discussion: 300 word discussion You have read how Native Americans served in th

discussion: 300 word discussion
You have read how Native Americans served in the armed forces in record numbers, beginning with World War II. However, they are fighting for a country which has continually called for the ending of their way of life, and in many cases attempted to exterminate them. Why would Native American men and women serve in the U.S. military? Explain as many different reasons as you can. Do you think it benefited them to do so?
Respond: 100 word response
In 1939 the second World War erupted when Adolf Hitler ignored a British ultimatum and invaded Poland (443). As everyone should know, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States were the next major powers to declare war and join in the fighting. Upon the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, the textbook states that “Nazi propaganda pitched American Indians as “natural allies,” claiming that Germans and Indians had a historic affinity and should make a common cause the oppressive United States” (443-44). The reaction of the natives, however, was the exact opposite of what Hitler’s forces were hoping to obtain: “the [native] people rallied to the defense of their country in record numbers” (444). The prompt states that “they are fighting for a country which has attempted to exterminate them,” and it asks, “why would the Native American men and women serve in the U.S. military?” That is where it is important to look at the details – according to the text (and assuming it’s truthful) the “Iroquois challenged the right of the federal government to compel Indian men to fight, and a group of Iroquois issues a formal declaration of war against the Axis powers in 1942, indicating that they were participating in the war as sovereign nation, not as subordinates of the United States” (444). The Iroquois were fighting for themselves and their land, not necessarily for the United States of America. That being said, almost the entirety of the other tribes signed up for the draft or volunteered. They donated to The Red Cross and women volunteered to be nurses. Even those who were not with the Iroquois were fighting for the land. Perhaps, the reason was they did not want to be overtaken again by a power that – unlike the United States – was genuinely evil. They’d suffered from genocide before, perhaps they understood on a different level what the Jewish and Christian people were suffering through. I believe that WWII was a tragedy, and sometimes it is hard to find any benefit from horrid wars. Obviously, in this case it was a just war, and very necessary, and therefore I do believe that the native people joining benefited them in the long run. It allowed them to be respected by some who did not hold them in high esteem before. “The pendulum of public opinion and government support swung away from the reform impetus” (447). Because of their assistance, they served actively as Marines and members of the navy, as well as “donating” their native language (Navajo) as the most complex and unbreakable code to the United States’ government. ‘Congress aimed to ‘wipe the slate clean’” and begin anew with the native people who, they acknowledged, they had committed wrongdoings against (447). It also assisted in obtaining the Indian Claims Commission (ICC) to attempt to reverse “a scandal of historic proportions” and acknowledge the process that the “dominant culture” of the United States took part in at “great cost to the Native Americans” (448). From what I can tell, this was a successful step towards the native folk receiving what the deserved.