March 20, 2008
On this day in 1909, the Navajo National Monument was established. Three intact cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloan people are preserved at the site in Arizona. Various groups of people have lived in the Four Corners region for thousands of years. Most of the remains date between 700 and 1500 years ago.
Want to visit? Get more information here: http://www.desertusa.com/nav/
Friday, March 21, 2008
Family Remembers Iraq War's First Female Casualty
Associated Press
The room is jammed full of symbolic keepsakes, including a green Miss Junior High Indian Princess crown, mounted caribou antlers sent from Alaska, three woven ``burden baskets'' from the Apache people and a big brown stuffed Teddy bear.
The memorial room in the home of Terry and Priscilla ``Percy'' Piestewa is kept locked and no photography is allowed. In this sanctuary, the Piestewas and their two grandchildren, Brandon, 9, and Carla, 8, pay tribute to the memory of Lori, the daughter and mother they loved so well.
Army Spc. Lori Ann Piestewa, 23, was killed March 23 during an ambush in Nasiriyah in the first days of the invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces and their allies.
``Papa'' and ``Grandma,'' as the children call them, have been caring for Brandon and Carla since the death of their mother.
``They'll be times when they'll miss their mother,'' said Terry, 64, who is Hopi and was born in Winslow. ``Percy takes them into the memorial room. She'll talk to them about their mother, and they'll feel better about their mother. It's kind of like a healing place to us.''
Lori, a member of the Hopi tribe, was the first American Indian woman to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military.
There's more to this story and her connection to Jessica Lynch. Click here: http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=768710&r=1
The room is jammed full of symbolic keepsakes, including a green Miss Junior High Indian Princess crown, mounted caribou antlers sent from Alaska, three woven ``burden baskets'' from the Apache people and a big brown stuffed Teddy bear.
The memorial room in the home of Terry and Priscilla ``Percy'' Piestewa is kept locked and no photography is allowed. In this sanctuary, the Piestewas and their two grandchildren, Brandon, 9, and Carla, 8, pay tribute to the memory of Lori, the daughter and mother they loved so well.
Army Spc. Lori Ann Piestewa, 23, was killed March 23 during an ambush in Nasiriyah in the first days of the invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces and their allies.
``Papa'' and ``Grandma,'' as the children call them, have been caring for Brandon and Carla since the death of their mother.
``They'll be times when they'll miss their mother,'' said Terry, 64, who is Hopi and was born in Winslow. ``Percy takes them into the memorial room. She'll talk to them about their mother, and they'll feel better about their mother. It's kind of like a healing place to us.''
Lori, a member of the Hopi tribe, was the first American Indian woman to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military.
There's more to this story and her connection to Jessica Lynch. Click here: http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=768710&r=1
Crow legend in line for national honor
By: Becky Shay
Joe Medicine Crow missed fighting the Plains Indians' wars. Born in 1913, he arrived decades after the battles his people, the Crow Indians, fought.
Medicine Crow still became a warrior and chief - honored not only by his tribe but also possibly soon as a recipient of one of America's most prestigious honors, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Medicine Crow was schooled in the ways of the chief by his grandfather, Yellowtail. As a child near Lodge Grass, Medicine Crow was trained by running, swimming, riding horses and walking barefoot in the snow. When he was called to be a warrior, those demanding lessons were part of Medicine Crow's nature.
"All that came in handy during World War II," the Army veteran said.
Considered a warrior chief by his tribe and the oldest living Crow Indian veteran, Medicine Crow has been nominated for the Medal of Freedom by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. The medal is the highest civil award an American can receive.
Medicine Crow, 94, is recognized as a warrior chief by his tribe for completing all four actions of counting coups while in battle as an Army soldier in World War II. The first member of the Crow Tribe to earn a master's degree, Medicine Crow is a noted tribal historian and the author of several books on Crow culture.
There's more here: http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/03/20/news/local/26-medal.txt
Joe Medicine Crow missed fighting the Plains Indians' wars. Born in 1913, he arrived decades after the battles his people, the Crow Indians, fought.
Medicine Crow still became a warrior and chief - honored not only by his tribe but also possibly soon as a recipient of one of America's most prestigious honors, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Medicine Crow was schooled in the ways of the chief by his grandfather, Yellowtail. As a child near Lodge Grass, Medicine Crow was trained by running, swimming, riding horses and walking barefoot in the snow. When he was called to be a warrior, those demanding lessons were part of Medicine Crow's nature.
