The medication Leslie Begay, 65, takes to prolong his life cost $96,000 for 150 pills. “I go to local service unit, which is Fort Defiance Indian hospital. I go there and with my doctor's recommendation, I go to Presbyterian hospital in Albuquerque to see the specialist, the pulmonologist, the cardiologist. Their recommendation is to get my x-rays, CT scan, lab work. I have to come back to Fort Defiance to get these things done and then I have to take it back to Albuquerque to give it to my doctor. Making these many trips, I don't think that should be part of it. I think I should be seen at one place instead of making these long trips, two hours, three hours trip. That's uncalled for.”
“This is so frustrating. I call it that weird one big sleeping giant. The government needs to see this. See the level of where we were at, please. This is very frustrating moments of my life that I see my people dying this way, this kind of condition. We don't deserve this. The government should see us, that we're special people.
“The government is responsible for all these issues that we're dealing with. We're the people that created national security, making bombs, making missile warheads.”
“We are the Navajos, my people. We are the producers of national security. We're the freedom makers. My code talkers and our language made America freedom with their voices. Many victories in the Pacific war. We also produced the uranium, making bombs, making warheads to make this national security to make American freedom. We pledge to allegiance, but we have no justice at all with the Navajo people of what we're dealing with now, with the freedom that we have created.”