GILA COUNTY [email protected] BOARD of SUPERVISORS 1400 E
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Tommie C. Martin, District I W. James Menlove, 610 E. Hwy 260, Payson, 85547 County Manager (928) 474-2029 (928) 402-4344 tmartin @gilacountyaz.gov [email protected] Tim R. Humphrey, District II (928) 402-8753 Marian Sheppard, [email protected] Clerk of the Board of Supervisors (928) 402-8757 Woody Cline, District III [email protected] (928) 402-8726 GILA COUNTY [email protected] BOARD OF SUPERVISORS 1400 E. Ash Street Globe, Arizona 85501 July 31, 2020 The Honorable David Bernhardt Secretary U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20240 Submitted via email to: [email protected] Dear Secretary Bernhardt: On behalf of Gila County, Arizona, we respectfully submit our responses below to your recent request for information regarding President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order (EO) on Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes and the Task Force for the National Garden of American Heroes, which he appointed you to lead. 1. Are there locations of natural beauty within your unit of local government that would serve as a reputable location for these monuments, statues, and the National Garden of American Heroes? No, there is not 2. Are there any statues or monuments your locality can donate or loan to this effort that will honor our nation’s heroes? No, there is not 3. In addition to the 31 individuals listed in the EO, are there any other American Heroes who should be recognized in the National Garden of American Heroes? Please list and describe. Yes, they are listed below: Geronimo – Geronimo was born June 16, 1829 and was a prominent leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Apache tribe. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Chiricahua Apache bands — the Tchihende, the Tsokanende and the Nednhi — to carry out numerous raids, as well as fight against Mexican and U.S. military campaigns in the Phone (928) 425-3231 Fax (928) 425-0319 T.D.D. (928) 425-0839 B u i l d i n g a n d R e b u i l d i n g M o n u m e n t s t o A m e r i c a n H e r o e s | 2 northern Mexico states of Chihuahua and Sonora and in the southwestern American territories of New Mexico and Arizona. Geronimo's raids and related combat actions were a part of the prolonged period of the Apache–United States conflict, which started with American settlement in Apache lands following the end of the war with Mexico in 1848. During Geronimo's final period of conflict from 1876 to 1886, he "surrendered" three times and accepted life on the Apache reservations in Arizona.[5] Reservation life was confining to the free- moving Apache people, and they resented restrictions on their customary way of life.[6] In 1886, after an intense pursuit in northern Mexico by American forces that followed Geronimo's third 1885 reservation "breakout," Geronimo surrendered for the last time to Lt. Charles Bare Gatewood, an Apache-speaking West Point graduate who had earned Geronimo's respect a few years before. Geronimo was later transferred to General Nelson Miles at Skeleton Canyon, just north of the Mexican/American boundary. Miles treated Geronimo as a prisoner of war and acted promptly to move Geronimo, first to Fort Bowie, then to the railroad at Bowie Station, Arizona, where he and 27 other Apaches were sent to join the rest of the Chiricahua tribe, which had been previously exiled to Florida.[7] While holding him as a prisoner, the United States capitalized on Geronimo’s fame among non- Indians by displaying him at various events. For Geronimo, it provided him with an opportunity to make a little money. In 1898, for example, Geronimo was exhibited at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exhibition in Omaha, Nebraska. Following this exhibition, he became a frequent visitor to fairs, exhibitions, and other public functions. He made money by selling pictures of himself, bows and arrows, buttons off his shirt, and even his hat. In 1905, the Indian Office provided Geronimo for the inaugural parade for President Theodore Roosevelt. Later that year, the Indian Office took him to Texas, where he shot a buffalo in a roundup staged by 101 Ranch Real Wild West for the National Editorial Association. Geronimo was escorted to the event by soldiers, as he was still a prisoner. The teachers who witnessed the staged buffalo hunt were unaware that Geronimo’s people were not buffalo hunters.[8] (https://en.wikipedia.org) Sandra Day O’Connor – Sandra was born March 26, 1930, and grew up on a 198,000-acre cattle ranch near Duncan, Arizona. She was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 until her retirement in 2006. She was the first woman to serve on the Court.[5] Prior to O'Connor's tenure on the Court, she was a judge and an elected official in Arizona, serving as the first female Majority Leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate.[6] Upon her nomination to the Court, O'Connor was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. On July 1, 2005, she announced her intention to retire effective upon the confirmation of a successor.[7] Samuel Alito was nominated to take her seat in October 2005 and joined the Court on January 31, 2006. During her time on the court, some publications ranked her among the most powerful women in the world.[8][9] On August 12, 2009, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. (https://en.wikipedia.org) Ira Hayes – Ira was born January 12, 1923, and was a Pima Native American and a United States Marine during World War II. Hayes was an enrolled member of the Gila River Pima Indian Reservation located in the Pinal and Maricopa counties in Arizona. He enlisted in the United States B u i l d i n g a n d R e b u i l d i n g M o n u m e n t s t o A m e r i c a n H e r o e s | 3 Marine Corps Reserve on August 26, 1942, and, after recruit training, volunteered to become a Paramarine. He fought in the Bougainville and Iwo Jima campaigns in the Pacific War. Hayes was generally known as one of the six flag raisers immortalized in the iconic photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima by photographer Joe Rosenthal.[5][6] The first flag raised over Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945 at the south end of Iwo Jima, was deemed too small and replaced the same day by a larger flag. As there was no photograph of the first flag-raising, the second flag- raising photograph which included Hayes in it, became famous and was widely reproduced. After the battle, Hayes and two other men were identified as surviving second flag-raisers and were reassigned to help raise funds for the Seventh War Loan drive. In 1946, after his service in the Marine Corps, he was instrumental in revealing the correct identity of one of the Marines in the photograph. (https://en.wikipedia.org) The Gila River Indian Community is an Indian reservation in the U.S. state of Arizona, lying adjacent to the south side of the city of Phoenix, within the Phoenix Metropolitan Area in Pinal and Maricopa counties. Gila River Indian Reservation was established in 1859, and the Gila River Indian Community formally established by Congress in 1939. The community is home for members of both the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and the Pee-Posh (Maricopa) tribes. (http://www.gilariver.org/index.php/about) Sincerely, James Menlove County Manager Gila County .