Native American Heritage Month By Sgt. 1st Class Gwendolyn Coley First Army Public Affairs Office
Native American or American Indian? What do we call them?
Both are misnomers, Chipa Wolfe, a Cherokee Indian of French descent, told those attending the Native American Heritage Month celebration at Fort Gillem 's Getaway Club on Nov. 16.
Wolfe is the founder of Rolling Thunder Enterprises, an intertribal Native American resource bank with representatives from various tribes. The group performs for corporations; schools, colleges, and other educational institutions; and military bases to educate the public about the customs and myths associated with what Wolfe calls "first nations people."
"There's no dispute that people who profess to be first nations people are proud Americans," Wolfe said before the performance.
The distinction is that their ancestors were keepers of the land before it became America , he said.
Wolfe and his troupe performed ceremonial dances for the crowd of about 150 Soldiers and civilians. The event was organized by the First Army Equal Opportunity Office.
In the most traditional outfit was Michael "Zuya-Ile" Ziegler, a Lakota originally from South Dakota . Dressed in skins, feathers and fur, Ziegler performed with painted face, bare chest and a spear, while Bronson Haywahe beat a drum and sang a tribal song.
The drumbeat, Wolfe said, symbolizes the heartbeat of Mother Earth. It's steady, rhythmic. What it is not, he said, is the drumbeat typically heard in movies and sporting events where the mascot is an Indian. Haywahe, a Saskatchewan native of the Assinaboine tribe, appeared in a more contemporary outfit, performing a grass dance. The dance originated with Omaha scouts, whose job it was to traverse the land, finding good campground for their tribe in the waist-high grass of the plains. Dressed in bright red, blue, orange, white and yellow costume with multicolored yarn, feathers and beads, Haywahe gently stomped and spun at a dizzying pace, preparing the ground for those to come after him. Wife Georgena, similarly dressed, demonstrated the fancy shawl dance, which historically gave women an opportunity to show their talent while not competing with the men, said Georgena Haywahe, of the Ojibway tribe.
On a more somber note, Wolfe reminded the audience that American Indians have fought and died in battle for this country for hundreds of years and that the first U.S. woman killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom was Lori Piestewa, of the Hopi tribe. She also was the first Native American woman from this country to die in combat on foreign soil while serving in the U.S. military.
Similarly, in his closing comments for the observance, Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, First Army commander, recalled the significance of Army Cpl. Mitchell Red Cloud Jr., a former Marine and Medal of Honor recipient killed in Korea after fighting off Chinese forces and allowing his platoon to reorganize and evacuate. Army posts around the world have ranges, buildings and roads named after Red Cloud, he said.
Historically, American Indians have volunteered to fight in U.S. military campaigns at a per capita rate three times higher than non-Indians, according to the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute.
American Indians are "a great people who have given much to our culture," said Honoré.
Staff Sgt. Alyn-Michael Macleod, 2nd Bde, 91st Div (TS) PAO
A recent improvised explosive device attack in Iraq was not a deadly occurrence thanks to training received here at Fort Riley.
Military Transition Team graduate and team leader, Maj. Steve Carroll, sent an email back to his trainers at 2 nd Brigade, 91st Division (Training Support) thanking them for the training he and his team received at Fort Riley. Training he attributes to saving their lives during the IED attack.
Anti-Iraqi forces wasted no time in giving the first MiTT team from Fort Riley a chance to put their training to the test. On their second day in country, Carroll and his team were conducting an area orientation beside a canal when their convoy was struck by an IED.
Carroll writes, "Five seconds later the vehicle 40 meters in front of me carrying my brothers literally disappeared. All I saw and felt was a huge explosion where the vehicle had just been. When the smoke cleared a few seconds later, the M1114 was gone. The explosion was so tremendous that it lifted the M1114 into the air, sent it another 20 feet forward and left."
To the left of the convoy was the canal and Carroll said he feared the worst for his team members.
"The M1114 slid off the road and fell into the canal upside down," he wrote, "I thought they were all dead."
Training that transition teams receives is "theater specific, tough, realistic and hands-on" according to Col. Raymond Lamb, commander of 2nd Bde., 91st Div. (TS) and fortunately for this team, they were well trained and well practiced.
Carroll explains in his e-mail, "Here is where the 'training pays off' comes in. I will explain by battle drill taught, developed and practiced at Fort Riley."
The first thing that the team did, despite the urge to move immediately, was to pause and look for a secondary IED while calling in their report to higher. Carroll called the wait "agonizing" but understood that it was necessary to prevent further damage to vehicles or personnel.
Following the IED search and report, the team quickly moved into their immediate action recovery operation. Carroll said his team performed instinctively and executed the operation without hesitation just as they had been instructed by their 2nd Brigade trainers.
Sgt. Michael Lewis, the team medic, "did a 100 meter dash, per SOP, to the site and with the help of the tactical commander moved into the canal to extract our brothers," according to Carroll.
Carroll writes, "(Sgt. 1st Class) Diggs had enough wits left to execute the gunner's roll over drill and drop inside the vehicle before it flipped. Despite water rising over their heads (Capt. Kim was completely submerged and holding his breath) all crew members executed the roll over drill and were able to self-extract. By the way, each of them was also wearing their seatbelts, probably saving them from severe injury or death."
The injured soldiers were evacuated and received medical care for minor injuries while the rest of team remained in place to conduct cordon search and to recover the damaged vehicle and sensitive items according to the report sent by Carroll. These skills are also taught here during MiTT training and Carroll closed his report by saying, "thanks for the great training!"