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House bill seeks to improve cemeteries for Indian veterans

Written by DeadGirl
Wednesday, 06 September 2006
By HOLLI CHMELA The New York Times 09/05/2006 WASHINGTON - Traditionally, when American Indians are killed in battle, their remains are returned to their tribal lands for burial. But for the families of the many Indians who join the U.S. military, death brings a difficult choice: The veterans can be buried in a national veterans' cemetery with fellow comrades in arms. Or they can be buried close to home on tribal land. There is no way to do both. The Native American Veterans Cemetery Act would change that. Rep. Tom Udall, the New Mexico Democrat who wrote the bill, said it would authorize states to provide grants financed by the Department of Veterans Affairs for the development or improvement of veterans' cemeteries on tribal land. At present, tribal governments are not eligible for department money. In June, Udall's measure was unanimously approved by the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Both the House and the Senate included it in comprehensive veterans' bills approved last month. The next step is for those bills to be reconciled by a conference committee after Congress returns in September. Nearly 20,000 people classified as Native American/Alaskan Native are serving in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, according to the Defense Department's most recent tally, from December 2005. By the end of 2006, there will be an estimated 181,361 American Indian veterans, according to the VA. The National Native American Veterans Association estimates that 22 percent of American Indians 18 years or older are veterans. ''This is about recognizing that it's not just states that have rights - tribes, too, should have rights,'' Udall said in a recent interview. There are 562 federally recognized tribes in the United States. New Mexico alone has 22 tribal reservations, and the population of Udall's district is 19 percent Indian. Explaining the importance of being buried close to home, Thomas Berry, a Navy veteran and a founder of the two-year-old National Native American Veterans Association, said tribes have sacred ceremonies and rituals to honor the dead and ease passage into the next life. ''If a Native American is buried in a national cemetery, a lot of the rituals cannot be performed because of coding restrictions and regulations,'' Berry said. ''So it's important to us to have a place on tribal land to bury our veterans.'' http://www.helenair.com/articles/2006/09/05/montana/a06090506_04.txt

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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries