For Additional Headlines - go to our News Section »

• SoWal Gets Wal-Mart
  made by Dewey712
• Gas Prices Predicted to Hit $3
  made by retired one
• SoWal Gets Wal-Mart
  made by Truth or Consequences
• Gas Prices Predicted to Hit $3
  made by bj1606
• SoWal Gets Wal-Mart
  made by meandt

• Inmate Beaten at Graceville Correctional Facility Dies
• Surgeon’s Wife Arrested for Drugs
• Enforcement Cracks Down on Spring Breakers; 126 Arrested
• Pot Bust on Panama City Beach
• New Bill Gets Teachers Fired Up
• Panama City Man Arrested on Child Exploitation Charges
• Injured Pedestrian Identified
• Second Victim Identified in Traffic Fatality on I-10 in Walton County
• Wewahitchka Woman Hit and Killed
• ABT Arrests 125 on the First Night of Spring Break Enforcement

Native Americans Honor Fallen Soldiers
11/08/08 - 11:05 PM

 RSS Feed

Hundreds of veterans, family and friends meet at the moving Vietnam Memorial Wall to pay tribute to fallen soldiers.  Saturday night, panhandle Native Americans remember loved ones lost in their own special way.

The Seven Rivers Warrior Society honored fallen Native Americans and the other 58,000 names on the wall.  The Indians paid tribute using the drums, singing and prayer.  Then they offered symbolic gifts to the families of fallen warriors.

Like the wall, the war drum used in the ceremony also did some traveling.  It was brought in from Crawfordville, Florida and symbolizes the heart beat of Native Americans.  One unique part of the ceremony, had natives doing what’s called “smudging” the wall.

“We use, typically, white sage in a shell or some type of a conveyance and we create the smoke,” says Seven Rivers Warrior Society Chief, Brian “Thundering Elk Beasley.  “We believe our prayers go up to the creator and the smoke is symbolic that it rises with our prayers to our grandfather in the sky.  Per capita, native americans are the largest ethnic group in this country that always answers the call to serve our country both abroad and domestic.”

Volunteers are reading all the names from the wall from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.  Sunday at 2p.m. the Bay County Service Members whose names are on the wall will be honored.