Arizona Congress members want Native American war hero stories restored on DOD website
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Members of Arizona’s Congressional delegation are calling on the Department of Defense to bring back website articles describing two Native American heroes from Arizona.
Reps. Greg Stanton and Yassamin Ansari, both Democrats, sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to reinstate stories surrounding Pima/Akimel O’odham Marine Pfc. Ira Hayes and Hopi Army Specialist Lori Piestewa. The pair say references to Native American veterans, like the Navajo Code Talkers, have been restored but information on the two military members is still missing.
“We must never forget the sacrifices made by Native American veterans and service members throughout our nation’s history,” said Stanton and Ansari in the letter. They say the stories of Hayes and Piesetwa were removed because of the Trump administration’s ban of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. “Efforts by the DOD to recognize any veteran’s selfless service to our nation have nothing to do with any type of DEI Initiative,” said Stanton and Nasari.
Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, also Democrats, sent a similar letter on Monday to Hegseth about the webpages. “To erase Pfc. Hayes’s and Specialist Piestewa’s contributions to our history is to erase American history,” they said. “DoD appears to be taking a slash and burn approach, removing web pages and only restoring them when the public holds the Department accountable. This approach is wasteful and creates unnecessary distractions from the Department’s important missions.”
Hayes was one of six Marines who raised the flag at Iwo Jima in 1945 during WWII. The event was immortalized in one of the most recognized photos in history that won a Pulitzer Prize. A simple search of his name returns zero results on the Defense Department website. However, he’s the focus of this article on the Iwo Jima victory.
Piestewa was the first female Native American soldier to be killed in action on foreign soil when her convoy was ambushed on March 23, 2003. Former Gov. Janet Napolitano renamed the mountain formerly known as Squaw Peak, near 24th Street and Glendale Avenue, as Piestewa Peak a month after she died.
Her name is only mentioned in one article about Native American women serving in the military. There was a Piestewa painting photo on the Defense Department website but the link now gives a 404 error. A photo is still up of Piestewa’s mother.
The controversy comes during the same month when at least 10 articles mentioning the Navajo Code Talkers were pulled from the U.S. Army and Department of Defense websites. They were reportedly replaced with several broken URLs labeled “DEI.” The Code Talkers were an indigenous group that helped the United States during World War II.
Some of the webpages were restored hours later. Defense Department officials say the Navajo Code Talker material was mistakenly erased.
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