MIA from my high school
Filed in: Iraq, media, personal, Wed, Mar 26 2003 23:17 PT
PFC Lori Anne Piestewa, from Tuba City, Arizona, presently missing in action in Iraq, triggers two small-world alarms in my head.
First, I went to Tuba City High School, which is on the Navajo-Hopi reservation, in 1989-90. (Piestewa is Hopi; my mother’s husband at the time was working in the Indian Health Service hospital.) Lori was also in the same Marine Corps Junior ROTC unit I was in. Many on the Navajo Nation (and many other native Americans) are from military families, dating back to before the codetalkers. They are strongly patriotic about both their sovereign territory and the United States. (Though to some it is also the most reliable way to make a living and get off the rez.)
Second, the coverage of the family was done by KNAZ-TV in Flagstaff, the onetime NBC affiliate (now run by KPNX in Phoenix) where I worked as a news intern in 1991-92. It was picked up by CNN, which is usually a big deal for small-town stations.
