Native veterans and Gold Star families pay tribute to the fallen at Black Hills National Cemetery

STURGIS, S.D. — Lakota veterans, families, and tribal leaders gathered at Black Hills National Cemetery for a Memorial Day ceremony that braided together military protocol, Native traditions, and a deep insistence on remembrance. Under a hot, cloudless sky, many unfolded lawn chairs and settled gratefully into the narrow bands of shade cast by the cemetery’s trees.

The Creekside Singers and a Lakota drum group led the grand entry of veterans, as flags from the United States, the branches of service, and tribal nations moved slowly across the cemetery grounds. Many in attendance had relatives buried there; others came to stand for those who never came home.

“We always honor our veterans,” said Master of Ceremonies Ramon Bear Runner at the outset, noting that Akíchita from the Standing Rock Lakota Veterans, Oglala Sioux Veterans, Cheyenne River Lakota Veterans, and Sicangu Lakota Veterans were present or being honored, including those laid to rest on the surrounding hillsides. “Some of them are at rest here at the cemetery. We sing that song to all of our veterans living and those who have passed away.”

After a Lakota flag song and an opening prayer by Richard Charging Eagle, U.S. Army Vietnam and Sicangu Lakota Veterans member Darryl Marcus, U.S. Marine Corps, Beirut, Lebanon, the program turned to introductions and tributes that underscored both the scale of Native military service and the personal loss carried into the ceremony.

Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out also serves as chairman of the Great Plains Region representing 16 tribes. He is a United States Marine Corps veteran, who served in the Persian Gulf War and Operation Restore Hope in Mogadishu, Somalia. Star Comes Out reminded the crowd that Native people have some of the highest rates of military service of any ethnic group in the United States — a point of both pride and responsibility, he said.

“We have the highest rate of any ethnic groups serving this country, and that’s something we should be proud of,” he told the audience. “When it comes time for that call, we’re always there, and then we’re always there to welcome them home in a good way. We’re proud people, and we need to continue that tradition.”

Star Comes Out also pointed ahead to the upcoming one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, calling it “our greatest victory,” and said all nine Sioux tribes and their allies plan to gather in Montana next month to commemorate that history.

The ceremony shifted between contemporary service and earlier conflicts as veterans took the microphone. Joe Montana, a U.S. Army veteran of Desert Shield and Desert Storm from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and post commander of American Legion Post 324 traced the long arc of Native participation in U.S. wars.

During the World War I era, Montana noted, thousands of Native soldiers fought overseas. He highlighted the story of Ira Hayes, the Pima Marine from Arizona who was one of six Marines who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima and said his post honors Hayes through a traveling reenactment of the iconic flag-raising.

Montana also spoke about his own family history in the Korean War. Two of his grandfathers were captured and held as prisoners of war, he said, describing the stark contrast between how U.S. forces are expected to treat POWs and how his relatives recounted their own captivity.

“I can’t tell you how us Americans are. We have a POW, we treat them with respect, but during that Korean War, how they treated them was really sad,” he said, explaining that some of the stories were too painful to repeat publicly but are carried forward in his family and within the veterans’ community.

He broadened his remarks to World War II, emphasizing the staggering global death toll and how many Native soldiers are now buried in national cemeteries like the one surrounding the gathering. From his home community of Rock Creek, he said, “the whole village” volunteered to serve during World War I. Today, that sacrifice is marked through memorials like a “doughboy statue” and events such as a Victory Over Japan powwow and a Heroes powwow, which include reenactments of Iwo Jima and family-sponsored specials in honor of veterans.

“As you see this cemetery here, we have a lot of veterans buried here, a lot of soldiers, our sisters and brothers,” Montana said. “This is Memorial Day, and this is how we honor them: we make that special trip to visit their graves, not to forget them.”

The ceremony also made space to specifically honor women veterans — a recognition that organizers said has too often been overlooked. Bear Runner said that women have served in every major conflict from World War I forward, but “it seemed like nobody was really giving them the attention that they needed.”

Oglala Marine veteran Shawnee Keith took the podium to recognize the women who came before her, who regularly served as nurses, pilots, mechanics, intelligences professionals, combat leaders, and more. Keith, who was raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation, served as a logistics embarkation specialist with Combat Logistics Battalion 1 and now works directly with veterans in her community. She framed her remarks around the Lakota warrior tradition, and the emotional weight Memorial Day carries for those who served.

“As Lakota people, we have always honored the warrior in our culture,” she said. “That belief remains alive today in every man and woman who have worn the uniform. But today, Memorial Day is not about those of us who have come home, but rather those who did not.”

Keith described walking through cemeteries like Black Hills National Cemetery and seeing beyond the headstones to “lives interrupted” and “dreams unfinished.”

“Behind every flag flying today is a story of sacrifice. Behind every headstone is the memory of a son, a daughter, a husband, a wife, a brother, a sister, and a friend,” she said. “For many veterans, Memorial Day is emotional. It is heavy, because while the world may see a holiday, we remember the faces… we remember the folded flags handed to grieving mothers and fathers.”

Addressing Gold Star families directly, Keith said their loved ones’ sacrifices “do not go unseen” and urged veterans to keep telling the stories of the fallen. As an Oglala woman and Marine, she said she stands “for the generations of Native veterans who have always defended this country, despite the hardships, despite the history, and despite the sacrifices.”

Retired Master Sgt. Francis Eagle Tail of Dupree (Sicangu Lakota/ Northern Arapaho), a 24-year Air Force veteran and Region One commander of National American Indian Veteran, honored women who served long before they were fully recognized, including Army Specialist Lori Piestewa, a Hopi soldier widely acknowledged as the first Native American woman killed in combat while serving in the U.S. military. Piestewa died in Iraq in 2003.

“This Memorial Day, we remember Lori Piestewa and all military women, veterans, and our fallen heroes,” Eagle Tail said. “Their sacrifice will never be forgotten.”

Later in the program, Rosebud Sioux Marine veteran Darryl Marcus invited attendees to stand, raise a hand to the sky, and silently remember someone they had lost. He spoke candidly about the isolation many veterans feel and the memories that surface late at night or on quiet drives, when “no one will be there” and yet the past insists on being felt.

“These are the times when a veteran often thinks, ‘What’s going on at home? Who’s thinking of me?’” Marcus said, connecting those private struggles to the visible rituals of flags, staffs, rifles, and tribal banners around the circle.

The event closed with the laying of wreaths by representatives of the tribes and veterans’ groups, followed by veterans rendering military honors with a ceremonial volley, and the haunting echo of “Taps” over the hillside graves. Traditional sharing of a meal followed he ceremony hosted by the OST President’s Office.

For the veterans and families at Black Hills National Cemetery, however, the day’s essential work had already been done: speaking names, sharing stories, and reaffirming that Native warriors — men and women, from World War I through Afghanistan and Iraq — will not be forgotten.

(Contact Marnie Cook at cookm8715@gmail.com)

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