we cut them and used part of the stick to make the stick ball stick. and then we used the other part to use the handle for the tomahawks. now it was told to me that the 120th -- the 120th had a fallen soldier. and that fallen soldier, the vehicle that he was in, it was told to me that they took the armor plating off of it and made the tomahawk heads out of that in honor of that fallen soldier. i thought that was a great idea and it really worked out pretty well. and the stick ball game, i want to go in a little bit on the stick ball game because i saw a transformation in my soldiers, because they were not soldiers anymore. they were my brothers and my sisters. and before the stick ball game, you could see them all tensed in their uniforms with all their battle gear on and, you know, we call it battle rattle. and we had all of that together.

and they were serious. and they had a mission. they had a fight. they were ready to go. and then we took the weapons and we put them in a secure place a few feet away from where we were having the games. i saw a softness come around them. i saw their eyes sparkle. i saw them become alive. they become boys. they become young men and they were playing. they were playing with each other. they were actually performing something that they would do at home. they were back home. i was in awe of the transformation. you can look closely in the pictures. they look like the guys that you would see at a pow-wow, not in a combat zone. the building right behind them has -- this was during the pow-wow though but not during the game, it's the same face that you see after the games. it was quite a transformation and i was very honored to be able to see that.

i feel that i'm one of the blessed women because the creator sometimes put me in the front row to witness a miracle. i believe this was a wonderful thing that he had done for us. then we'll go to the drum. the drum was a 55-gallon drum, just a barrel. they did a plasma cutter and they cut out the thunderbirds. if you look at the display out there, you'll see the thunderbirds cut out. when they first did the drum, when we first did the drum, the guys decided to put a tire tube. you know, we had the big tires. and the ones that are bigger than you. so we had one that was damaged. and we put it over the top of the car. of course, it wouldn't work. you couldn't get this stretching out of it like you could somewhere else. so a guy came in. one of the soldiers ran to where i was at and said we had a problem. because remember, we had three weeks. if we didn't get what we needed in three weeks, we were going to cancel the pow-wow.

so he came and said, we have a problem. by the time he left my room, there was another guy running right behind him, saying, don't worry, it's fixed. so they took a cot and strapped it over the top of it and made our drum. sounded pretty good. the guys did a great job. now, the first one did not work very well, and like i said, we cut the barrel in half so we used the other half to finish -- the actual finished drum was the second try. you know, try and try again. the second one worked out pretty good. and our drumsticks we made, the actual sticks were mosquito netting, and our cots, they have little holes in them. you put sticks in them and you drape a mosquito netting around it. of course, we found some that were broken. and we used those to make the sticks for our drumsticks. and we all donated a sock.

so it was wrapped with socks. and my family had sent me some stuff that i needed. and part of what they sent was some rawhide. some buckskin. so we used part of that and the rest of it to make moccasins. and of course, we didn't have a pattern. so we found some sandbags that wasn't serviceable. and we used those to make all of our patterns for two -- we had two sets of moccasins, as you can see. because we only had time for those two. mine were completed. specialist montamyer, who isn't a specialist any more, one of her moccasins had to be stapled in the back because we didn't have time to finish it. and coming to that point is the dress. i know there are some natives in the audience. and here. but i am choctaw.

you are probably wondering, why is that choctaw wearing a kiowa dress? let me explain that to you. in 1980 i had ran across a member of the kiowa nation. he was part of the operation eagle title iv education program in bartlesville which i was a part of. and he adopted me as a family member. and gave me the right to wear those clothes. when i was adopted in 1980, my mother passed away just a few months after that. and these are the only clothes my mother ever seen me wear. so i never went back to the choctaw dress until later on in my life. but i wore those in honor of -- that's the only dress that she ever saw me in. so that's why that choctaw girl is in that kiowa dress. speaking of the kiowa dress, you see there is a drop there. and it has a silver conchos. and the belt, you'll see it

outside, the belt has silver conchos on it. as well. what my family did, i have a 14-year-old niece, and she's the one that designed the dress. she picked out all of the colors. they went to the store, bought everything i needed and shipped it to me unmade. it was unfinished. all that was done was the sewing of the dress. they shipped it to me. and in the game day we also had a craft table. so all of the things that i needed to finish on the dress, we added it to the craft table. so when people come by and wanted to learn how to do something, they would help finish that dress. you know, two birds, one stone. it all worked out pretty well. and the conchos are held together. because we went to a motor pool and got the carter keys for the brakes and that's what's holding the conchos on. and the straps for the breastplate there, they actually are the insides of a 550 where you cut two ends of them.

