Memorial Day: Honoring Native Servicemembers

Join the museum for a screening of the film The Warrior Tradition and a book talk and signing by co-author Alexandra N. Harris of the museum’s publication Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces. Visitors are invited to pay their respects and remember loved ones at the National Native American Veterans Memorial on the museum grounds.

2 PM - Film Screening

The Warrior Tradition tells the astonishing, heartbreaking, inspiring, and largely untold story of Native Americans in the United States military. Why would Indigenous men and women put their lives on the line for the very government that took their homelands? (Director: Lawrence R. Hott, USA, 2019, 56 min.)

3 PM - Book Talk

Co-author Alexandra N. Harris will discuss the conception and creation of the book Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces. The book chronicles the generations of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians who have served in the United States Armed Forces during every military conflict since the country's founding. The book features seldom-told stories of Native service as well as a wealth of images, including sketches, photographs, contemporary art, and objects from the museum's collections. This groundbreaking history honors the diversity of Indigenous people and the complexity of their experiences. In doing so, it challenges stereotypes commonly applied to Native service members and pays tribute to the men and women whose contributions have shaped America's wars—and the country's history.

3:30 PM - Book Signing

Alex Harris will be available outside the Rasmuson Theater to sign copies of Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces. Books will be available for purchase in the Roanoke Museum Store on Level 2.