and then we used the other part to make 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 armored 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 like 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 a in a secure place a few feet away from 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 like 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 cutter. 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, 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 didn't work very well, and like i said, we cut the barrel in half so we would use the other half to finish -- the full 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 cot, they have 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 buck skin. so we used part of that and the rest to make moccasins. and of course, we didn't have a pattern. so we found some sandbags that wasn't serviceable. and we used all of those to make 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. the specialist, who isn't a specialist anymore, but 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. but i am choctaw. you are probably wondering, why is that girl wearing a choctaw 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 indian education program in bartlesville which i was a part of. and he adopted me as a family member. and he 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.

what my family did, i have a 14-year-old niece, and she's the one who 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 want 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 breast plate 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, ugh. 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 setting 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 task master. 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 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 the military statement -- or a military

facility, they bring up the pow-wow every single time. this pow-wow is embedded in their heart. the pete of the drum is 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 hooping 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. [ applause ] 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 from ronald reagan up to you 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. the 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? >> thank you. [ applause ] 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 the 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 a living and it's breathing today. my mother was my recruiter and 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 would think about my uncles and my father and my mother. and i want to be bart of a society like that. a warrior society and i was proud of them, proud of all the warriors. when i approached my mom, i want to join the army. she laughed at me, didn't take me serious all right, i'll put you in. she was my recruiter.

everyone used to tease her and say your naums must have been really hurting that month to put me in. but i'm really proud of my mom. as dr. viola mentioned, i went to ft. mccullum, alabama for basic training. years ago my mom was in the army corps. they merged all the women into being soldiers. i was in the same basic unit she was at ft. mccullum, alabama. and then i relooized i talked to my mom and she said are you over by the hill? i realized i'm in the same barracks as she was. if my mom can do this, i can do it. i would remember that. as i got through basic training, i would remember that. i could not 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. people would send me feathers to carry for their families because they did not have someone serving at the time. i would carry them and send them back. it was always an honor. i always carried my feathers. i took my blanket. it was jameson who brought me into the gourd society, the warrior society, and it was a great honor for them, too. out on the battlefield i always ran across other natives. in the picture here is sam stitz and he's chawcato. we were looking for sadr and decided, aho, decide that had we were going to honor our elters and our nation. we drew this horse up on the wall with chalk that we had

found and took a picture in front of it and to our surprise it ended up on indian country newspaper. on the front page of that, we looked at it and saw it. it was the navajo coat talkers on there. what an honor. that is part of our tradition. this one ties the pow-wow in. a mother and three warriors and a penny. a young man went to vietnam. his name was max little. he took a penny cut out like a cross. he carried it all through vietnam. he was general westmoreland's communication guy. he used to do the radio on the helicopter. he was like a second father to me. down here on the bottom left is his future wife. they have been married for many years. naomi little. she was like another mother to me.

she became my war mother. when i came home on mid tour leave, she said, i got something for you. 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. i got in there. she did a blessing. she gave me the penny that max had had. she said this will keep you safe. 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. i ended up at the pow-wow where i met debra mooney. she took me around and introduced me to people. i ran across a soldier. we were taking a photo together. i saw him and i said, little. he said, yes.

i said do you have a brother named max? he said it is my big brother. i said wow. he was having a hard time in iraq. he was feeling it. right before i left, i said i have a gift for you. i passed the penny to him. 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 no. she said, you didn't lose it? i said, no, i gave it away. she looked at me. i gave it to david little. she smiled and said, at least it stayed in the family. she was happy about that. it made me feel special because she is my war mother. it felt good to hear that from her. the pow-wow. debra talks about that. it is awesome. it really was.

i just came out of samarah out of combat operations. when i came out of those, i was supposed to have a four-day r&r. it was supposed to be heavy fighting. it was the second taking of fallujah. and all of us wanted to be in that fight. as i got out of the shower and coming back to my hooch, there was master sergeant much she said are you going to the pow-wow in fallujah? i said that is classified. what are you doing? she said what are you talking about? she held up the flyer and it said pow-wow. it really is a pow-wow. that is how things get out in indian country. it gets out word of mouth. gets out on flyers and on internet. it gets out there. i went to my colonel and said i really would like to go to this event. he said if you can get there, you can go.

