A long tradition as warriors

F or her relatives and friends, the Jan. 3 welcome home from Iraq for Army Sgt. Sarah Kelly, 23, brought relief and bittersweet memories of other women warriors.

During a presentation of gifts to Sarah and her father, Army veteran Andrew Kelly Jr., one of Sarah's paternal aunts, Prestine K. James, recalled "the history of our women warriors," which she said has "almost vanished from our memory. Their sacrifices are not written down or talked about."

James said there is one documented case - a photograph - of a woman, Minnie Hollow Wood of the Lakota Sioux Nation, who was entitled to wear a war bonnet.

"Those of you who know the accomplishments required and the significance of a war bonnet know the responsibilities of wearing a war bonnet and know it is very sacred to wear a war bonnet," she said. "It's not worn for show or exploitation."

Hollow Wood fought the U.S. Calvary at the Little Big Horn, James told the 150 people who gathered at the Tuba City Community Center to honor Sarah Kelly.

James added that historians recently confirmed that Tyonajanegen, an Oneida woman, fought at the side of her husband on horseback during the American Revolution.

James told the story of Lozen, the sister of Chihenne-Chiricahua Apache chief Victorio, who went into battle with him against the U.S. Cavalry.

After Victorio died in battle, Lozen continued fighting against the cavalry and joined Nana's then Geronimo's band.

"She chose the path of a warrior - a path respected by her people," James said. "She had the gift of judging the location of an enemy."

According to Wikipedia, the Internet encyclopedia, Victorio described Lozen as "my right hand...strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy. Lozen is a shield to her people."

After Geronimo's surrender, Lozen faced the fate of other Apache warriors, which was imprisonment at Mount Vernon Barracks, Ala., where she died of tuberculosis sometime after 1887. She was in her 50s.

James also recalled Lori Piestewa's "ultimate sacrifice." Unlike women warriors of the past, however, she was fighting for instead of against the U.S. Army.

Other women served in the military as nurses, guides, kitchen patrol, and office workers, she said.

"Even though people say that nurses served behind the lines, that doesn't mean that they didn't face the tragedies of war," James explained. "Can you imagine seeing a young man laying there near death and eventually dying? When I hear a man say 'they only served as nurses,' I think about the courage it took for those women to be nurses for the men that came from the battlefields."

James was referring to an earlier comment made by Gibson Jones, a Vietnam veteran, as he presented Sarah with a cap that bore the insignias of the places where she served in Iraq. Jones noted that in Vietnam, women served as nurses and stayed behind the lines of battle.

Army veteran Jimmy Walker of Cameron, Ariz., another honor rider, said he supports women in the military but "I 'm against having ladies up on the front line."

"I just don't feel it's right because there are men here just hanging out and the ladies are protecting them. That's not right," Walker said. "It should be the guys up front. Where are our warriors?"

As he unbuttoned his military camouflage shirt, he smiled proudly and said, "This is my warrior shirt!"

Walker was wearing a T-shirt that had a photo of Navajo war chief Manuelito.

Honor rider Reggie Curry of Moencopi Village, a Hopi who is married to a Navajo, said, "There's always been women in the military. Some people think it's very natural."

Curry confirmed that the Hopi pantheon includes a woman warrior kachina but said he could not discuss it because of its sacredness.

Vanessa Brown-Kelly, Sarah's stepmother, who organized the welcome home celebration, said that when ceremonial names are given to Navajo females, they are "war names."

"And," she continued, "as I understand it, (Navajo) women go into battle to hold their families together."

Brown-Kelly pointed to the Long Walk of 1864 as an example of Navajo women going into battle, because surviving the walk and subsequent internment at Fort Sumner required the bravery, strength and stamina of warriors.

James, in her opening words to her niece, said, "Our woman warrior has come home. Welcome home shíyazhí, our precious child, Sarah."

The Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation in Washington, D.C., has identified 1,509 Native American and Alaska Native women who've served in the U.S. military since 1994, but foundation officials believe there are thousands more military women who are not identified as Native by the Department of Defense.

All military women are eligible to be registered with the memorial, but only 111 Native American women veterans are on the rolls, according to the group's Web site. It has archived the military histories of over 250,000 women.

Information: www.womensmemorial.org/Education/NAHM.html.