Brandon Piestewa carries mother’s legacy at annual memorial
Special to the Times | Donovan Quintero
The Piestewa family – grandmother Percy, center in white, and Lori’s children Brandon, right, and Carla – gather with Hopi royalty around a painted portrait of Army Spc. Lori Ann Piestewa during the 23rd annual memorial in her honor Monday at Piestewa Peak Park in Phoenix.
PHOENIX
For Brandon Piestewa, the annual memorial honoring his mother, Army Spc. Lori Ann Piestewa has become more than a ceremony. It is where grief, memory and purpose meet.
“I think the memorial went very well,” Brandon Piestewa said of this year’s gathering. “It gets better and better each year. We get new people involved, we get more families, Gold Star families to come out and just participate and just remember those who have fallen, remember those they have lost.”
The 23rd Piestewa Fallen Heroes Memorial, held March 23 in Phoenix, brought together Gold Star families, veterans, tribal members and the public for a sunrise service at Piestewa Peak Park, followed by a Gold Star Family and Veterans Appreciation Lunch at Tony F. Soza American Legion Post 41 and a veterans gourd dance at nearby Grant Park.
Brandon said the memorial has also become one of the main ways he has come to know the mother he lost as a child.
To read the full article, please see the March 26, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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