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lines, even though they were "often barred from full participation in American life."
• "They saved lives and they won battles," said Cole, himself a member of the Chickasaw Nation.
• Boehner told the story of two American Indians, serving in the European theater, who did not know each other. They began to speak a tribal language to each other and their commanding officer overheard them.
• "He immediately put them to work on opposite ends of a radio," Boehner said.
• As speakers finished their remarks, Boehner called representatives of the 33 tribes to the stage to receive their medals. The crowd delivered a thunderous standing ovation.
• For Cook, of the Cheyenne River Sioux, it was a moment to savor.
• "This is our land," Cook said. "We would always serve to protect our country."
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Ballooning animal controversies mar Macy's parade
VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press
• NEW YORK (AP) -- Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is awash in animal-related protests over its floats, with controversies involving the unlikely pairing of rocker Joan Jett and Shamu the killer whale.
• Activists plan to line the route of next week's parade to protest a SeaWorld float over accusations in a new documentary that the theme parks treat whales badly. And ranchers succeeded in getting Jett pulled off the South Dakota tourism float after they questioned why the vegetarian and animal-rights ally was representing their beef-loving state.
• The float flaps threaten to shake Macy's traditional position of staying out of politics and soaring silently above the fray, like the massive balloons of Snoopy, Kermit the Frog and SpongeBob SquarePants.
• "The parade has never taken on, promoted or otherwise engaged in social commentary, political debate or other forms of advocacy," Cincinnati-based Macy's Inc. said in a statement this week.
• It was in that spirit that parade executive producer Amy Kule said Tuesday that the SeaWorld float is staying.
• "There is no controversy," she said. "Our goal is to entertain, and that is their goal, as well."
• The SeaWorld float, which depicts rolling waves, tropical fish, penguins and Shamu, comes months after the release of the documentary "Blackfish," which contends that SeaWorld's poor treatment of its killer whales contributed to the aggression of a whale involved in a trainer's death.
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