Native American Veterans Fight VA and Lose

It seems like a little black cloud forms over the heads of those that fight the bureaucracy. Andy Torres, an Oglala Lakota veteran, discovered that.

Torres served with honor in the United States Army from 1961 to 1964. After his honorable discharge he joined the South Dakota Army National Guard. He served 19 years and was just one year away from the required 20 years in order to retire when his life began to unravel.

That is when the comedy of errors began. While working at his sister's house on his day off from his job, he fell from a porch and badly injured his leg. He reported to the Veteran's Hospital at Fort Meade in Sturgis, SD and underwent arthroscopic surgery. The first operation failed to solve the problem.

At this stage in his life Torres, known to his friends and family as "Buzzy," was a journeyman electrician making a good living. The injury prevented him from working. He again went to the hospital at Ft. Meade for a second operation. That was the final nail in his efforts to move on. The second operation "crippled me for life," he said.

Unable to climb a ladder or work on a scaffold, his lifetime profession as an electrician came to a bitter end. He could not do the PT (Physical Training) exercises expected of all members of the Guard, but he hoped they would waive this portion of his enlistment requirement and allow him to complete his final year in order to retire with a pension.

It was not to be. An officer brought him some legal papers and told him to sign them. It was his discharge from the Guard. The officer said, "It doesn't matter whether you sign them or not because we're going to bounce you anyhow." The doctor at the VA hospital, the one that had performed the operation that crippled him, said, "Get a desk job somewhere."

"All I had was a GED so how could I get a desk job," Torres said. He did the next thing that nearly every military veteran does; he applied to the Veteran's Administration for a disability pension in 1989 and was rejected. He applied again in 1990 only to be rejected again.

He then took his medical records to the Social Security Administration and they approved him for 100 percent disability. Torres still scratches his head over that one. "How could the VA deny my claim and yet the Social Security approve them," he keeps asking himself?

When his friend Melvin Brewer was running a small VA office on the Pine Ridge Reservation Torres asked him for advice. Brewer, known as "Dickey" to his friends, told him a story that shocked him. Brewer said, "I submitted the files of six Indian vets to the South Dakota Veteran's Office in Sioux Falls and all six were denied. I called the office and asked about how many claims filed by Native Americans were denied. The irate secretary told me that no such thing would ever occur at her office."

Brewer submitted the same six files again, without change, and four of the six were subsequently approved. A claims lawyer in Nebraska told Torres that if he lived in Nebraska his claim would have been approved years ago. He said, "South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana are the most prejudiced states against Native Americans in the Union. They have the same problem with the VA in Puerto Rico where almost all of the claims are also denied."

For 20 years Torres and many other Lakota veterans, have been seeking to have their disability claims approved and even though the VA later told Torres that he was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress, his claims are still denied. Torres has had contact with the offices of Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), Congress Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD) and with the former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) seeking help, but he said they can offer their sympathy and maybe inquire about his claims, but they are powerless to make anything happen.

Maybe if they suspected that there were real cases of racial discrimination within the decision making of the VA, they could then step forward and ask some hard questions about why Lakota veterans are singled out for denial when they apply for disability pensions.

Torres was an Army veteran crippled by the very administration that is denying his claims for disability. He said, "A few years back I was at the VA Hospital at Ft. Meade and I saw Sam DeCory, a Lakota that served as a Green Beret in Vietnam, sitting in a wheelchair. I told him about my fight with the VA and he said, 'Buzzy, never give up. You fight those SOB's until your dead.'"

There is a saying among the Lakota vets that goes, "First you apply, then they deny, and hope you will die." Let's hope that all of the Native American veterans that sacrificed their all for this country will find a path through the red tape that continues to bind their lives. That little black cloud has rained upon them for far too long.

Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, was born, raised and educated on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He was the founder and publisher of Indian Country Today, the Lakota Times, and the Lakota Journal. He can be reached at [e-mail].

© 2009 Native American Journalists Foundation, Inc.

Comments

[larry278]

My comments may not help Native American veterans, the VA treats all veterans, not just Native Americans, like $hit. Please keep trying to force the VA to give you the benefits that you earned. We white veterans hope that you get your VA benefits soon. All veterans regardless of color or ethnic background are entitled to the VA benfits they earned. The man earned his benefits. That is all there is to this matter. The VA has a duty to grant this man all of his VA benefits at once.

[Rjchinook]

Native Americans have the highest rates of volunteer enlistment to serve our country then any other minority. A country that...??
HOW can anyone move forward and begin to heal without first being validated that what happened to them was wrong? Then the wrong-doers must ask for forgiveness.
The American people have refused to validate the attempted holocaust of our ancestors or acknowledge the intergenerational trauma that plagues Native Americans today. This is why we have the highest rates of suicide: http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/psuicnat.html
and rape against our women then any other group in the United States.
http://www.civilrights.org/library/reports/maze-of-injustice-the.html

Please take time to view the 9 min. introduction video.

http://www.nativeres.org/index.html

I am so grateful to all our brothers and sisters who have been involved in this process and believe it will help us all begin our healing journey.

I believe once Native Americans heal, our nation will begin to heal as a whole.

[scooperss]

Yes tell him NEVER TO GIVE UP. The VA expects some will and that's one reason why they deny and delay. many veterans will give up in defeat and sadly many pass away before the VA acknowledges their disabilities.

[Podcast]

Oyea

Thanks for your very welcome remarks. My columns are posted weekly but they begin at "Recent Posts" and disappear quickly so they do not have time to garner too many comments. I have found however that since I started posting comments from a Native American point of view that very few of the huffingtonpost readers really understand the First Americans and although I am doing my best to bring them a strictly Native American perspective on America and its lack of concern for its indigenous people, I am still appalled at the willingness of the general public to learn. Tim

[OYea]

Hi Tim ~

I have smoke coming out of ears as I'm reading your article! I have been aware of the shady practices of the VA regarding the treatment of veterans for quite some time... but I was not aware of the discrimination against Natives... although it should come as no surprise! Please tell Mr. Torres and the other Lakota veterans to NEVER GIVE UP! I am going to send you a private email of information that you are free to forward to whomever may benefit and they are welcome to contact me as well. If it takes my last breath... I am going to blow the lid off of this so sky high that... like a crack of lightening­... the US government is not going to know what hit them!

Keep me in your prayers and I will do likewise.

Many blessings to you ~ O

Mitakuye Oyasin

[nellyb stl]

America can never be great again until it starts at home; this starts with what we've done and continue to do with our native Americans and all minorities. This should be first and formost on our list of 'fixes' and should include Bush's New Orleans fiasco.