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- By Neely Bardwell
On March 18, the flags of Arizona’s 22 tribal nations were removed from the Carl. T. Hayden VA Medical Center in central Phoenix and returned back to the Salt River-Pima Maricopa Indian Community. This has sparked outrage among the Tribes in Arizona.
This is part of a new flag policy implemented by the Department of Veteran Affairs that limits the display of flags at VA facilities. The policy is “intended to establish consistency across the department and aligns with longstanding Department of Defense guidelines,” the VA stated in a news release.
Only the U.S. flag, flags of U.S. states and territories, military service flags, VA flags and official flags of U.S. agencies, and flags representing prisoners of war/missing in action (POW/MIA), Senior Executive Service (SES), military command units and burial flags for honoring Veterans and reservists are permitted.
Salt River-Pima Maricopa Indian Community Vice-President Ricardo Leonard is calling on Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins to restore the display of all tribal nation flags at the Phoenix VA hospital.
“I was surprised and appalled when the staff of the Phoenix Veterans Affairs hospital dropped off all 22 Arizona Tribal Nation flags at our office, explaining that they could no longer display them,” Leonard said in a statement.
Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis sent an angry letter to the VA calling for the flags to be brought back to the hospital.
"(The removal) ignores the long-standing recognition that tribes and tribal membership is a political status, not a racial classification," Lewis said.
The move comes shortly after the U.S. Department of Defense began deleting websites about the Navajo Code Talkers who were instrumental to America’s victory in the Pacific Theater in World War II.
Indigenous people across the United States have the highest serving rate, serving in the armed forces at five times the national average, according to the National Indian Council on Aging, and have served with distinction in every major conflict for over 200 years.
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