Mark your calendars. The Cheyenne River Veterans Association will be one of the hosts for this year’s Memorial Day event at Black Hills National Cemetery. The Native American Ceremony will be sponsored by Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and will be held at 1:00 p.m. MST. Memorial Day observed on the last Monday of May (May 26, 2014). The Black Hills National Cemetery is located south of the city of Sturgis in South Dakota.

Black Hills National Cemetery will play host to two Memorial Day ceremonies Monday. The ceremonies will be held at the Cemetery’s Committal Shelter to memorialize all those who answered the call, and made the ultimate sacrifice, in defense of our great Nation. The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Department of South Dakota, will be the hosts of the Memorial Day Services.

The traditional ceremony, sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Department of South Dakota, will be held at 11 a.m. Guest speakers will include Gov. Dennis Daugaard and Col. Mark Weatherington, Commander of the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base. The Sturgis High School Band will perform the National Anthem.

The Native American Ceremony, sponsored by Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, will be held at 1 p.m. This is a time change from previous years.

Visitors may visit and place flowers on graves of those they loved and lost all weekend long. The general public is invited to bring lawn chairs or blankets to sit on or they may sit on the bleachers.

This year’s theme is “Never Forget, Ever Honor.”