In September 2019, memorial designer Harvey Pratt (Cheyenne/Arapaho) spoke about his vision at the groundbreaking ceremony for the National Native American Veterans Memorial at NMAI in Washington, D.C.
Finally, it should reflect Native spirituality.
Visiting the memorial should be a contem- plative and healing experience—for veterans, families and service members returning home. As NNAVM Advisory Committee member Kevin P. Brown (Mohegan Tribe) said, “This is about the warrior, not the war.”
INCLUSIVE, TIMELESS DESIGN
On Veterans Day in 2017, NMAI launched an open competition to create a design for the memorial. The call drew 120 proposals from around the world. A jury of distinguished artists, architects, designers, cultural experts and those representing veterans painstak- ingly chose five proposals blindly (indicated by their numbers only). The finalists were then asked to submit more detailed propos- als, of which one concept stood out—that of Cheyenne and Arapaho artist and Vietnam veteran Harvey Pratt. The centerpiece of Pratt’s design is a vertical, 12-foot-tall,
stainless-steel circle
perched atop a low, carved stone drum. Water flows continuously from the center
of the drum, and at the base of the circle, a fire can be lit on ceremonial occasions. Sur- rounding this “Warriors’ Circle of Honor” is a circular seating area, which has four points of entry from the cardinal directions. This is one way the design accommodates the needs of different cultural practices, as members of different communities can enter the central space from the direction appropriate to their traditions. Standing around the circular seating area
are four lances, to which visitors can attach “prayer cloths.” Pratt says, “People can come in and say a prayer and tie those prayer cloths to those lances, and as the wind blows it, it shakes that prayer out again.” He describes the stainless-steel circle as representing “the hole in the sky where the Creator lives.” On a nearby wall are the seals of the five branches of the U.S. Armed Forces— the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy. During the consultations, participants ex-
pressed a strong preference for a location in a quiet place on the grounds of the museum,
rather than a more prominent, visible loca- tion near the busy streets of Washington, D.C. So the memorial is set within the living land- scape, at the edge of the upland hardwood forest and overlooking the freshwater wetland east of the museum. A meandering walkway leads visitors through the trees to the memo- rial, allowing them time to prepare themselves as they approach it. A circular Path of Life surrounds the memorial and the inner Path of Harmony. The trees and the water nearby help to buffer the memorial from the noise and traffic of the city. Pratt’s design for the memorial is simple
yet powerful and inclusive. The memorial in- corporates the elements of fire, representing strength, courage, endurance and comfort; water,
signifying purification, prayer and
cleansing; earth, which provides people with all they need; and the wind that will carry the scents and sounds of the wetlands into the memorial site and carry the prayers and memories of visitors skyward. The design is open, yet it creates an intimate space for reflection or prayer.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 33
PHOTO BY PAUL MORIGI/AP IMAGES FOR NMAI
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