This memorial centers on "The Forgotten Warrior" as a symbolic tribute to Native American Vietnam War casualties, honoring their sacrifices and offering mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, relatives, and friends a place where unresolved grief could be shed in an honorific setting and joined with pride that their departed loved ones stood among an elite company of Native American warriors who fought in America's longest and costliest undeclared war. Dedicated September 16, 1995, it uses symbolic elements to express that meaning: the red granite block beneath the statuary represents blood spilled by the wounded and those who gave their lives, and its ten-ton weight signifies the burden of trauma and readjustment problems associated with their experiences; the white quartz circle represents the spiritual purity of their departed souls in the Great Spirit's afterlife; and the square edifice symbolizes the four corners of the earth and the fact that they did not flee governmental dictates during that unpopular era of warfare in the Republic of South Vietnam.