We also have our share of true heroes in Nevada, as noted this past Memorial Day. In the town of Nixon, near the remnant of the prehistoric lake that is part of their ancestral home, members of the Pyramid Lake Tribe gathered on Memorial Day to honor their warriors — both the living and those who are gone. Nixon, Wadsworth and Sutcliffe are the three small communities on the reservation that are home to about 2,500 tribal members and another approximately 500 non-members, according to Norman Harry, Tribal Chairman. Memorial Day is a time when the tight-knit community acknowledges the sacrifices that soldiers from the tribe have made for their people and their country, according to Chairman Harry. “Growing up together for a lifetime, it’s hard to lose someone, but it brings everybody that much closer,” said Harry. “So our celebration of life when our young people return home is very special. One of the honorees was Mark Mix, Jr., a Corporal in the United States Marine Corps, who returned last March from his second tour in Iraq, where he was a radio operator in Falujah with the Marine Expeditionary Force. Earlier in the day, portions of two state highways which run through the reservation were dedicated to two Vietnam veterans, John Aleck, a Marine killed in action who earned a Purple Heart, and Ronald Smith, who served in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart. Smith died in 1999. (Lenita Powers, Reno Gazette-Journal, dated May 30, 2005)