Native Americans Say Farewell to 3

Memorial services for the victims of Flight 261 continued around Ventura County on Friday, including one that honored the three Native Americans killed in the crash.

Later in the day, community members attended a service at St. Anthony’s Church in Oxnard and family members of the victims gathered for an ocean-side memorial.

Clustered at the shores near Mugu Rock, a group of Native Americans stood in a circle shortly after noon, chanting, singing, drumming.

They came to honor the 88 lives lost when the Alaska Airlines jet plunged into the ocean Monday afternoon.

And they came to say goodbye to three fellow Native Americans from Alaska who perished in the disaster: Morris and Thelma Thompson and their young daughter, Sheryl.

The Thompsons were strangers to the group honoring them but family all the same, said Sonny Skyhawk, a Pasadena resident and member of the Chumash Indian community.

“As a Native American, we are all family,” Skyhawk said. “On behalf of all Native American people, we came here to offer our prayer and our condolences.”

Skyhawk, founder and president of American Indians in Film & Television, decided to organize the prayer service immediately after learning that an Indian family had been lost.

Although they did not know Morris Thompson, many knew of him.

The 61-year-old Thompson was one of Alaska’s best-known native leaders. Until his retirement last month, he served as president of Doyon Ltd., the largest private landowner in the country and one of Alaska’s most powerful native corporations.

Princess Peter-Raboff, a Fairbanks, Alaska, resident, had only seen Thompson once or twice. Still, she decided to fly in for the ceremony.

“Morris did a lot of things for the native community in Alaska,” said Peter-Raboff. “When we have a leader like he was, they are such a jewel to the community. It’s a shame, but at least he did all these things in his lifetime.”

Skyhawk and others said they were compelled to hold the ceremony for another reason.

The crash happened just a few miles from where they gathered--on land that was home to a village of more than 15,000 Chumash Indians 700 years ago.

Several years ago, remains of more than 100 Indians and artifacts were removed from the marsh near Mugu Rock and reburied at the Chumash Interpretive Center in Thousand Oaks, said tribal Chairman John Valenzuela.

“Why did this tragedy happen here?” Valenzuela said. “To us, it’s very significant they fell into the water here. This is very sacred land because of the people who lived and were buried here.”

So just after noon, the small group of Indians gathered not far from the waves breaking over land by the Point Mugu naval base to honor loved ones lost. And to celebrate.

“That’s what this is today. A celebration,” said Saginaw Grant, an elder of the Sac Fox tribe who led the ceremony. “This is part of life. We look at life that when it’s time for us to go, we are finished with everything here on Mother Earth. We are no longer needed here.”

Participants began by lighting sage, letting the smoke saturate their hair and bodies. It was an act of purification, they said.

The group then each smoked from a pipe. Some chanted. Others spoke words of remembrance.

Through it all, tobacco burned in a shell on the marsh, sending plumes of smoke into the sky. The smoke, Grant said, is important because it helps carry their prayers to the Great Creator.

It also helps the spirits find their way home, he added.

At the end, someone blew from a conch shell, while the group turned seaward and looked toward the sky.

“Today is when they truly left us,” Grant said, “because we have made a way for them. We are going to miss them. We’re going to talk about them. But today we are letting go of them to be with the Great Creator.”

Two hours later, a group of ashen-faced mourners visited a flower and candle memorial set up on the beach below the Hueneme pier.

About 2:30 p.m., 15 family and friends of the victims slowly walked toward the blue water.

The group carried carnation bouquets, which they placed on the sand in a circle. After several minutes of silent prayer, they hugged each other and walked to the end of the pier, one-by-one throwing flowers into the calm waters.

On Friday evening, about 250 people gathered at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Oxnard to find solace by praying together and reading the names of the 88 victims.

Many at the service said they were not involved in the recovery efforts and knew none of the victims’ families but came because the tragedy happened so close to their homes.

Messages from clergy focused on how much the community’s support meant to the victims’ families and recovery workers.

Many present held hands and cried as the Rev. Dan Green, chaplain of the Oxnard Fire Department, said he came to the service directly from the docks in Port Hueneme and that some recovery workers and family members asked him to thank the community for its support.

“Everything seems so heavy,” said Yvette Cuevas-Dent, 25. She said people coming into California Federal bank in Oxnard, where she works, have been very somber this week.

“You can feel the sorrow,” she said.

She described coming to the service as a way to “hold hands” with the families of the victims.

Green said law enforcement officials had been touched by midnight calls from residents, asking if police would send someone to cover up the teddy bears and flowers on the beach to protect them from the rain.

“I have run out of steam, and the only thing that is keeping me going is knowing you are gathering in prayer,” he said.

Times photographer Carlos Chavez and Times Community News reporters Gail Davis and Catherine Blake contributed to this story.