Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Columnist Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota and founder of three newspapers, recently wrote a heartbreaking piece about Andy Torres, a fellow Sioux who had served his country faithfully for many years, only to have his country turn its back on him when he became injured and needed help. I read Giago’s column about Torres in the Native American Times.

First, some background. Torres, obviously, is a Native American. As a Sioux Indian, he is a member of a people whose land and culture, so rich with ancient wisdom and vibrant traditions, has been trampled over by generations of new Americans.

Torres also served in the United States Army from 1961 to 1964. After an honorable discharge, he served in the South Dakota Army National Guard for 19 years. He was just one year shy of retiring when he fell from a porch and severely injured his leg.

Torres has been earning a good living as an electrician, but instead of working, he had to undergo arthroscopic surgery at a Veteran’s hospital in South Dakota. Unfortunately, the surgery did nothing for him. The task of climbing a ladder, something electricians do unthinkingly throughout their work days, was now impossible for Torres. He went back for a second operation at the same hospital, but instead of helping him, Torres said that it crippled him for life.

Thanks to his leg injury, Torres was booted out of the National Guard because he couldn’t complete the physical training (PT) requirements. He hoped that because he was so close to retirement, the National Guard would waive the PT requirements for him. If he made it through just one more year, he could retire with a pension. But it was not to be. An officer told Torres that he would be “bounced” out of the Guard whether or not he signed the discharge papers. Even worse, a doctor at the VA hospital told Torres to “get a desk job somewhere.”

Handicapped and with nothing but a GED, Torres turned to the VA for a disability pension but was rejected. He applied again a year later and was rejected again. Then he took all of his medical records to the Social Security Administration, where he was approved for 100 percent disability. Puzzled, Torres can’t help but wonder, “How could the VA deny my claim and yet the Social Security approve them?”

Torres’ experience would seem like a textbook case of red tape and government bureaucracy, except for some evidence that indicates racial discrimination played a part. Melvin Brewer, a friend of Torres who ran a VA office on the Pine Ridge Reservation where Torres was born and raised, told Torres that it wasn’t unusual for the South Dakota Veteran’s Office in Sioux Falls, SD, to deny claims that he sent to them from the reservation. Out of six claims Brewer submitted by Native American veterans, six were denied. Giago’s column quotes Brewer describing his follow-up. “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 then resubmitted the same six claims, unaltered, and four of them were immediately approved.

Torres’ experience is an outrage. Why didn’t the government that Torres served faithfully for years treat him with the honor and respect that he deserved? What kind of message does this send to the younger Americans who are considering joining the armed forces? What does it to our national image when we treat some of our most valuable citizens so disgracefully?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.