you can pull those strings out. that's what's holding the beadwork together. and i want to get to the medallion. the medallion, like i said, in 1980, my mother passed away. a pawnee woman took her place. i mean, she took care of me spiritually, physically, everything that i needed, she was right there for me. her name was joy white. and she had two sons. so now that makes me five brothers, no sisters. and she made that medallion for her husband when they got married. that was back sometimes in the early '60s. and it went through both of her kids. they teethed on it, you know, they were teething. they chewed on it and she changed the backing of it several times. you know, slobber, ew. and then she sent it to me. and this year she was honored to be the elder of the year in

bartlesville, and the newspaper article, it reads, from bartlesville to iraq. this was supposed to be the story of her as the elder of the year, and she spoke of her adopted daughter in iraq that put in a pow-wow and sent her medallion to the smithsonian. so i thought that was really great. and this is supposed to be her story. basically, she was telling our story. and so i'm proud that medallion is sitting out there. but during the pow-wow, what we did with the pow-wow, we took -- we had an etiquette class. we made sure everybody knew how to dance in the circle, what direction to go, what to bring into circle. and how to respect the circle. we had a full etiquette class. we had several shawls and everything donated to us.

so we had that available so we could uphold most of the traditions that we had for the circle. and then after the pow-wow, we had our pictures, this is the pow-wow committee. this is my head staff. and there's one guy missing because, you know, i'm sergeant mooney and i'm a taskmaster. not really. but his job was to clean up after the pow-wow and get everything ready. because we had to get everything done by dark. we were on such a tight time schedule. because we were in -- we had darkness. if the enemy seen any light at all, that's what they aimed for. so we cleared everything out as quick as possible. so he was working. and his name is sergeant danny tiger. i mention his name because his face isn't up there. because he was actually doing his job. so these are all of the people i hold in high respect. and they've been -- they're in different places now. but when i meet them on the, you know, meet them somewhere on the

road or in a military statement -- or a military facility, they bring up the pow-wow every single time. this pow-wow is embedded in their heart. the beat of the drum is a part of the native's heartbeat. it helps us go forward. it helps us stay clear. these guys after the pow-wow were in the back of one of the hummers and they were whooping and hollering like they just won a football game. and it was one of the greatest experience. and another great experience is being here with these guys because it is definitely an honor for me to stand on stage with such great warriors. and i'd like to close now. i'd like to close with a moment of silence. because the 45th infantry division is now in afghanistan. and we've already lost 14. so if you would like to just take a moment of silence for their families, the rest of the soldiers, the trainers and

everybody that has anything to do with the military. and then i'll turn it over to him. thank you. [ moment of silence ] >> thank you. >> thank you. i'll introduce our next speaker while he gets his power point program up here. we've got about 12 minutes left in the show. master sergeant chuck boers. if you wanted to attract foreign policy since reason ronald reagan up to the current president, you wouldn't need to

go to a book or very far, you could just ask mr. chuck boers. he was in grenada. he was in haiti. kosovo, first iraq war, second iraq war. he's seen it all over 20 years. especially as a combat photographer. so when he retells the story of all of his experiences, you know, this serendipitous pow-wow that happened at the air base right outside of fallujah, in his efforts to get there. it's just amazing. combat photographers have a special place in america's history. since the invention of the camera. their casualty rates were high. and they served fearlessly. you're not there to fight back. you're there to record history. and master sergeant chuck boers, as you will see, has recorded america's history. so, master sergeant? >> thank you.

>> today what we're here to talk about is the warrior spirit and the warrior tradition. and you have it right there on the stage. joe medicine crow, war chief, and then you have emhoolah, debra. they're all warriors, brothers and sisters. and we have a special bond. and what makes that the tradition when i talk about that? and you look at it and you see a few items up there. a couple eagle feathers, a medallion, a bag, a little pouch. is that part of our traditions? is that what makes us who we are? or is it more than just that? and you have to ask yourself. and going with that -- that's my uncle jimmy right there. and these are feathers here. they go back to the apache wars.

and they were carried by my great-great-grandfather. and they were carried by my great-grandfather. and then they went not only when they were apache scouts, they went to world war i. and then they were carried by my great-uncle walker. he carried them to korea. and he carried them in world war ii. he earned the silver star, a couple bronze stars and a purple heart. my uncle jimmy carried them in vietnam during his three tours when they were passed to him. and he earned the silver star and he earned a couple of bronze stars and three purple hearts. and then when i joined the military, they were passed to me. and i took them all over the world from grenada to haiti to desert storm, to iraq, to kosovo. i took them everywhere with me. and is that just a family tradition or a warrior tradition? well, chief medicine crow, he

