Native Americans to and from Iraq

[bigtree]

Native Americans enlist for turf and tribe

They continue to join the military in larger numbers than almost any other minority group – many out of a sense of tribal duty.

August 20, 2007



Fort Defiance, Ariz. - In a grassy clearing amid the dusty hills here, Donovan Nez bends over a bubbling spring. Mr. Nez, 26, is a Navajo Indian and a former marine. Though he wears his dark hair cropped in a military cut, he looks very much the civilian on this Sunday afternoon. He balances on a fallen log, turning every so often to flash a boyish smile at his younger cousins who cluster behind him on the bank.

"When you drink this water," says Nez, "it seeps into every crevice of your body. It rejuvenates you."

Nez turns back to the water at the site known as Swiffle Spring, located on the Navajo Indian reservation just below the Chuksa mountains here, and bows his head. He whispers a prayer in Navajo, then English.

"Mother Earth, ease our physical and mental burdens. Thank you for all you have given us. For safety and strength. For this sacred water." He places his hands in the spring.

When Nez thanks Mother Earth for protection, he often has something specific in mind – namely Iraq, where he served two tours with the US Marines.

Nez believes his faith and traditions helped bring him back safely from the war. More than that, they help explain why he and other native Americans enlist in the military in such large numbers – even though many resent the way the US government has treated their people over the centuries.

According to the Pentagon, Native Americans represent less than 1 percent of the population, but makeup about 1.6 percent of the armed forces. In some tribal communities, 1 out of every 200 adults have served in the military. Currently, nearly 20,000 native American and Alaskan native people are in uniform.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0820/p20s01-usmi.html



Soldier was ‘superwoman’: Mom’s death in Iraq shocks Mashpee kin

Friday, August 17, 2007



“My wife was a strong, loving and giving person. She just loved to take care of people. That’s how I will remember her,” said devastated husband Joe Birchett, 35, of 29-year-old mother of three.

“She was an excellent mother who loved her kids. She liked arts and crafts but most of all she could not wait to get home to care for her family.

“We had been dodging the Iraq bullet for a long time. But she wanted to go out there.”

She was the first member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian tribe to die while serving the United States in 48 years.

The town of Mashpee and the devastated tribe was still reeling from news of Birchett’s death Aug. 9 when she was killed accidentally while changing the tire of a military vehicle. Birchett will be buried at the Mashpee Indian cemetery at noon tomorrow.

“I’m still shocked to hear that we have lost a member of our tribe in a war I just do not believe in,” said Mashpee Wampanoag tribe chairman Glenn Marshall. ‘She was a devoted and polite young lady who believed in her family and accomplished all that she wanted to do while raising her children. She was a superwoman.”

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=1017674

[Bobbieo]

1. Great story - K & R!!