By Aura Long
Spring 2025
Introduction
During World War II (1939-1945), over 44,000 Native Americans served in the U.S. military, and thousands more supported the war effort at home (Morgan 1995, 22). While often celebrated as patriots, their stories are more complex than that single label allows. The experiences of Native soldiers reveal a story of sovereignty, resistance, and the contradictions of being Indigenous in a country built on settler colonialism.
Fighting for Homelands, Not the U.S. Government
Many Indigenous people enlisted not out of loyalty to the United States, but out of commitment to their tribal homelands and cultural values (Barsh 1991, 276-303). As First Peoples recounts, some hoped military service would improve their tribe’s political status; others followed warrior traditions or sought economic opportunity (Calloway 2023, 411-413). Mohawk soldier Ollie Kinney said he enlisted “to help my country”—but “country” meant his people’s land, not the U.S. government (Calloway 2023, 411). A Umatilla Navy veteran put it simply: “Our people’s devotion to this land is stronger than any piece of paper”. His granddaughter agreed and added, “deeper than our mistrust… more important than our wounds from past injustices…tougher than hatred (Calloway 2023, 411).”
The Contradiction of Coming Home
Despite their sacrifices abroad, Native soldiers returned to a country that continued to deny them equal rights. Under Jim Crow laws in the South, Indigenous people were grouped with other people of color and denied access to white schools, hospitals, and restaurants (Lowery 2009, 12). Malinda Lowery, a member of the Lumbee tribe and a historian who specializes in Native identity, explains that while Lumbee soldiers were recognized as Native and served alongside white units overseas, they returned to a deeply segregated society (Lowery 2009, 12). In the military, they had shared meals, sleeping quarters, and camaraderie with non-Natives, but in Robeson County, they were refused service at lunch counters, turned away by white barbers, and barred from public facilities (Lowery 2009, 12). This bitter irony—that after risking their lives for “freedom,” they came home to a country that still denied them basic rights—is a central part of their story.
Native Women’s Contributions
This racism was not limited to men. While Native women did not serve on the front lines, they played vital roles in the war effort (Morgan 1995, 23-25). Over 12,000 Native women left their reservations to work in war industries by 1943 (Morgan 1995, 25). Others became farmers, mechanics, Red Cross volunteers, and more. Like the men, their contributions were often erased from the dominant national narrative—but they were essential to their communities and to the war itself.
Military Service as a Platform for Sovereignty and Protest
For many Native soldiers and veterans, military service became a means of resistance. C.W. Oxendine, a Lumbee from North Carolina, wrote to President Roosevelt to challenge the injustice of drafting Indigenous men into a country that denied them basic rights (Lowerly 2009, 13-14). He pointed out that Native people “scar[ce]less have the right to citi[zen]ship” and “ no equal right as a nat[ion] of people,” exposing the gap between the legal status they were supposedly granted and lived experience (Lowerly 2009, 13). Oxendine didn’t just call for civil rights—he demanded that his people be recognized as a sovereign nation, not reduced to a racial category. His letter—and the government’s bureaucratic dismissal—reveal how military service was a platform for Native people to challenge the twisted colonial logic that continued to deny their sovereignty.
Challenging the Narrative
Scholar and activist Russel Barsh warns against reducing Indigenous participation in World War II to a simplistic tale of patriotism. Native soldiers fought for many reasons, and their return to a country that continued to marginalize them underscores the resilience of their communities. Still, they persisted. Veterans and their families transformed their service into a platform for demanding justice, recognition, and sovereignty.
Native service complicates the story we often tell about World War II—and reveals how Indigenous resistance takes many forms, including the uniform.
Works Cited
Barsh, Russel Lawrence. “American Indians in the Great War.” Ethnohistory 38, no. 3 (1991): 276–303. https://doi.org/10.2307/482356.
First Peoples: Calloway, Colin G. First Peoples. 7th ed. Macmillan Higher Education, 2023. pp. 411-413.
Lowery, Malinda Maynor. “Indians, Southerners, and Americans: Race, Tribe, and Nation during “Jim Crow”.” Native South 2 (2009): 1-22. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/nso.0.0020.
Morgan, Thomas D. “Native Americans in World War II.” Army History, no. 35 (1995): 22–27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26304400.