carried his fathers with him, too, during world war ii. he had them under his helmet. he used to paint his body before he went into battle. so when we talk about that, that's our indian traditions. those are our native traditions. that's who we are. we take it with us. it's not something that is just in a book. it's living and it's breathing today. as dr. viola mentioned, my mother was my recruiter. growing up as a little one, i used to sit there and think, wow, watching them come in during the pow-wow. and i would think about all the warriors before me. and i'd think about my uncles and my father and my mother. i wanted to be part of a society like that, a warrior society. i was proud of them. i was proud of all the warriors. so when i approached my mom when i was a little bit older and said, you know, i want to join the army, she kind of laughed at me and didn't take me serious at

first. and then she said, all right. i'll put you in. she was my recruiter. and after she put me in, everybody in the family including me used to tease her and say, you know, your numbers must have been really hurting that month to put me in. but i'm really proud of my mom. and as dr. viola mentioned, i went to ft. mccullen, alabama, for basic training. years later my mom had been there as a wac, the women's army corps. and then in the '70s she transferred into the -- they merged all the women to be soldiers. i was in the same basic unit that she was, delta company 2nd battalion at ft. mac cullen, alabama. and then i realized as i talked to my mom on the phone, she said are you by example egbert hill? i said yes, i am. she told me the barracks she was in and i realized, oh, my goodness, i'm in the same barracks that she was.

i said, okay. if my mom can do this. i can do it. and as i got through basic training and i got down several times, i would remember that. and i couldn't go back home and face her if i didn't make it through basic. throughout my military career, i saw a lot and did a lot. and people would send me feathers to carry for their families because they didn't have someone serving at the time. and i would carry those feathers and i would send them back. it was always an honor to do that for them. i always carried my feathers with me. and i also took my gourd blanket. and it was a koiwa who brought me into the gourd society, which was a warrior society. it was a great honor for that, too, for myself. and out on the battlefield and even during peacekeeping missions, i always ran across other natives. and in the picture here is sam stits. he's a choctaw. and when we were in najaf, we were looking for sadar. and we decided that we were going to honor our elders and

our nations. so we drew this horse up on the wall with chalk that we found. and we took a picture in front of it. to our surprise, it ended up on indian country newspaper and on the front page of that we looked at it and we saw it. and there were the navajo code talkers on there as well. and were like, what an honor to be on the same page with them. and so that's part of our traditions. this one kind of ties the pow-wow in as well. it's a war mother, three warriors, and a penny. there was a young man that went to vietnam and his name was max little. he took with him a penny that had been cut out like a cross. it was carried all through vietnam. he was general wes moreland's communications guy. he used to do the radios on the helicopter. he was like a second father to me. and down here on the bottom left is his future wife and

and eventually -- they've been married for many years -- is naomi little. she was like another mother to me. she became like my war mother. when i came home on mid-tour leave, she said, i got something for you. and we were at a pow-wow. i said, okay. she said, you have to go to church. i was like, okay. i was worried going into a church. but got in there. she did a blessing and she gave me the penny that max had had. and then she said, this will keep you safe. so i had another item to carry with me to help watch over me. as i carried that item, i kept it close to my heart. had it around my dog tags. and i ended up at the pow-wow where i met debra mooney. she took me around, introducing me to people. i ran across a soldier. the one that's up on the mike, the one down there in the bottom, that we're taking a photo together. and saw him.

and i said, little? and he said yeah, my name is david little. i said, do you have a brother or a relative named max? i said wow. he was having kind of a hard time in iraq. and he was really feeling it. and right before i left, i said, i have a gift for you. and i passed the penny to him. and he carried it the rest of the time on his tour in iraq. when i got back home, naomi said, do you still have that penny? i said -- she said you didn't lose it, did you? i said no, i didn't lose it. i said, i gave it away. she looked at me, and, i said, gave it to david little. and she smiled and she said, well at least it stayed in the family. she was happy about that. it made me feel special because she is my war mother, and it felt good to hear that from her. the pow-wow, debra talks about that.

and it's awesome. it really was. i just came out of samarra. out of combat operations. and when i came out of those, i was supposed to have a four day r & r. we were getting ready to go into fallujah for combat operations in november. it was supposed to be heavy fighting. it was the second taking of fallujah. and all of us wanted in that fight. so as i got out of the shower and coming back to my hooch, there was master sergeant davis. she stopped me and said, hey, are you going to the pow-wow in fallujah? i said, hey, that's classified. you're not supposed to be talking about that in the open. she said what are you doing? she said what are you talking about? she held up the flyer and it said pow-wow. [ laughter ] i said, man, okay. really is a pow-wow. that's how things get out in indian country. gets out on word of mouth, flyers, internet. it gets out there. so i went to my colonel and sergeant major and said, i'd really like to go to this event.

