Native Americans hold eagle feather ceremony at Arizona Memorial center

Allen Truesdale, a Native American who is Cherokee and Zuni, wore the garb of his Plains ancestors from 150 years ago, including leather with fringing, a porcupine quill and a feather headdress.

The 65-year-old also adorned his clothes with warrior emblems from another era — the Vietnam War. He wore a necklace of .50-caliber bullets and shell casings dangled from his lower legs.

On Monday Truesdale and about 20 other Native Americans from Oregon and other states presented a special eagle feather to the National Park Service at the USS Arizona Memorial visitor center in honor of 18 Native Americans and other casualties from the Dec. 7, 1941, attack.

“In the Native community, we honor our veterans by placing a feather at their grave,” said Truesdale, an event organizer. “It shows the people that he was a veteran. We are doing this to honor all who went down (at Pearl Harbor), all who survived, all military and all veterans — especially people of Hawaii and a native people.”

The group, which the Navy said is based around the American Culture Association of Oregon, is on its way to Kauai for a ceremonial powwow.

Truesdale said based on research it conducted, the group believes the feather presentation is the first of its kind at the visitor center.

“It means something to all of us — it’s not anything we take lightly,” he said. “We don’t do a ceremony for show and tell. We do a ceremony because it’s what we feel in our heart.”

Sage and tobacco were burned at the corner of the visitor center’s back lanai as Deitrich Peters, who said he is from the Shasta, Umpqua and Kalapuya tribes, presented the notched and red-dyed eagle feather with beads at its base to Jacqueline Ashwell, superintendent of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes the Arizona Memorial.

Ashwell said it was a “tremendous honor” to receive the feather. “On behalf of the National Park Service and United States government, thank you very much for this deeply meaningful gift,” she said.

Peters, who is 61, said the feather was prepared and prayed over just for the ceremony. It was dyed red to represent the blood that was shed at Pearl Harbor, and notched to reflect the casualties.

Several of the members either had served in the military or had military ties. Truesdale said he was a reconnaissance Marine serving 1971 through 1973 in Cambodia, Thailand and Laos.

Peters had a Marine Corps medallion surrounded by beadwork in honor of his father, who was at Guadalcanal in World War II.

“I’m a (former) warrior and now I’m a healer,” said Truesdale, adding he is now a medicine person who does blessings.