Produced by Patty Loew (Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe), Wisconsin Public Television, Way of the Warrior offers a Native perspective during this season when the new Ken Burns series The War brings this subject to the forefront of national attention. WORLD WAR II
During World War II, more than 25,000 Native Americans saw military service. The 1924 Indian Citizenship Act had conferred citizenship on all American Indians. Native men were required to register for the draft, a requirement that some Indian nations, including the Mohawk and Seneca of the Six Nations Confederacy, believed violated their treaties and undermined their sovereignty. Even as they filed suit to press their claims, in June 1942, the Six Nations independently declared war on the Axis Powers and urged their tribal members to enlist in the U.S. military.
The response of Indian tribes to the war effort differed from community to community. In Oklahoma, the Muscogee, also known, as the Creeks, responded enthusiastically to enlistment appeals. The Creeks developed a unique political structure to organize their society into war and peace divisions. Creek Cultural Director Joyce Bear explains the responsibilities of these “Red Towns” and “White Towns.” Watch video: Red Towns
Joreen Coker (Creek) is a former WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) from Oklahoma. Coker was attending the Haskell Indian School in Kansas when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. After Coker completed her studies, she went to work at a powder plant in Desoto, Kansas and a B-17 base in Dalhart, Texas. In January 1944, Coker enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was assigned to clerical work—mostly processing paperwork for military personnel shipping in and out of Pearl Harbor. Born in a “Red Town,” Coker says her decision to join the WAVES was consistent with her own family and tribal traditions. Watch video: Coker family traditions
Not all Native communities have warrior traditions. Michael Pavatea, who directs veterans services for the Hopi Nation, says even the term, “warrior,” makes him uncomfortable. Watch video: Hopi means peaceful
The Hopi may lack the warrior societies and traditions that exist in other Native communities, but they do have cleansing ceremonies for returning veterans. Pavatea says these ceremonies not only help the veterans themselves but also protect the community from the poisons of war. Watch video: Hopi cleansing ceremonies
Norman B Honie (Hopi-Tewa) was a paratrooper with the 511th Airborne Division. Honie believes the Kachina ceremonies he participated in before he left his Hopi community kept him strong during the war. His spiritual beliefs were a kind of armor that shielded him behind enemy lines. Watch video: Honie Kachinas ceremony
Alice Loew (Ojibwe) worked for the Perfex Corporation in Milwaukee during World War II, a period that saw an increase in wealth among urban Indians who joined the wartime work force. (DeNomie Family archive)
Sgt. Phil Coon (Muscogee Creek) was a machine gunner with the 31st Infantry Division who survived the Bataan Death March in the Philippines during World War II.
