Members of the National Native American Veterans Memorial Advisory Committee gathered at National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C., on January 19, 2017. Left to right: Elaine Peters (Ak-Chin), Mitchelene BigMan (Apsáalooke [Crow]/Hidatsa), Debra Kay Mooney (Choctaw), Nancy Tsoodle Moser (Kiowa), Mark Azure (Assiniboine), Gary Hayes (Ute Mountain Ute Tribe), Debora Coxe (Mackinac Tribe of Odawa and Ojibwe Indians), Johancharles “Chuck” Boers (Lipan Apache), Colonel Wayne Don (Cup’ig/Yup’ik), Stephen D. Bowers (Seminole Tribe of Florida), Kevin P. Brown (Mohegan Tribe), Gerald L. Danforth Sr. (Oneida), Kurt V. BlueDog (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), Senior Advisor Herman Viola, Project Curator Rebecca Trautmann and Marshall Gover (Pawnee). Not pictured: Committee co-chairs Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Northern Cheyenne) and Lieutenant Governor Emeritus Jefferson Keel (Chickasaw Nation), Lee Gordon McLester III (Oneida Nation) and 10 other committee members. Four commit- tee members—BlueDog, Bowers, Gover and McLester—died before the memorial was completed.
Native American veterans and their fam- ilies wish to see in the memorial, the values it must embody and what the experience of visiting it should be. Several themes emerged that formed the basis for the design guidelines for the memorial. First, the memorial would need to be
inclusive—honoring all American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian veterans, both men and women, from all branches and all eras of service. It should also respect the long tradition of service and the inherited responsibility to protect. “The memorial must reflect life,” said Yup’ik veteran Nelson N. Angapak Sr. “We were taught to love life, even to the point of risking our lives to save the life of another person.” The memorial would also acknowledge
the sacrifices made by the families of those who serve. As Commander Howard Rich- ards of the Southern Ute Veterans Associa- tion said, “This memorial will represent all Native people, Native soldiers—men and women. [But] let’s not forget the role that the families—mainly the women, the grand- mas—played in this great history of ours.”
32 AMERICAN INDIAN FALL 2020
Marine Corps veteran Debra Wilson (Oglala Lakota) spoke at a public forum for the National Native American Veterans Memorial at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tulsa in Catoosa, Oklahoma, in 2016.
PHOTO BY STEPHEN PINGR Y, TULSA WORLD
PHOTO BY NMAI STAFF
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