A Sacred Circle

Designed as a sacred circle with features that emulate a river bank, the Puyallup Tribe of Indians Veterans Memorial is a welcoming place to sit and reflect upon and honor our military Veterans.   Along with wood carved benches repurposed from salvaged cedar trees cleared from the project site, new landscaping to admire and young evergreen trees planted, the memorial’s main feature is a 50’ long radius wall featuring eight bronze medallions, 36-inches in diameter, representing eight branches of service: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Merchant Marines, National Guard and Air National Guard.  The wall also incorporates six 25’ tall flag poles to display the flags of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, Puyallup Tribal Veterans, Canadian, United States of America, State of Washington and the POW/MIA.

Tacoma Weekly has reported that Puyallup Vice-Chairwoman Roleen Hargrove described the memorial as “a sacred circle filled with a lot of blood, sweat and tears that was constructed with love, with gratitude and most of all with honor.” She pointed out the memorial’s welcoming entrance where the first thing that visitors see is a sacred salmon inlaid into the pavement to represent the Puyallup’s fishing heritage. “When you come, we invite you – our veterans invite you – to come within this circle and pray, recognize and most of all honor all of our veterans, all of our ancestors, for the fight that they have gone through to get us to where we are today. Please, whenever you come don’t just pass by – enter and remember those that fight for our freedom, Native and non-Native alike.”