thedrifter
02-28-08, 01:16 PM
American Indians honor, heal their warriors
SACATON, Ariz. — I'd come to this village in the Gila River Indian Community 37 miles south of Phoenix to get together with nine of my old Marine buddies and participate in the Pima tribe's annual commemoration of the famous raising of the American Flag during the hard-fought World War II invasion of Iwo Jima.
I went away with much, much more.
The 600-square-mile Gila River reservation is home to two tribes, the Pima and Maricopa. It has a population of about 11,000. Each February the Pima commemorate the Iwo Jima flag raising with a banquet, parade and powwow in Sacaton.
It's because one of the six Americans — five Marines and a Navy corpsman — in the famous photograph of the flag raising is the late Ira H. Hayes, a Pima from Sacaton. A school, a library, a park and the local American Legion post are named in his honor.
Our friend Dennis Coochyama invited us and was a magnificent host. Dennis is a Hopi from northeast Arizona, and his wife, Gail, is a Pima. They live and work in Sacaton.
Mike, Dave and Barry came from California, Ed and Dan from Indiana. Jim is from Minnesota, Rod from Vermont and Art from Tennessee. All of us flew as Marines in Vietnam with VMO-6, a squadron of helicopter gunships based a few miles below the DMZ. It has been 40 years, but we've managed to keep our friendship intact, and we look forward to renewing it whenever we can, even though we live in all parts of the country.
Dennis thought we would be interested to learn the ways Native Americans honor and respect warriors, that is to say, all who serve or have served the nation in the military.
He was right.
We were presented the Warrior's Medal of Valor from the Native American Nations of the United States following a welcoming meal at the Sacaton American Legion Post.
It has long been recognized that Native Americans have had the highest record of service per capita when compared to other ethnic groups. Part of that reason is their proud warrior tradition, in which the protection of one's people and one's homeland are an important responsibility, one that demands sacrifice and even death.
Indian culture also recognizes that war disrupts the natural order of life and causes a spiritual disharmony in the warrior. The community, therefore, comes together to help heal the warrior's spirit so he can resume his life away from the battlefield and be embraced by the tribe with honor and respect.
It was with that in mind that Sydney Martin of the Pima, a deacon of the Catholic Church and an officer of the Ira H. Hayes American Legion Post, said softly to me as he draped the medal around my neck: “You have blessings behind you, blessings in front of you, blessings above you, and blessings beneath you.”
Representatives of many tribes converged on Sacaton for the flag-raising commemoration. There were Seneca from western New York, Yakima from Washington sate, Sioux and Comanche from South Dakota, Navajo from New Mexico and many others.
And there were non-natives, too.
I introduced myself to Pam Marvin, the widow of the late actor Lee Marvin.
Lee Marvin was proud of his service as a Marine in World War II. He was wounded in the invasion of Saipan.
Pam came up from Tucson. I remarked that I enjoyed many of her husband's films, but my favorite was “Cat Ballou.” His dual role in that film earned him an Oscar for best actor in 1965. She agreed that he was “so very funny” in that film, in spite of his established reputation for playing tough guys on the screen.
And I was introduced to retired Marine Lt. Gen. Lawrence F. Snowden. He was a young company commander with the 23rd Marines on Iwo Jima and later commanded the 7th Marines in Vietnam.
I also met Mas Ino****a, an amazingly spry octogenarian. He acted as our unofficial tour guide one day as we visited the ruins of the government internment camp built on the Gila River reservation during World War II. He and his family were among 13,000 Japanese-Americans imprisoned there after being forcibly relocated from their homes in California. He was freed when he volunteered for the U.S. Army to become a Japanese interpreter.
From my brief visit to Arizona, I took with me the pleasure of being with old friends and that of making new ones.
I'm grateful to have been enriched by the hospitality of the Pima and for the gifts, spiritual and otherwise, they graciously gave me. The experience was at the same time humbling and uplifting.
Lou Sessinger is a columnist with The Intelligencer and phillyBurbs.com. He can be contacted at (215) 957-8172 or lsessinger@phillyBurbs.com.
