Posted on 04/17/2003 9:57:45 PM PDT by chance33_98
Tribe Donates Scholarship To Family
Mashantucket— The Mashantucket Pequots have donated a $40,000 scholarship to the family of a female soldier who died in the war in Iraq.
The scholarship is being given to the family of Lori Piestewa, a mother of two children who was the first female U.S. solider killed in the war. Piestewa, a resident of Arizona, is the first American Indian woman to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military, according to the tribe.
Piestewa's 507th Army Maintenance Co. was ambushed March 23 near Nasiriyah. She was one of 11 soldiers listed as missing in action for almost two weeks. She was confirmed dead on April 4.
The scholarship is for $10,000 a year for four years of college. Piestewa is survived by a 4-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter.
The tribe won the scholarship from Sodak, a distributor of gaming equipment, during a trade show in Phoenix.
“When this tribe won the Sodak scholarship, we immediately thought of Lori Piestewa's family, because we understand their loss. Our hearts and dreams go out to her family and to her Hopi and Navajo brothers and sisters,” said John Guevremont, the Mashantuckets' chief operating officer, who served 20 years in the Marines.
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