says. “I was always envious of guys in uniform when I was a kid.” The U.S. Army trained him to be a radio
operator, a major responsibility in an era be- fore miniaturization, when bulky field radios were carried in a heavy backpack. Once in Vietnam, he soon enough became acquainted with the realities of war. At one point, his unit engaged in two days of continuous fighting, often at close quarters at night. With so much needless death around him,
he says, “I felt the values of my culture drifting away,” recalling the reverence he had learned as a boy for the land, the animals and the people. At the same time, he admired the Vietnamese he encountered as fellow Indigenous people. He left Vietnam in October 1968. Public
opinion was already turning against the war. Like so many other veterans of his genera- tion, he received no grand welcome at home. He found he couldn’t talk about his experi- ences. He had nightmares and was drinking too much, he says. Eventually, he entered an outpatient alcohol program in Anchorage and was assessed for PTSD. He took part in a Lakota sweat lodge, an experience that re- quired him to be sober for 30 days. Finally, he went to his father's home in Sitka, Alaska, encouraged by his wife, Mary, who he mar- ried in 1970. “She always believed that one day, that good guy would come out,” he says. “I got in touch with my culture, my lan-
guage and our songs again, and I dealt with the guilt, shame and dishonor I had brought into my tribe,” he says. “Later, I was able to share the pride that I was a Vietnam veteran. In the ceremonies, I saw the respect of the clans. They were there all the time. I just had to show up.” Holm finally returned home in December
1968. Combat had taken its toll, but he was welcomed back by his family and his people. His uncles who served in World War II took care of him and exchanged experiences— perhaps an informal version of talk therapy. He took part in “Going to Water,” a ceremony to free a veteran from the inevitable evils that take place in war, he said. The painful memo- ries were still there but now he was able to live with them. “Participation in our ceremonies of
honoring and purification helps individuals work through the problems associated with post-traumatic stress,” Holm said in a 2013 presentation as part of the Vine Deloria Jr. Distinguished Indigenous Scholar Series at the University of Arizona. “Western medicine attempts to heal the body, mind and spirit.
Our medicine people do the same, plus they add the element of the environment. A sick or troubled person can upset the harmony of that which surrounds him. So place has to be part of healing and that includes the family, the neighbors, the plants, the animals, the uni- verse, and that may take more than one ritual or type of medicine.” If Native people are unable to bring dead
warriors home for burial or funerary cer- emonies, sometimes other ceremonies can acknowledge and help ease the loss, says Holm. “There’s a song about a horse standing alone on a hill, the implication being that the warrior who rode it didn’t make it back.” Among the Navajo, families seek resolu-
tion and acceptance of the loss of a warrior missing in action, says Roessel. They might have a “burial” for the spirit. “We want the spirit to be at rest and at peace, and so we
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 27
In 2006, the Ton-Kon-Gah, or the Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society, mounted eagle-feather war bonnets with U.S. military uniforms during a ceremony held annually near Anadarko, Oklahoma, to recognize Kiowa tribal members who served. Ton-Kon- Gah was established more than 200 years ago to honor combat veterans.
PHOTO BY NMAI STAFF
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