Monday, April 7, 2003 | 9:48 a.m.
A photo of Pfc. Lori Piestewa flanked by eagle feathers hung at the Native American Art Festival in Henderson this weekend in honor of the first American servicewoman killed in the Iraqi war.
Piestewa, 23, a member of the Hopi tribe, was known as White Bear Girl to her family in Tuba City, Ariz., a town of 8,200 people.
She was the first woman soldier known to have been killed in the invasion of Iraq and is the first American Indian woman to be killed in combat while serving in the U.S. military.
Her life was celebrated by friends and family who gathered for the Southwestern Native American tribes' 14th annual three-day powwow at the Clark County Museum.
Her uncle, Ernie Piestewa, said news of her death shook the Hopi nation.
"She was a lady warrior," Ernie Piestewa said Saturday as tribal dances and chants played on an open-air stage at the museum.
Their family name, Piestewa, means a pool of still water, the kind of puddle that shines like a mirror after a rainstorm, Ernie Piestewa said.
As it rained briefly on the powwow Saturday, Ernie Piestewa said he gave thanks and said he felt at peace with his niece's death.
"You've done it right, you gave us a mist of rain, you did it right," he said, addressing his niece's spirit. "I feel at peace with what has happened. Of course, it is sad, but she did it right."
Lori Piestewa attended Tuba City High School and served as mascot for the Warriors in junior high school. She is survived by a 4-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter.
In the military, Piestewa roomed with Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the servicewoman who was rescued by special forces last week as she lay helpless in an Iraqi hospital with two broken legs, a broken ankle, a broken arm and head injuries, officials said.
Piestewa was one of the eight soldiers whose deaths were confirmed Saturday.
She was a member of the 507th Maintenance Company. The company's convoy was ambushed near Nasiriya on March 23, officials said.
"Our family is proud of her. She is our hero," her brother Wayland said in a prepared statement released Saturday. "We are going to hold that in our hearts. She will not be forgotten. It gives us comfort to know that she is at peace right now. Hopi means a peaceful people."
The tribes remembered Piestewa during a warrior dance Sunday at the festival.
Navajo dancer Berta Benally said that many Indians in Arizona knew the family.
"It is such a tragedy, all of the people feel it," she said as she prepared to dance Sunday.
Piestewa will be buried in a traditional Hopi ceremony, Forrest Chimerica, leader of the Hopi Bear Clan dancers, said.
"In Hopi, you always want to bring her home, so her spirit will watch over the families," Chimerica said.
Chimerica said he knew Piestewa's parents: her father, Terry, a school bus driver, and her mother, Lora Lee, a school administrator.
When their daughter's remains return to Arizona, she will be placed in a fetal position for burial and eagle feathers or a bow and arrows will be by her side, a tribute to her status as a warrior, Chimerica said.
"It's sad to hear that she is gone, but at least they know she will be coming home," Piestewa's friend Delmar Polacca said. "She joined the Marine ROTC and became a leader and enlisted in the Marines straight out of high school. Then she joined the Army."
Piestewa was one of a handful of American Indian women in the armed forces, tribal spokesmen said. The Hopis said that 56 of members of their tribe are serving in the U.S. military, 48 in Iraq.
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