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FARMINGTON
5 a long time of unfilled guarantees and gabble not faze Vietnam veteran Jerry Todacheene.
The Military veteran from Shiprock, a member of the Northern Navajo Veterans Group, stated the ten candidates for Navajo Nation president did nothing greater than discuss themselves throughout their allotted 10 minutes.
In any case, one of many essential issues Navajo veterans face on the reservation just isn’t having a house. Some have been ready because the Eighties.
Todacheene stated three of the candidates got here near what he needed to listen to, which he made clear didn’t imply they’d his assist and vote.
“If I used to be the president, I’ll tackle the housing,” Todacheene stated. “That’s primary. I’ll tackle the coverage, the housing coverage, the place it may simply attain veterans.”
The Northern Navajo Veterans Group hosted the discussion board – targeted on veterans’ points – on June 3 for the 15 presidential candidates at San Juan Faculty in Farmington.
5 of the candidates – President Jonathan Nez, Ethel Department, Sandra Jeff, Leslie M. Tsosie, and Kevin Cody – didn’t present.
Those that confirmed up exchanged their views and agreed that providers for Navajo veterans want enchancment.
Greater than 200 veterans and their households, together with Navajo Code Talker Samuel Sandoval, attended the three-hour dialogue.
Heard many occasions
Todacheene stated he heard the standard grandiloquence he’s heard many occasions.
Navajo Instances | Donovan Quintero
Jerry Todacheene, Vietnam veteran and president of the Northern Navajo Veterans Group from Shiprock, listens to a Navajo Nation presidential candidate on how they might assist Navajo veterans on Friday on the San Juan Faculty in Farmington.
“I see that everyone solely talked about themselves and their households – not about the actual concern on the veteran,” stated Todacheene, who served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969.
Candidate and former vice chairman Frank Dayish Jr. stated he understands the challenges of getting well being care. Todacheene stated what Dayish stated caught his ear.
Dayish served within the U.S. Marines as a radio operator from 1976 to 1979. He’s Bit’ahnii, born for Hashk’ąą Hadzohó. His maternal father is Naakaii Dine’é and his paternal grandfather is Táchii’nii.
Dayish requested the veterans in attendance to assist him request the U.S. Division of Veterans Affairs’ not too long ago shaped 15-member Native American Advisory Council for the Navajo space consultant to be Navajo.
Navajo Nation Veterans Administration Director James Zwierlein, who isn’t an enrolled member of the tribe, was appointed final October to the advisory council to symbolize the Navajo Nation. Nez had employed Zwierlein in November 2019.
Dayish stated he spoke to VA Secretary Denis McDonough about requiring an advisory member to be Native American. He stated additionally they talked to McDonough about an settlement that’s speculated to be in place between Indian Well being Service and the VA.
“I instructed him that that’s a pleasant settlement, however nothing is in place out right here. So, we have to tackle that,” Dayish stated he instructed the VA secretary.
Dayish additionally stated he ran right into a roadblock whereas looking for out why he was not eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine when he went to the Albuquerque veterans’ clinic, the Raymond G. Murphy Division of Veterans Affairs Medical Middle, a few yr in the past.
He stated he was instructed his earnings was too excessive regardless that he was unemployed on the time.
His journey led to the Navajo Space IHS workplace, the place he was in the end instructed he was ineligible.
“I’m not the one one which’s experiencing making an attempt to get well being care,” Dayish stated.
Todacheene stated Dayish was the one one who appeared to specific his concern about Navajo veterans represented on the federal stage.
“The one particular person I see speak in regards to the veteran is Frank Dayish Jr., and the way he’s going to assist the veterans on the federal stage,” Todacheene stated.
Todacheene added that he travels from Shiprock to Mercy Hospital in Durango, Colorado, to get medical service.
He didn’t point out the VA clinic in Farmington, the Group Based mostly Outpatient Clinic, or CBOC. Durango additionally has a CBOC.
Key takeaways
Todacheene stated candidates Justin Jones and Greg Bigman additionally received his consideration.
Navajo Instances | Donovan Quintero
Navajo Code Talker Samuel Sandoval listens to a Navajo presidential candidate on how they might assist him and the 1000’s of Navajo veterans throughout a discussion board at San Juan Faculty in Farmington.
Jones, a Marine Corps veteran, stated he was at all times the loudest critic of politicians who requested for veterans’ votes.
