Thanksgiving 2021, Native American Vets

Thanksgiving is upon us once again and we have many things for which to be grateful. My list is most assuredly different from yours, but I think we should all agree that the service of Native Americans must be high on anyone's list.

So, today, I am going to hold back on the previously promised visit to South Carolina to address the service of Native Americans.

No group in America serves in our country's defense at a greater rate.

I have written and posted before about the National Native American Vietnam Memorial and you can find that elsewhere on this site. It is located in Neillsville,Wisconsin at a site called The Highground.

 

 

Today, however I want to share the newly dedicated National Native American Memorial in Washington DC.

I posted a couple of pics last November as it was about to be dedicated, but at the time, I could not gain access as it was mostly shrouded in preparation for the next days unveiling.

 

Just outside the Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC is the one year old Native American Veterans Memorial enclosed by a plethora of trees, shrubs, and water plants.

Here you can see the four lances with feathers, prayer clothes, and other mementos that people leave at the site. The green plant life on the surface of the water is Duck weed which will recede during the colder months. I am told there is a plan to remove it before next spring.

Among the many prayer clothes and other things left behind was this teddy bear.

Each of the Services is noted and honored at the entrance to the site.

This is a beautiful and long over due reminder of just how valiantly Native Americans have defended this country. It is striking in its gorgeous setting and in its simplicity, there are no names (those lost in Vietnam are listed upon the memorial in Wisconsin) and no wars listed.

Next time, on Thanksgiving Day I will be with family, I hope you are too. 

I will post a quick holiday greeting and then visit South Carolina on the 30th, so join me there,as usual, at 9:00am.

To visit Vietnam memorials from any state, please click on the state name on the left side of this page.