"All that came in handy during World War II," the Army veteran said.
Considered a warrior chief by his tribe and the oldest living Crow Indian veteran, Medicine Crow has been nominated for the Medal of Freedom by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. The medal is the highest civil award an American can receive.
Medicine Crow, 94, is recognized as a warrior chief by his tribe for completing all four actions of counting coups while in battle as an Army soldier in World War II. The first member of the Crow Tribe to earn a master's degree, Medicine Crow is a noted tribal historian and the author of several books on Crow culture.
There's more here: http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/03/20/news/local/26-medal.txt
As U.S. border fence rises, a tribe tightens ties
By: Tim Gaynor
CAMPO, California (Reuters) - As U.S. authorities tighten security on the porous Mexico border in this election year, some communities have been caught off guard by government plans to build miles of fencing and barriers.
But members of one Native American tribe whose scattered settlements stud the rocky highlands of southern California and northwest Mexico, saw the build-up coming years ago and have turned something they dreaded to their advantage.
"There was a sense among a lot of people that something needed to be done to prevent us from losing touch ... and so that's what we did," said Mike Connolly, a councilman with the Campo Band of the Kumeyaay nation.
Expecting the wall to come crashing down on their community, the tribes have deepened ties, from cultural exchanges to visa regimens that ensure families can easily cross the U.S.-Mexico divide.
For centuries the Kumeyaay thrived as farmers and hunter gatherers in the borderlands, where there are now 13 Kumeyaay reservations, or "bands," dispersed across the rugged highland corner of San Diego County and four further settlements in Baja California, Mexico.
Their dispersed traditional settlements gave names to many of the cities and towns on both sides of the international line, including Tecuan, which became Tijuana, now the largest city on the border, and Otay, an area of trade parks in southern California.
Members of different settlements in Mexico and California used to cross informally back and forth over the line to visit their kin for decades, often bypassing checkpoints and simply hopping over a cattle fence in the oak-studded highlands east of San Diego.
But as a crackdown on illegal immigration from Mexico placed more border police and taller steel barriers along the line near San Diego in the 1990s, the members of the fragmented tribe realized that they needed to take decisive action if they were to stay together.
"The Kumeyaay were like a broken vase, and we needed the pieces back together again," said Louie Guassac, executive director of the Kumeyaay Border Task Force.
Get the whole article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/19/AR2008031903086.html
CAMPO, California (Reuters) - As U.S. authorities tighten security on the porous Mexico border in this election year, some communities have been caught off guard by government plans to build miles of fencing and barriers.
But members of one Native American tribe whose scattered settlements stud the rocky highlands of southern California and northwest Mexico, saw the build-up coming years ago and have turned something they dreaded to their advantage.
"There was a sense among a lot of people that something needed to be done to prevent us from losing touch ... and so that's what we did," said Mike Connolly, a councilman with the Campo Band of the Kumeyaay nation.
Expecting the wall to come crashing down on their community, the tribes have deepened ties, from cultural exchanges to visa regimens that ensure families can easily cross the U.S.-Mexico divide.
For centuries the Kumeyaay thrived as farmers and hunter gatherers in the borderlands, where there are now 13 Kumeyaay reservations, or "bands," dispersed across the rugged highland corner of San Diego County and four further settlements in Baja California, Mexico.
Their dispersed traditional settlements gave names to many of the cities and towns on both sides of the international line, including Tecuan, which became Tijuana, now the largest city on the border, and Otay, an area of trade parks in southern California.
Members of different settlements in Mexico and California used to cross informally back and forth over the line to visit their kin for decades, often bypassing checkpoints and simply hopping over a cattle fence in the oak-studded highlands east of San Diego.
But as a crackdown on illegal immigration from Mexico placed more border police and taller steel barriers along the line near San Diego in the 1990s, the members of the fragmented tribe realized that they needed to take decisive action if they were to stay together.
"The Kumeyaay were like a broken vase, and we needed the pieces back together again," said Louie Guassac, executive director of the Kumeyaay Border Task Force.
Get the whole article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/19/AR2008031903086.html
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