Native Americans in WWII

Pfc. Carl Gorman on Saipan, 6/27/44

Aug 1940- BIA Commissioner John Collier met with Selective Service representatives to determine how to register Indians.

Sep 1940- Congress passed Selective Service Act.

Oct 1940 - Congress passed Nationalities Act granting citizenship to all Native Americans without impairing tribal authority. For the first time, American Indians registered for the draft.

Jan 1941- The Fourth Signal Company recruited thirty Oklahoma Comanche Indians to be part of a special Signal Corps Detachment.

Dec 1941- There are 5,000 Native Americans in the armed forces when Japanese forces attack Pearl Harbor.

Jan 1942 - According to Selective Service officials, 99 percent of all eligible Native Americans had registered for the draft. This percentage set the national standard for the nation.

Jan 1942 - The Navajo Tribal Council called a special convention to dramatize their support for the war effort; 50,000 attend.

Jul 1 942 - The Six Nations (Mohawks, Oneida, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, 1942 and Iroquois) declared war on the Axis Powers.

1942-1943- The Ammy Air Corps ran a literacy program in Atlantic City, N.J., for native Americans who could not meet military literacy standards.

Apr 1943- Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes announced that Indians have bought $12.6 million in war bonds.

1944 - Over 46,000 Indian men and women left their reservations for defense-related jobs.

Nov 1944- Fifty tribes established the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in Denver, Colorado.

Jan 1945- John Collier resigned as Indian Commissioner after years of political controversy.

1946- Indian Claims Commission Act was created by Congress to adjudicate Indian land claims in the aftermath of WWII.

1947 - Army Indian Scouts discontinued as a separate element of the U.S. armed forces. They had last been used on border patrol duties.

1957 - Utah became the last state to permit Indians to vote.

Links:

• chronology text from American Indians in World War II from DefenseLink
• LAPAHIE.com 2.8 \ The Navajo Code Talkers by Harrison Lapahie Jr.
• Native American Women Veterans
• Navajo Code Talkers Association
• Navajo Code Talkers from Senator Jeff Bingaman.
• Navajo Code Talkers: World War II Fact Sheet and 20th Century Warriors: Native American Participation in the United States Military from U.S. Navy
• Navajo Marine Code Talkers from NavajoCentral
• Sources on Native American Code Talkers bibliography
• SNCOA Library Bibliography for Navajo Code Talkers
• Windtalkers 2002 feature film, and Navajo Code Talkers 1995 documentary film

Books and Articles:

• Franco, Jere Bishop. Crossing The Pond: The Native American Effort In World War II. University of North Texas Press. 1999.
• Greenberg, Henry and Georgia. Power of a Navajo, Carl Gorman: The Man and His Life. Santa Fe, N.M. : Clear Light Publishers, 1996.
• Morgan, Thomas D. Native Americans in World War IIexcerpted from Army History: The Professional Bulletin of Army History, No. 35 (Fall 1995), pp. 22-27.
• Ross, Bill D. Iwo Jima, Legacy of Valor. New York, Random, 1985.
• Semper Fidelis, Code Talkers in Prologue, Winter 2001, Vol. 33, No. 4.

---