners Coalition, has been assisting radiation survivors with RECA applications for 11 years. Like Billman and many people from tribal communities in the Southwest, Anderson's father, mother, uncles, brothers, husband and cousins worked in some of the thousands of uranium mines scattered across tribal lands.
"I started seeing people get really sick," Anderson told Native News Online. Both of her parents died from illnesses linked to radiation exposure. Her mother, a secretary at a mine, died of pulmonary fibrosis and wasn't eligible for RECA compensation. Her father, who worked in the mine, died of cancer.
Radiation exposure is directly linked to many chronic illnesses, including numerous cancers, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and more. It can also lead to genetic disorders, affecting the future generations of those exposed.
RECA applicants shoulder the burden of proof that their disease was caused by radiation exposure that fits the program's tight criteria; downwinders must have physically been in downwind areas for a designated period between 1951-1962; and uranium workers must have worked in the mines for at least a year and only through December 1990, expanded last month from 1970.
For tribal communities located hours away from the nearest healthcare, gathering medical records to establish proof is difficult. Financial compensation under the program is meant to go toward treatment costs, but for some cancers, medical bills can exceed $150,000.
Both Anderson and Billman say the money is no replacement for people's health.
"It's never about the money," Billman said. "It won't bring people back."
'A lot of chaos right now' Anderson said she first heard about the scams on July 6, just two days after President Trump signed a sweeping spending bill that reinstated and expanded RECA. Since then, she said she has been fielding more than 100 calls a day.
Anderson said fraudsters are taking advantage of people's excitement. New Mexico residents have only just qualified for RECA under the new expansion, with many people waiting decades for relief. She's heard reports of scammers offering to charge up to 25% for RECA application assistance. The bill, however, stipulates that if an attorney files for an applicant, they can charge a 2% fee. If the application is rejected and they have to file a second time, they can charge 10%.
"People are being told they can only apply through a qualified attorney. I've even had people call me and say they've been told they have a check waiting already," Anderson said. "None of that is true."
Anderson is also urging people to be wary of another RECA scam in which home health companies attempt to rope potentially qualifying uranium miners into contracts for care — which is covered under the new RECA — that don't allow them to leave their services without being sued.
"I'm begging people not to give up their information or sign anything," she said. "There's a lot of chaos right now."
For Anderson, the scammers are reminiscent of the federal government's predation of Native land for nuclear progress.
"They destroyed our land, they contaminated our water, our land, our air," she said. "They made their billions off of us. And when they didn't need us anymore, they packed up and left us with a mess. For years, they weren't willing to compensate our people. Now these scammers come in that are not from here again, repeating history, taking advantage of our people, lying to our people. We need to take back New Mexico and tell them, 'No, you're not going to do this to our people.'"
The New Mexico DOJ is asking people to report suspected scams via its online submission portal, NMDOJ.gov/submit-a-complaint, or by phone at 505-490-4060.
For those who need assistance with RECA applications, the department will host official Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program clinics. To stay up to date on when claim filings are available, the department is advising people to visit TrinityDownwinders.com.
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