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5-9-03. Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States, visited the family of slain Army Pfc. Lori Piestewa recently, while promoting her child literacy program. The first Native American woman to die in combat on foreign soil, Piestewa, a 23-year-old single mother of two and member of the Hopi Tribe, was killed after her maintenance unit was ambushed in southern Iraq on March 23. A Phoenix mountain peak and freeway have been renamed in Piestewa's honor.
After Laura Bush’s speech at Monument Valley High School, Navajo Vice President Frank Dayish, Jr. urged the Bushes to think of reservation reconstruction, instead of foreign military excursions, saying that the money is needed at home before going overseas. Bush’s response was that she and George Bush were “very interested in Indian education and health issues.”
Laura Bush read to twenty children at the Kayenta Service Unit of the Navajo Area Indian Health Service. Her "Reach Out and Read" program trains doctors and nurses to advise parents about the practice of reading aloud to children.
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State News
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