Remembering Marine Private Jimmie Slim on His Birthday

Private Jimmie Slim

The Navajo have a distinguished military history, including the famous Code Talkers of World War II. Marine Private Jimmie Slim carried on that tradition, giving his life for his country in Vietnam on July 4, 1970. He was one of three Marines who drowned when swept away while crossing the Thu Bon River. Yesterday would have been his 67th birthday.

Jimmie was from Cow Springs, Arizona, about 60 miles from the soaring buttes of Monument Valley, an arid region of scrub vegetation and annual rainfall of about five inches. It’s hard to imagine a place more foreign to him than Vietnam, a land of monsoon rains, tropical forests, and a river where he drowned along with two other Marines.

 Jimmie is one of 226 Native Americans who died in Vietnam, and one of only two who died on the Fourth of July (PFC Ronald Myron Cloud is the other). According to the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, more than 42,000 Native Americans fought in Vietnam, 90% of them volunteers.

My search for Jimmie’s family had hit a dead end after three months of research, but then I got a stroke of luck. I sent an email to Delores Hyden, library assistant at Tuba City High School, near Cow Springs, inquiring about genealogical resources in the area. Much to my amazement she replied that she knows someone who knows Jimmie’s sister, Viola Farrell.

A few days later, thanks to Ms. Hyden, I received an email from Leila Saganitso, who is a cousin to Viola. Leila put me in touch with Viola, in Tonalea, Arizona, who sent me her memories of her brother.

Viola wrote, “Jimmie was born April 28, 1948 on Black Mesa in a hogan with no running water, no electricity, and hardly any vehicle around; maybe about 40 miles away from the hospital. Our mother died in childbirth, and our dad wasn’t around.”

Viola and Jimmie were raised by their mother’s sister, Lola (they called her “Mom Lola”) and her husband, Lloyd. Viola wrote, “I remember Jimmie telling me that he wanted to help his Mom Lola in the future. Years later he died in Vietnam. I was just thinking about what he meant about helping his mom. Later mom and uncle started receiving Jimmie’s death benefit assistance.”

Viola recalls that when they were children, she and her cousin Daisy would make animals from mud. They hid them from Jimmie because, “He would play rough with them and break them, then put them back where he found them. When I got mad at him he would run to mom.”

When they got older, Jimmie and Viola herded sheep, riding double on horseback with Jimmie riding behind his sister. She said Jimmie was interested in the military from an early age, often “playing war” with his cousin Ned.

Jimmie attended Tuba City Boarding School in Arizona; Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon; and Kayenta public schools near Monument Valley, Arizona.

Viola attended Sherman Indian School in Riverside, California and at various times Viola and Jimmie worked at the Grand Canyon. Jimmie played basketball in school and competed in bull riding at the rodeo.

Jimmie joined the Marines after high school. Viola was working in California when a cousin called with the news that Jimmie was missing in action, and then later she received word that he was dead. “That was the saddest day for all of us; we took it very hard,” Viola recalls.

Viola remembers the honor guard folding the flag at Jimmie’s funeral and giving it to their Mom Lola. “My mom knew that her son Jimmie died for his country,” she said.

Jimmie’s uncle Lloyd also died on the Fourth of July, in 1993, and his Mom Lola passed away November 28, 2013, Thanksgiving Day. Viola’s keepsakes of Jimmie include a Bible he gave to Lola and Lloyd, and the flag from Jimmie’s funeral.

Private Jimmie Farrell Slim is buried at the Tuba City Cemetery in Tuba City, Arizona.