During World War II, 24,521 American Indians served in the U.S. military and received the following awards: Air Medal (71), Silver Star (51), Bronze Star (47), Distinguished Flying Cross (34), and Medal of Honor (2). More than 480 Indians were killed during the war. World War II ended in September 1945 and by 1946 Indian veterans were returning home.
Indians returned home from the military and from war-time jobs with new experiences, new skills, and new expectations. In his chapter in American Indian Nations: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, Kevin Grover writes:
“The skills acquired in the war effort had little place on reservations where industry and jobs were largely non-existent. Yet the war demonstrated the ability of these veterans and war workers to deal with the non-Indian world.”
Writing about the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana, David Miller, in The History of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana, 1800-2000, reports:
“The knowledge of training, the experience of teamwork, and the situations demanding leadership shaped those veterans who came back.”
GI Bill
Like other veterans, many Indians took advantage of the GI Bill to attend colleges and universities. As a result, a new generation of Indian leaders, many of whom now held degrees in law, medicine, engineering, and other fields, began to emerge. No longer were Indian nations reliant on non-Indians to provide many of the technical skills required in the twentieth century.
While the GI Bill provided many Indian veterans with an opportunity for higher education, the bill’s housing provisions could not be applied on reservations. Banks would not loan money for houses to Indians on reservations. The problem was that the Bureau of Indian Affairs would not sign a waiver to the title to the land as Indian reservations are lands which are held in trust by the federal government. There was no way to secure a loan, even under the GI Bill, without this waiver.
Voting Rights
During World War I, Indians were not citizens and could not be drafted. Yet, many Indians volunteered and served with distinction. In recognition of this, Indians who had served during the war had been granted citizenship. In 1924, Congress finally passed legislation granting citizenship to all Indians. In spite of this act, many states refused to allow Indians to vote. In 1940, Congress passed the Nationality Act which again conferred citizenship on American Indians and required that Indian men register for the draft.
Having fought for their country, many Indian veterans felt that they, as citizens and veterans, should be allowed to vote, but many states disagreed and refused to give Indians this right. For example, in North Carolina, county registrars refused to register Eastern Cherokee war veterans to vote. The Cherokee appealed the decisions to the governor and attorney general, but nothing was done.
In other instances, the Indian veterans were more successful in their efforts to obtain voting rights. In 1947, a New Mexico court ruling found that New Mexico had discriminated against Indians by denying them the vote. The federal judge remarked:
“We all know that these New Mexico Indians have responded to the needs of the country in time of war. Why should they be deprived of their rights to vote now because they are favored by the federal government in exempting their lands from taxation.”
In Arizona Indians had not been allowed to vote as they were considered “wards of the government.” In Harrison v. Laveen the Arizona Supreme Court found that the constitutional rights of Indians had been violated and granted all Indians in the state the right to vote.
While many textbooks cite the Arizona and New Mexico cases as giving Indians the right to vote, active voter suppression and denial of the vote continued for several more decades.
Alcohol and Discrimination
Indian veterans returned home with different expectations about how they were to be treated. While they had fought tyranny in Europe and in the Pacific and had been treated as equals during this fight, they returned home to find that they were still second-class citizens (and in some states, the recognition of their citizenship lacking). They faced discrimination in housing, employment, education, land rights, water rights, and voting. In his book In the Hands of the Great Spirit: The 20,000-Year History of American Indians, Jake Page describes the experience of returning Indian veterans:
“Returning vets were not allowed to drink without fear of being arrested. They were not, in many instances, allowed to vote, still being wards of the government they had fought under. On the reservation, there was practically no way they could find work that would pay as well as their military paycheck.”
In many states, it was illegal for Indians to purchase or consume alcohol. Yet many of the veterans had found that while in the military they were able to purchase and consume alcohol with no legal difficulties both on the bases or while on furlough in foreign countries. Many returned home wanting this same freedom as civilians in the United States.
In 1947 Congress passed legislation which allowed Indians to use alcohol only for mechanical, scientific, or medicinal purposes. Indians who drank for social purposes, or who had alcohol in their possession, could still be arrested.
In 1951, the Oregon State Legislature removed the ban on the sale of alcohol to Indians and the prohibition of intermarriage with Indians.
In 1953 Congress ended the prohibition against selling alcohol and firearms to Indians. The tribes, with the approval of the secretary of the Interior, are allowed to regulate the introduction of alcohol into Indian Country.
Code Talkers
During the War, Native American “code talkers” who spoke their native languages had been used to help facilitate rapid communication without enemy comprehension. The most famous of these were the Navajo Code Talkers used by the Marines in the Pacific. The U.S. Army in both the Pacific and in Europe used Sioux Code Talkers who used Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota Sioux languages as code. As with the Navajo, the Sioux Code Talkers program was classified, and the contribution of these soldiers was not officially recognized until long after the war. In Arizona, Navajo marines who had served as code talkers in the Pacific were told not to talk about what they had done.
Indians 101
Twice each week, Indians 101 explores topics relating to American Indian histories, cultures, arts, biographies, and current concerns. More from this series:
WWII & American Indians: The Draft
WWII & American Indians: Serving in the Military
World War II & American Indians: The Home Front
Indians 101: Indians, Iwo Jima, and the American Flag
Indians 101: American Indians and the Korean War
Indians 101: 20th Century Indian Wars
Indians 101: Denying Indian Nations Legal Representation
Indians 101: California Indians Lose Their Home