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TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2003

"It isn't unusual for Native people to join the military. Many Native families will have more than half of their men in uniform. So the other day when Richard Monette, chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, said Native people have earned the right never to be called unpatriotic, I listened. Native people have fought in all the wars and out-of-proportion to all other races, he said.

So why are Native people so willing to fight for a country that historically displaced and degraded them? Because this country - the land - is ours and always will be. The land has a spirit that goes beyond fences and boundaries.

Out in that sea of faces that I see on CNN or MSNBC battlegrounds nightly, I also look for women. It is relatively new to see so many women in the midst of battle.

Women who went to war in the past were usually nurses or in helper roles. Those roles shouldn't be underestimated: At times the women were deep in the battlefields, and some were killed. But today - in this war - we have women pilots, engineers, or soldiers with space-age machine guns. It is a different war gender-wise.

Get the Story:
DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: War summons women, relatives & friends (The Grand Forks Herald 3/25)

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