He’s Bit’ahnii, born for Ta’neeszahnii. His maternal grandfather is Kinłichíi’nii and his paternal grandfather is Áshįįhí.
“I didn’t consider them,” Jones stated.
Now that he’s the one asking for the veterans’ vote, he stated he could be his personal “worst critic.”
“It’s about time we’ve got a Marine within the presidential workplace at this time,” Jones instructed the veterans on the discussion board, including that that is the explanation he ought to be the subsequent Navajo Nation president.
“It’s about time we’ve got a vet that’s in workplace at this time as a result of solely us know what it means to be a veteran,” he stated.
Jones used army jargon to promote his factors, saying he understood their rapid wants.
“I would like to avoid wasting of you out on the battlefield instantly,” he stated. “You want housing, you want rapid medical care.”
On his first day in workplace, Jones stated he’d fireplace Zwierlein, which obtained the loudest applause from the group.
“I’ll say, ‘Marine, thanks, chances are you’ll depart,’” Jones stated.
Jones stated the Navajo Nation Veterans Act was a “good starting,” nevertheless it nonetheless wants quite a lot of work. The act is meant to supply funding for applications, tasks and providers or actions for Navajo veterans.
“So, we’re going to take away layers and layers of paperwork from the best way that the order comes down from Window Rock,” he stated. “It’s going to get to the chapter website in hours, not days, not years.”
Altering route
One of many points, in response to laws sponsored by Council delegates Kee Allen Begay, Amber Crotty and Carl Slater, is that the present allocation system confused the 110-chapter veterans’ organizations, or CVOs, as a result of there was no strategy to decide the variety of funds allotted for every.
“The place’s all of the belief fund going? Who’s utilizing all of the belief? Why is it we don’t get sufficient belief funds to the veteran?” Todacheene requested. “That’s what I’ll be if I used to be the president.”
Todacheene added that Jones wants to know he might want to work with the Navajo Nation Council if he desires to make all of the adjustments he was promoting.
“Mr. (Justin) Jones, he’s actually racing to do that and that, however the Council delegates, they’re in the best way, so he’s probably not going to assist the veteran,” Todacheene stated. “It’s the delegates – they’re ones that carry the ball, they actually play ball. He wants to know that.”
At the moment, the insurance policies work towards the Navajo veteran, stated Todacheene.
Greg Bigman stated on the discussion board that the tribe is in disarray.
He’s Bit’ahnii, born for Tódích’íi’nii. His maternal grandfather is Tł’ízíłání, and his paternal grandfather is Naasht’ézhí Tábąąhá.
“We have now declining income, we’ve got folks on the market (who) misplaced religion in our management and talent to see progress as a result of we haven’t had progress for the final 40 years,” he stated. “We’d like assist to awaken the sleeping large of the Navajo Nation to assist us restore belief.”
The Teec Nos Pos native stated he was approached in 2016 to assist analyze the Navajo Nation Veterans Administration contract, together with making the director’s contract for six years.
As president, he stated his first order of enterprise could be to alter the language within the settlement.
“These contracts don’t belong within the regulation, it’s within the bylaws,” Bigman stated. “So, contracts might be reduce, and that must be fastened.”
Bigman stated as president, he’d create 5 impartial enterprise consultants for all 110 CVOs, together with planners who can begin placing collectively price fashions that can be utilized to venture potential objectives for the longer term.
“Election after election, you hear the identical rhetoric: ‘I’m gonna promise you this, I’m gonna promise you that.’ These phrases have been damaged far too many occasions,” Bigman stated.
“I’m right here as your chief to struggle with you,” he stated. “As a naat’áanii, I plan to take a seat with you and navigate by these laborious points.”
Todacheene stated Bigman didn’t moderately tackle the veterans’ issues.
“And Mr. Bigman, he sort of talked about his household and considerably in regards to the veteran, probably not addressing the veteran’s downside,” he stated.
Todacheene stated the opposite candidates – Buu Nygren, Dineh Benally, Earl Sombrero, Emily Ellison, Dolly Manson, Frankie Davis, and Rosanna Jumbo-Fitch – didn’t speak a lot about veterans.
A discussion board for the candidates might be held at Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint on June 14, on the economic system on June 21 at Twin Arrows On line casino and at Diné Faculty in Tsaile on June 28.
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