Native Americans in World War II - Critical Press Media

Distinguished Service Crosses, and three Congressional Medalsof Honor. Indian participation in World War II was so extensivethat it later became part of American folklore and popular culture.The Warrior ImageThe Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor seemed to waken anancestral warrior spirit in many Native Americans. Thousands ofyoung Indians went into the armed forces or to work in the warproduction plants that abruptly emerged during military andindustrial mobilization. A 1942 survey indicated that 40 percentmore Native Americans voluntarily enlisted than had beendrafted. Lt. Emest Childers (Creek), Lt. Jack Montgomery(Cherokee), and Lt. Van Barfoot (ChoctawW all of the famed45th "Thunderbird" Infantry Division-won Medals of Honor inEurope. Childers had first distinguished himself in Sicily, wherehe received a battlefield commission. Later in Italy, unaided anddespite severe wounds, he destroyed three German machine gunemplacements. During the Anzio Campaign in Italy, Montgomeryattacked a German strongpoint single-handed, killing eleven ofthe enemy and taking thirty-three prisoners. During the breakoutfrom Anzio to Rome, Barfoot knocked out two machine gun nestsand captured seventeen prisoners. Subsequently, he defeated threeGerman tanks and carried two wounded men to safety. All ofthese exploits reinforced the "warrior" image in the Americanmind. Maj. Gen. Clarence Tinker, an Osage and a career pilot,was the highest ranking Indian in the armed forces at thebeginning of the war. He died leading a flight of bombers in thePacific during the Battle of Midway. Joseph J. "Jocko" Clark, thefirst Indian (Cherokee) to graduate from Annapolis, participatedin carrier battles in the Pacific and became an admiral. BrumettEchohawk (Pawnee), a renowned expert in hand-to-hand combat,trained commandos.A Tradition as FightersThe Iroquois Confederacy, having declared war on Germany in1917, had never made peace and so automatically became party to42