| Lori Piestewa |
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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.3 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).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." 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 became lost during the opening days of the war and ran into an ambush in Nasiriyah , in southern Iraq, on March 23 , 2003 . In the confusion and chaos of the battle Piestewa crashed her Humvee into a pole and the vehicle was then struck by an RPG . 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.4 |
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