Bozho (Hello),
I hope everyone made it through July and Citizen Potawatomi Nation Festival 2024 without melting. It was quite a chore to stay cool and hydrated.
The Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Veterans Organization Honor Guard performed a flag folding service for two CPN veterans recently. The ashes of the two veterans were inurned in the Tribe’s newly completed columbarium here in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Many people have been choosing to be cremated when their time comes, and as of June 10, 2024, the National Funeral Directors and Cemetery Administrators (NCA) began accepting applications for this new benefit … a commemorative plaque or urn.
However, if families choose to commemorate their veteran with the commemorative plaque or urn, the VA will be prohibited from interring them in a VA national cemetery or providing a government headstone, marker or medallion for that veteran in any cemetery.
The VA will ship the commemorative plaque or urn without charge to the applicant and it becomes their property when received. The VA encourages careful consideration of the interment prohibitions before applying for a VA commemorative plaque or urn. Many veterans’ families consider the interment and gravesite marking benefits which would be forfeited would be of greater value than the plaque and urn. So, consider carefully before applying for the plaque or urn.
For more information about veteran interment choices visit: va.gov/burials-memorials. The VA is available to assist and answer any questions you may have.
Remember our monthly meeting of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Veterans Organization is the fourth Tuesday of each month, Aug. 27 (unless otherwise notified due to weather or conflicting events) at 6 p.m. (or as soon as you can get there) in the North Reunion Hall on the CPN Powwow Grounds. All CPN veterans and spouses and their families are welcome. Membership in the veterans organization is not required; come and visit us and enjoy our socializing. For more information, you can contact Daryl Talbot.
Daryl Talbot, Commander
daryl.talbot75@outlook.com
405-275-1054