; Whereas Navajo Code Talkers contributed to every Pacific Marine-led assault from 1942 to 1945, including Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Peleliu, and in 2001, 28 Navajo Code Talkers received Congressional Gold Medals, mostly posthumously; Whereas 42,000 Native Americans served in the Vietnam War, over 90 percent of them volunteers, and the names of 232 American Indian and Alaska Natives who were killed in combat or went missing in action are etched on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC; Whereas over 10,000 Native Americans served in the Korean War and 194 were killed in combat; Whereas Lori Ann Piestewa, a member of the Hopi Tribe born in Tuba City, Arizona, was the first Native American woman in the United States military killed in the Iraq War, the first Native American woman in history to die in combat on March 23, 2003, while serving in the United States military, and was extolled by her surviving servicemembers as the heroine of the ambush in which she died; Whereas roughly 31,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives are currently on active duty, serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world, where they continue to serve in greater numbers per capita than any other demographic group; Whereas Native American women serve in our Armed Forces at disproportionately high rates; and Whereas Native American veterans experience higher rates of homelessness and substance abuse than other groups, and face limited access to medical care due to the shortcomings of the Department of Veteran Affairs in administering culturally sensitive treatment and establishing facilities within accessible distances to rural reservations: Now, therefore, be it