and they said, well, if can you get there, you can go. so instead of taking my four day r & r in a nice place i decided to go to fallujah. i left baghdad and jumped on a convoy. it was kind of a challenge there. first i tried to get a helicopter. that was the safest way to travel. they had no seats. so i went to the convoy line. i tried to get into a military vehicle. they had no room for me. they said, you can jump in one of the trucks that are delivering food. and they were big trucks and had big glass windows like a big imax screen. i said, all right, i'll do it. i jump in the vehicle. the truck driver said, you know, i'm glad you're riding with me, you've got a weapon. he reaches out into his boot and he pulls out this boot knife. he goes, this is all i have. i said, all right. so we were going down to the pow-wow. as we were riding down, we got attacked and we had small arms fire. it was a big imax screen and

this rocket propelled grenade, we call them rpgs, went flying by. just missed our vehicle. and i'd been hit quite a few times. it was kind of a neat sight this time to see it whizzing by instead of hitting me. once i got to the pow-wow, i was in for a real surprise and shock. not only i did meet david little but i met debra mooney, and it lasted relationship as a friend and a good connection, and we had the different events, as you can see right up there where she is talking about, the stick ball, the dancing, the fry bread. you can see the faces on the soldiers. but it uplifted my heart. it made me feel young again and gave me a taste of home which was awesome and i loved. and stick ball was the highlight of the pow-wow. in 2007, after i received my third purple heart, i got an e-mail from my tribal chairman. daniel romero, chairman romero.

he said our elders want you to put down your war deeds and what you've done because we know you're coming home on midtour leave for the new year's eve pow wow. i said, yes. he said, we want to do a blessing ceremony. i thought it was strange that they want my war deeds for blessing ceremony. i said, it's never been done. i didn't question it because he is my tribal chairman, chief and i did it. what ended up happening is as he's doing my blessing, he came out to do it, i said, wow, our chief doesn't normally do this. and then the vice chief came out. he was right next to him. he was doing it as well. i said what's going on? this is not how we normally do things. and then all of a sudden my indian education teacher from my indian days at school from title iv started reading things from the high school years and started reading my military records and what i had done and what are some of the war deeds.

i turned to my tribal chairman, i said, this isn't a blessing ceremony, is it? he said, no. he said we haven't had a war chief in over 70 years in our tribe. and he said, so we're giving you this title. you have earned it. i was kind of shocked because i started thinking about all the warriors before me like my uncle, my great-uncle, and all the deeds that they had done. and i was very humbled by this honor bestowed upon me. and that was december 2007. i'm still learning what i need to do as a war chief. i turned to joe medicine crow and learned from him. since i retired from the military, i'm still active in the native community. i've always been since i was growing up. and do the color guard and work with an organization called ieva. it's in southern california. our commander has got a lot of good stories.

he was a korean war veteran. and just recently we had the distinct honor to bring home a p.o.w.-m.i.a, corporate eugene m. morally. and they asked if we could, the apaches, bring him back home. so we escorted him back home and then escorted him back on the reservation and partaked in his ceremony to bring him home and lay him to rest. it was a very humbling experience. so the cycle continues, not just when you're in the military but even out of the military. this is part of our tradition and culture. and that's who we are. it's a great honor to be with these great warriors. and i have one more thing i'd like to do before i turn the mike back over. it's a presentation. let me get it here. before i bring it up, there were

three navajos at the pow-wow. they traveled a great distance as well. and one of them was a grandfather. he turned to the two marines and me and said, are you guys following your traditions? and we said, yeah. he said, let me see your bags. and he wanted to see if we can corn pollen and everything like that. and we pulled it out and showed him. and then he asked us the hard question. are you getting up and greeting the morning sun and doing your run? and all three of us kind of looked at each other and said, yeah. he said, don't lie to me. so we were like, no. he goes, you need to start running. so we said okay. with that said, i had a tribal member do a painting for us on some feathers on acrylic to commemorate the pow wow. and there's two hawk feathers on there that i carried in my plates in fallujah.

what i used to do, i said i carried feathers for people. i would open my vest and pull out the front plate and put seven feathers on the front, seven in the back and close it, pull out my back plates and do the same thing. i carried different feathers on different operations. so part of this piece that i'm getting ready to present here are the feathers from fallujah from my front plate and that's where i received another purple heart. so let me go ahead and get those. >> as chuck mentioned, the recipient of three purple hearts and two bronze stars. so he's continued the tradition of his great family in serving this country. [ applause ]

>> thank you. >> thank you. >> on behalf of the museum of the american indian, i'm accepting this gift which will be saved for the future -- for future generations. and i hope we have this all recorded so people will know all the circumstances surrounding this wonderful event. thank you very much. thank you for coming. [ applause ] >> thank you. we invite you to come up and meet the veterans and we invite you to go outside and see debra's display. thank you for coming this afternoon. thank you for your time. thank you.