The entryway and assembly area of the Rosebud veterans cemetery will resemble this landscape architects’ rendering. Courtesy/Wyss Associates Inc.
Rosebud, Oglala Sioux tribal veterans cemeteries make headway
By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News
Health & Environment Editor RAPID CITY — Exactly one year from the date that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced a $7 million award to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe for a reservation cemetery, the project manager told Native Sun News the facility is expected to be finished by Memorial Day. The project is the result of the first of several grants awarded to American Indian tribal governments for VA cemeteries across the country. The Oglala Sioux Tribe, whose land base of the Pine Ridge Reservation is adjacent to the Rosebud Reservation, also is building a cemetery with funding from the department. “As of right now, we hope to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Memorial Day weekend 2013,” Project Manager Mark Jobman told NSN on Sept. 20. In announcing the project on the same date in 2011, the VA said in a written statement that “having a veteran cemetery on the reservation will alleviate the financial and travel hardships on families of deceased veterans who find it difficult to make the 3-1/2 hour trip to the nearest veterans’ cemetery – the Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis.” Oglala Sioux Tribe Veterans Cemetery project representative Jackie Big Crow cited similar concerns in an interview earlier this year with NSN regarding the Pine Ridge Reservation cemetery. The Pine Ridge construction site, located five miles east of Kyle, alongside the Big Foot Trail, BIA Highway 2, to Wanblee, was dedicated with a blessing ceremony on Sept. 26. Groundbreaking was set for Oct. 4, Project Manager Eirik Heikes told NSN. The cemetery on the Rosebud Reservation is being built about 10 miles north of Mission. Rosebud Sioux Director of Veterans Affairs Orlando Morrison Sr., a Vietnam veteran, said it will incorporate Lakota symbols in its design. Architects’ drawings by Wyss Associates Inc. of Rapid City show a circular “celestial map and star knowledge” plaza surrounded by 28 trees. Seven pathways, representing seven sacred sites, lead away from the plaza to a larger circle formed by a drive and walkway, also lined with trees. The pathways divide the area between the perimeters of the two circles into seven wedges, the easternmost of which is a burial ground. On the opposite side of the circle from the burial ground is a tensile structure meant to serve as a committal shelter. Around the rest of the circle are burial expansion areas. Another tensile structure forms a public information center and dining hall from which an avenue of flags leads to the circular burial site. Outside the circle, a traditional ceremonial grounds is designed with a walking path around it and an adjacent pond, as well as a columbarium for cinerary urns. Parking will be available for 50 vehicles near an administration building entrance and for 150 near the public entrance. Between the two is a medicinal garden and prayer walk. The entire site is a 75-acre area. Wyss Associates, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, and State and Tribal Government Cemetery Grants Program administrators are collaborating to assure infrastructure, including water, sewer and electrical installations, have low impact on the natural surroundings, according to the architects’ statements. Project administrators selected native flora and drought-tolerant turf to moderate water usage. The irrigation system was designed with state-of-the-art hardware to achieve maximum plant growth without wasting resources. It includes a weather station as well as moisture and flow sensors to reduce demands on staff and assure efficiency. The first phase of the cemetery got underway with construction in the fall of 2011. The cemetery is part of a program in which the VA has awarded grants totaling more than $438 million for 104 state and tribal cemetery development grant applicants. The Yurok Tribe, headquartered in Klamath, Calif., was the second tribe, after Rosebud, to undertake construction of a veterans cemetery, Tribal Government Services Manager Robert Ulibarri, of consulting firm Laco Associates, told Native Sun News. (Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com)
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