The Fort Defiance Veterans Memorial Cemetery on the Navajo Nation. Photo from Find A Grave

A woman from the Susanville Rancheria of California is facing thousands of dollars in court fines for refusing to allow her late husband be buried on the Navajo Nation.

DeeRoy “Spence” Spencer, 69, died last month after being hospitalized in New Mexico. His Navajo family members secured a tribal court order in order to bury him at the Fort Defiance Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Arizona.

Well-known activist and artist Jean LaMarr, however, said her husband wanted to be laid to rest in California. So she's defying the tribal court and a New Mexico state court, which upheld the tribal court's jurisdiction, in order to bury him at the Diamond Crest Military Cemetery.

“Even though I might pay a fine or go to jail, I told the mortuary to bring him back to his home in Susanville,” LaMarr told The Sacramento Bee. “The fight is not over. I will bury him in the Diamond Crest Military Cemetery in Susanville this Saturday, with full honor guard.”

Spencer, who served in the Vietnam War, was born on the Navajo Nation. But he spent most of his adult life in California and was married to LaMarr for 47 years.

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Susanville woman battles Navajo Nation over husband’s body (The Sacramento Bee 2/5)