The Native American: Warriors in the U.S. Military
The Native American warrior tradition continues today as thousands of Natives are serving proudly in the military. The United States military has become, de facto, the only way an Indian can join the society of warriors, where there has historically been a strong sense of honor. That sense has not been lost over time. Native Americans continue to hold deep respect for their warriors, who currently wear the uniforms of the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.
James Elbert "Jake" McNiece (Choctaw) of the 101st airborne. (Photo Credit: Websta)
Snapshot of Native American History & Contributions to the Armed Forces
American Revolution
Native Americans had no universal policy during the American Revolution. Some chose to ally themselves with the British, others served as Minutemen for the colonist rebellion, and others remained neutral. Their contributions to the war went beyond direct participation. Americans often attributed their victory in the Revolutionary War to the use of Indian tactics. That is a bold statement, but the military clearly changed its tactics in battle more significantly than its British regular army counterparts. Indians continued to fight for America after the revolution, not just as allies, but also as soldiers in the military.
The Catawbas tribe and others sided with the Colonialist Patriots, due to their friendship and ties to settlers. The Cherokees sided with the British to protect their land from further encroachment. (Photo Credit: Know It All)
Civil War
As many as 20,000 American Indians served in the military during the Civil War. Similar to the American Revolution, Native Americans held no universal policy during the war. Tribes aligned themselves according to treaties and proper defense of their homelands. Indians held prominent positions on both sides of the conflict. A Cherokee leader, Stand Watie, was a Confederate brigadier general and at one point was given operational control over white troops. General Ulysses S. Grant's adjutant was a Seneca: Colonel Ely S. Parker, who wrote the document of surrender at Appomattox, and was later promoted to brigadier general.
Harvard educated Ely S. Parker (Seneca) was a Union Civil War Colonel who wrote the terms of surrender between the United States and the Confederate States. He was one of two Native Americans to reach the rank of Brigadier General during the Civil War. Later in his career, President Grant appointed him as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the first Native American to hold that post. (Photo Credit: www.galenahistory.org)
World War I
In the early 20th century when the world was at war, Native Americans joined the fight to defend their homeland against German aggression. Nearly 17,000 Indians served in the military during World War I. They served at twice the per capita rate, when compared to the rest of the U.S. population. Their numbers were not the only significant part of their war contribution. Some Choctaws, for example, transmitted orders over the telephone in their tribal language. It was America's first experiment with an unbreakable code the Germans were unable to decipher.
Due in large part to their perceived natural abilities and skill at warfare, Indians received dangerous assignments. Native soldiers had a far higher casualty rate than that of any other group: five percent of Natives died in combat while less than one percent of all other members of the American Expeditionary Force in France died. This theme of exploiting Indian courage in battle remained a part of American military methodology through Vietnam.
It is noteworthy that Native American warriors chose to fight for the United States even though about half of them did not hold citizenship during all of World War I. The absence of recognition by the United States government did not stop Indians from feeling obligated to defend their nation. The issue was resolved eventually and by the time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, all American Indians were United States citizens.
The Choctaw Code Talkers from Oklahoma pioneered the use of Native languages as military code (Photo Credit: Wyoming State Historical Society)
World War II
During the Second World War, the most famous and widely publicized story was that of the Code Talkers. Their legacy of transmitting an unbreakable code over the radio waves during the war proved vital to the success of the Americans battling throughout the Pacific. It is arguably still the Navajo people's "greatest symbol and source of cultural pride." While the Navajo contribution of over 400 code talkers remains the most publicized, Native Americans from across the continent played a crucial role in "code talking," including members from Wisconsin and Michigan.
In 1941, armed with optimism and having declared Indians to be fellow Aryans, Josef Paul Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda in the Third Reich, predicted that American Indians would rather revolt against the United States than fight against a Germany which had promised to return their expropriated land to them.
Alaskan soldiers pose for the camera while in training at Hooper Bay, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. (Photo Credit: U.S. National Library of Medicine)
Native Americans were not fooled by this ploy. They displayed their loyalty proudly. Warriors responded in unprecedented numbers to America's call for volunteers immediately after Pearl Harbor and continued throughout the war years, because they clearly understood the need for defense of one's own land. Approximately 44,500 Indians served in the military during World War II. This represented more than ten percent of the approximate 400,000 member Native American population.
Participation in the war effort was not restricted to military volunteers alone. From 1942 to 1945, 40,000 Indians, both men and women, left their reservations for jobs in the defense industry. They contributed all means of support including tribal land resources such as oil and timber. Many Natives outside the military took a personal responsibility to assist in the war effort at home. Indians planted a total of 36,200 Victory Gardens to fulfill both their own needs and the government's obligations. Indians were key financial contributors to the war effort as well. By 1944, Native Americans purchased $50,000,000 in war bonds.
World War II brought profound change to people across the globe, and Native Americans were no exception. Al Carroll notes this in his book Medicine Bags and Dog Tags: American Indian Veterans from Colonial Times to the Second Iraq War. He writes, "No other war brought such cultural and social change [to Native Americans] in such a short time." Veterans of the war came back as changed men and women. The warrior societies were reinvigorated and they began to have much in common with Anglo-American veterans groups, such as the American Legion. The bonds of war not only brought them together to re-instill traditions of their past, it gave them a renewed sense of purpose and identity.
When America re-instituted the draft, Native Americans responded with nearly one hundred percent registration rate of eligible men, setting the standard for Americans. Many did not wait to be drafted and promptly volunteered their service to the military. "Since when," one incredulous tribal member supposedly sneered, "has it been necessary for the Blackfeet to draw lots to fight?" Army officials maintained that if the entire population had enlisted in the same proportion as Indians, Selective Service would have been unnecessary.
Korea
About 29,700 American Indians served in the Korean War. They fought alongside fellow Americans with honor. Three who also served during the Korean War received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award given to a member of the U.S. military for valor in action against an enemy force. One of the Natives earning the award was Mitchell Red Cloud Jr., a Wisconsin Winnebago. Mitchell previously served in the Marine Corps in World War II. In Korea, he was a corporal in the U.S. Army when he sacrificed his life to buy time for his fellow soldiers. Refusing assistance he pulled himself to his feet and wrapping his arm around a tree continued his deadly fire again, until he was fatally wounded. This heroic act stopped the enemy from overrunning his company's position and gained time for reorganization and evacuation of the wounded. His actions fill the Ho-Chunk Nation with pride to this day.
Vietnam
During the Vietnam War, approximately 42,000 Native Americans served in Southeast Asia either as advisers or as combat troops. Their contribution to the war effort is even more striking when you consider the following. Approximately one out of four eligible Native Americans served in the military forces in Vietnam, compared to one out of twelve in the general American population. Despite the decreased popularity of the war, Indians devoted themselves to the cause.