Medicine Man: Conscientious Objector by rudenski Blog entry

Blog: Peacemonger-Peacenik-Refusenik: Conscientious Objector
by rudenski

Medicine Man: Conscientious Objector

Navajo Marine given conscientious- objector status
By Electa Draper
Denver Post Staff Writer
Denver Post
Article Last Updated:01/25/ 2007 12:31:51 AM MST

Durango - The Marine commandant reversed his earlier decision
Wednesday and granted conscientious- objector status to Pvt. Ronnie Tallman,
a 19-year-old Navajo from Tuba City, Ariz.

Tallman believes his newfound calling as a medicine man makes it
impossible for him to go to Iraq without spiritually harming himself and his
community.

Tallman learned late Wednesday afternoon that Gen. James T. Conway
reversed a Jan. 13 decision denying Tallman a discharge. Tallman said he
expected to be released within three weeks.

"The commandant himself overturned it, saying he had new evidence,"
Tallman said from his post at Twentynine Palms, Calif. "I'm really relieved
my voice has been heard. There was a lot of grief and heartache before I was
heard."

While home on leave in November 2005, Tallman said, he underwent a
spiritual experience and discovered he had been given the gift of a sacred
entity known as teehn leii. The gift is a rare form of spiritual diagnosing
and healing called hand-trembling that runs in Tallman's family. However,
the gift can neither be acquired or predicted - it is simply and suddenly
bestowed, according to Navajo tradition.

Navajo spiritual law also holds that Tallman cannot keep the power and
serve his people if he participates in killing or war.

The Dine Hataalii Association, an organization of medicine men
recognized by the Navajo Nation, licensed Tallman as a hand-trembler
diagnostician. And Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. wrote a letter
urging Tallman's discharge because "our gifted medicine people are small in
numbers."

Tallman's application for conscientious- objector status received
recommendations for approval from several Marine officers over the course of
a year before reaching the Conscientious Objector Status Screening Board
under the commandant.

Conway nevertheless disapproved the application, writing that Tallman
had failed to provide convincing evidence that his beliefs were "sincere and
deeply held."

Tallman attorney Steve Boos of Durango said he believes a request last
week for review of the case in federal court caused the commandant to
re-examine the application.

"Our concern had always been that the folks in Washington, D.C.,
hadn't sat down and talked with Ronnie the same way the officers at
Twentynine Palms, who had recommended approval, had done," Boos said.

http://www.objector.us/news%20archives/navajo.aspx