Lori Piestewa

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Lori Piestewa, shortly before deploying to Iraq

SPC Lori Ann Piestewa (December 14, 1979 – March 23, 2003) was a U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps soldier killed during the same Iraqi Army attack in which her friend Jessica Lynch was injured. A member of the Hopi tribe, Piestewa was the first woman killed in the 2003 Iraq war and is the first Native American woman to die in combat while serving with the U.S. military.

1 Piestewa's youth
2 Ambush in Nasiriyah, Iraq
3 Honoring Piestewa
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Piestewa's youth

Piestewa was born and raised in Tuba City, Arizona, a town with more than a 50% unemployment rate, to a Hopi father (Terry) and a mother of Mexican ancestry.^[1] Her family had a long military tradition, with both Piestewa's father and grandfather having served in the U.S. Army. Neighbors described her as, while generally supportive of the army, having joined primarily to provide a secure income for her and her two children, Brandon and Carla Whiterock.

As a child, she was given the Hopi name Köcha-Hon-Mana (also spelled Qotsa-hon-mana, meaning White Bear Girl).^[1] Her surname, Piestewa, is derived from a Hopi language root meaning "water pooled on the desert by a hard rain"; thus, Piestewa translates loosely as "the people who live by the water."

[edit] Ambush in Nasiriyah, Iraq

Piestewa was a member of the army's 507th Army Maintenance Company, a support unit of clerks, repairmen and cooks. Her company lost their way during the opening days of the war and ran into an ambush in Nasiriyah, in southern Iraq, on March 23, 2003.

Attempting to save herself and others, Piestewa drove a Humvee through a hail of gunfire until the vehicle was struck by a rocket propelled grenade and crashed. Three other soldiers in the Humvee died in the crash. Piestewa and Jessica Lynch both survived but were severely wounded. They were taken prisoner, with Piestewa dying soon after of her wounds. A video of some of the American Prisoners of War, including Piestewa (filmed shortly before she died in an Iraqi hospital), was later shown around the world on Al Jazeera television.

[edit] Honoring Piestewa

Piestewa was awarded the Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal (although a number of people felt that she deserved additional medals for her actions). The army posthumously promoted her from Private First Class to Specialist.

Jessica Lynch has repeatedly said that Piestewa is the true hero of the ambush. In addition, many entities have honored her memory with memorials. Arizona's state government renamed Squaw Peak in the Phoenix Mountains (whose original name some found offensive) near Phoenix as Piestewa Peak. In addition, Senator Tom Daschle honored her, as did Indian Nations across America. Since her death, the Grand Canyon Games organizers have held an annual Lori Piestewa National Native American Games, which brings participants from across the country. A plaque bearing her name is also located at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. A freeway in Arizona also bears her name.

Her death led to a rare joint prayer gathering between members of the Hopi and Navajo tribes, which have had a centuries-old rivalry.

In May 2005, Lori's parents and kids had a brand-new home built by Ty Pennington and his crew on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition accompanied by Jessica Lynch. They also built a new veteran's center on the Navajo reservation.