Officials mull options for new vets cemetery

Tattered flags blow in the wind at the Veteran's Cemetery near Fort Defiance. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff writer

GALLUP — The director of state cemetery grants service for the Department of Veterans Affairs was in the area last week to look at sites for a veterans cemetery.

Frank Salvas Sr. was introduced at the first day of the Navajo Nation spring session and met with Dr. Joe Shirley Jr., president of the Navajo Nation; officials at the Budget and Finance Committee and conducted a site visit for the Chinle cemetery with Richard Begay, a senior planner and a number of Chinle veterans.

Salvas, who works for a branch of the Department of Veterans Affairs went out to the site being considered for the Chinle Veterans Cemetery and then visited Fort Wingate to see Section 3 of the old depot with Begay and Lawrence Oliver, division director at Human Resources.

“I went to Chinle,” Salvas said, “to look at the site for a possible tribal government cemetery for vets on tribal trust land.” The law requires that the land be on trust land on the reservation, Salvas said.

The 20- to 30-acre Chinle site is still being evaluated.
“Their is nothing definite on anything,” Salvas said. “The tribal government has three requirements to complete and submit to the Department of Veterans Affairs. On April 22nd, they submitted the preapplication to start the process. The second thing is by August 15, the Navajo Nation has to pass legislation authorizing the project and providing $550,000 in tribal ‘project development’ money.”

Once that is done, Salvas makes a priority list that ranks all pending preapplications for potential grant opportunities the next fiscal year.

“We pay for the architect and engineering project support, inspections and facility permits, contingency fees, and equipment. We review drawings, environmental assessments, federal regulations and we’re with them a lot more than just a site visit and a grant. We develop the project together,” Salvas said. “We approve the drawings, and this is an ongoing validation process. Once the project development is approved, we authorize the state or tribal government to proceed to bid out the construction. Once the bids are opened and acceptable to the tribe, I review them and the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs approves the grant award and construction begins. At this point, the $550,000 development funds are returned to the tribal government”

The state and/or the tribe can make the determination if a proposed cemetery should be open to all veterans, their spouse and dependents, or restricted to veteran residents of a state and/or a tribe. The state or tribal government has options regarding limitations on burial eligibility criteria.

Once completed, Salvas added, the project is closed out and the cemetery becomes the responsibility of the tribal government for operations and maintenance. The tribal government stated “We officially return every three years to ensure that the cemetery is maintained according to National Cemetery Shrine Standards and we also provide ongoing training for cemetery staff and we partner them up with a local national or state cemetery that is nearby.”

This preliminary planning was for the Chinle cemetery plans. As far as Fort Wingate, Salvas said the land belongs to the tribe, and whether or not there would be a veterans’ cemetery there was totally up to them.

Leo Chischilly, director of the Department of Navajo Veterans, said a family who had grazing rights on a parcel of land in Chinle donated 20 acres for a veterans cemetery.

“We did an application for Chinle. There is 20 acres and we hope to increase it to 25 to 30 acres, including buildings, such as a maintenance building, one for 21-gun salute and flag folding. It is held by the grazing permittee. The chapter and the western local veterans organization recommended a vets cemetery for this site.”

When asked about Fort Wingate, Chischilly said his department was “going to begin working on that. But, he added, they were also looking at 200 acres in Blackhat, which is being offered to the Navajo Code Talkers.

“We’re working on a transfer of land from Chevron to the Navajo Code Talkers Association,” he said and added his office is also considering a VA Clinic and a VA convalescent home somewhere on the reservation.

Chischilly said there were about 11,000 veterans, based on figures taken from registrations at the five reservation agencies.

But the only VA cemetery is in Fort Defiance and it is supported by the chapter.

“It’s filled to capacity,” Chischilly said, and another site is being considered for a cemetery behind Fort Defiance Medical Center. Work is being done on the existing cemetery in Fort Defiance “to improve the fencing and make it more presentable.”

Chischilly said he is seeking support from the Arizona Department of Veteran Services and “probably will meet with the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services head John Garcia.”

When asked about the use of a portion of the old Fort Wingate army depot as a veterans cemetery, Chischilly responded that state Rep. Sandra Jeff wanted a veterans cemetery in Crownpoint to serve the New Mexico Navajo veterans.