Native Americans in World War II - Critical Press Media

Oklahoma Comanche Indians to be part of a special SignalCorps Detachment.• Oct 1940- The armed forces have inducted 1,785 NativeAmericans.• Dec 1941- There are 5,000 Native Americans in the armedforces when Japanese forces attack Pearl Harbor.• Jan 1942 – According to Selective Service officials, 99percent of all eligible Native Americans had registered forthe draft. This ratio set the national standard for the nation.• Jan 1942 - The Navajo Tribal Council calls a specialconvention to dramatize their support for the war effort;50,000 attend.• July 1942 - The Six Nations (Mohawks, Oneida, Seneca,Cayuga, Onondaga, 1942 and Iroquois) declare war on theAxis Powers.• 1942-1943- The Army Air Corps runs a literacy programin Atlantic City, N.J., for native Americans who could notmeet military literacy standards.• Apr 1943- Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickesannounces that Indians have bought $12.6 million in warbonds.• 1944 - Over 46,000 Indian men and women have left theirreservations for defense-related jobs.• Nov 1944- Fifty tribes establish the National Congress ofAmerican Indians (NCAI) in Denver, Colorado.• Jan 1945- John Collier resigns as Indian Commissionerafter years of political controversy.• 1946- The Truman Commission on Civil Rights urgesmore humanitarian consideration for Native Americans.• -Indian Claims Commission Act created byCongress to adjudicate Indian land claims in theaftermath of WWII.• 1947 - Army Indian Scouts discontinued as a separateelement of the U.S. armed forces.• They had last been used on border patrol duties.• 1957 - Utah becomes the last state to permit Indians tovote.51