Ellie
SACATON, Ariz. — I'd come to this village in the Gila River Indian Community 37 miles south of Phoenix to get together with nine of my old Marine buddies and participate in the Pima tribe's annual commemoration of the famous raising of the American Flag during the hard-fought World War II invasion of Iwo Jima.
I went away with much, much more.
The 600-square-mile Gila River reservation is home to two tribes, the Pima and Maricopa. It has a population of about 11,000. Each February the Pima commemorate the Iwo Jima flag raising with a banquet, parade and powwow in Sacaton.
It's because one of the six Americans — five Marines and a Navy corpsman — in the famous photograph of the flag raising is the late Ira H. Hayes, a Pima from Sacaton. A school, a library, a park and the local American Legion post are named in his honor.
Our friend Dennis Coochyama invited us and was a magnificent host. Dennis is a Hopi from northeast Arizona, and his wife, Gail, is a Pima. They live and work in Sacaton.
Mike, Dave and Barry came from California, Ed and Dan from Indiana. Jim is from Minnesota, Rod from Vermont and Art from Tennessee. All of us flew as Marines in Vietnam with VMO-6, a squadron of helicopter gunships based a few miles below the DMZ. It has been 40 years, but we've managed to keep our friendship intact, and we look forward to renewing it whenever we can, even though we live in all parts of the country.
Dennis thought we would be interested to learn the ways Native Americans honor and respect warriors, that is to say, all who serve or have served the nation in the military.
He was right.
We were presented the Warrior's Medal of Valor from the Native American Nations of the United States following a welcoming meal at the Sacaton American Legion Post.
It has long been recognized that Native Americans have had the highest record of service per capita when compared to other ethnic groups. Part of that reason is their proud warrior tradition, in which the protection of one's people and one's homeland are an important responsibility, one that demands sacrifice and even death.
Indian culture also recognizes that war disrupts the natural order of life and causes a spiritual disharmony in the warrior. The community, therefore, comes together to help heal the warrior's spirit so he can resume his life away from the battlefield and be embraced by the tribe with honor and respect.
It was with that in mind that Sydney Martin of the Pima, a deacon of the Catholic Church and an officer of the Ira H. Hayes American Legion Post, said softly to me as he draped the medal around my neck: “You have blessings behind you, blessings in front of you, blessings above you, and blessings beneath you.”
Representatives of many tribes converged on Sacaton for the flag-raising commemoration. There were Seneca from western New York, Yakima from Washington sate, Sioux and Comanche from South Dakota, Navajo from New Mexico and many others.
And there were non-natives, too.
I introduced myself to Pam Marvin, the widow of the late actor Lee Marvin.
Lee Marvin was proud of his service as a Marine in World War II. He was wounded in the invasion of Saipan.
Pam came up from Tucson. I remarked that I enjoyed many of her husband's films, but my favorite was “Cat Ballou.” His dual role in that film earned him an Oscar for best actor in 1965. She agreed that he was “so very funny” in that film, in spite of his established reputation for playing tough guys on the screen.
And I was introduced to retired Marine Lt. Gen. Lawrence F. Snowden. He was a young company commander with the 23rd Marines on Iwo Jima and later commanded the 7th Marines in Vietnam.
I also met Mas Ino****a, an amazingly spry octogenarian. He acted as our unofficial tour guide one day as we visited the ruins of the government internment camp built on the Gila River reservation during World War II. He and his family were among 13,000 Japanese-Americans imprisoned there after being forcibly relocated from their homes in California. He was freed when he volunteered for the U.S. Army to become a Japanese interpreter.
From my brief visit to Arizona, I took with me the pleasure of being with old friends and that of making new ones.
I'm grateful to have been enriched by the hospitality of the Pima and for the gifts, spiritual and otherwise, they graciously gave me. The experience was at the same time humbling and uplifting.
Lou Sessinger is a columnist with The Intelligencer and phillyBurbs.com. He can be contacted at (215) 957-8172 or lsessinger@phillyBurbs.com.
Ellie