instead of taking my four day r&r, i decided to go down to if a lou yeah. i left baghdad and jumped on a convoy. it was a challenge. a tried to get a helicopter. they had no seats. i went to the convoy. i tried to get in a military vehicle. they had no room for me on a military vehicle. they said you can jump in a truck that is delivering food. they were big trucks and had big glass windows like a imax screen. i said, all right, i'll do it. i jumped in the vehicle and the truck driver said, i'm glad you are riding with me. you have a weapon. he reaches out into his boot and pulls out this boot knife. he says this is all i have. we are going to the pow-wow. as we are riding down, we got attacked and hit small arms fire. it was like a big imax screen. a big rocket propelled grenade went flying by just missed our

vehicle. i had been hit a few times. it was a neat time to see it go whizzing by instead of hitting me. once i got to the pow-wow, i was in for a real surprise and shock. not only did i meet david little, but i met debra mooney. it has turned into a lasting relationship as a friend and good connection. we had the different events as you can see up there. the stick ball and dancing and bread. you can see the faces on the soldiers. it also uplifted my heart and made me feel young again and gave me a taste of home which was awesome. i loved. 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. chairman romero. he said our elders want you to put down your war deeds and what you have done.

we know you are coming home on mid tour 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 they wanted my war deeds for a blessing ceremony. it's never been done, but i didn't question it. he is my chief. i did it. what ended up happening as he is doing my blessing, he came out to do it. i said, wow. our chief doesn't normally do this. the vice chief came out and he was doing it as well. i said what is going on? this is not how we normally do things. all of a sudden, my indian education teacher from my indian days at school from title four started reading the things from my high school years and then he started reading my military records and what i had done. some of the war deeds. i turned to my tribal chairman and said this is not a blessing ceremony, is it? he said no. we haven't had a war chief in

over 70 years in our tribe. he said we are giving you this title. you earned it. i was kind of shocked because i started thinking about all of the warriors before me like my uncle and great uncle and all of the deeds they had done. i was very humbled by this honor bestowed upon me. that was december of 2007. i'm still learning what i need to do as a war chief. i turned to joe medicine crow and looked and learned from him. since i retired from the military, i'm still active in the native community. always have been since i have been growing up. i do the color guard and work with an organization called ieva. in southern california and he has a lot of good stories. he was a korean war veteran. just recently, we had the

distinct honor to bring home a pow-mia. corporal eugene m. morally. the apaches asked if they could bring him back home. we escorted him back to the reservation and partook in his ceremony to bring him home and to lay him to rest. it was a humbling experience. the cycle continues, not just when you are in the military, but when you are out of the military. that is part of your tradition and culture. that's who we are. it's a great honor to be up here with these great warriors. i have one more thing i would like to do before i turn the mike back over.

it is a presentation. let me get it here. before i bring it up, there were three navajos at the pow-wow. one was a grandfather. he turned to the two marines and me and said are you guys following your traditions? we said yeah. he said let me see your bags. he wanted to see if we had corn pollen and everything like that. we showed him. he asked the hard question. are you getting up and greeting the morning sun and doing your run? all three of us looked at each other and said, yeah. he said don't lie to me. we were like, no. he said you need to start running. we said okay. with that said, i had a tribal member do a painting for us on feathers on acrylic for the pow-wow. there are two hawk feathers on there that i carried in my plates in fallujah.

what i used to do, i carried feathers for people. i would open my vest and pull on the my front plate and put seven feathers on the front and seven on the back and close it. part of this piece are the feathers from fallujah and the front plate. >> as chuck mentioned, he is the recipient of three purple hearts and two bronze stars. he continued the tradition of his great family in serving this country. [ applause ]

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