1. Native Americans & WWII THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

3. Answer the Call to Arms!  After Pearl Harbor:  5 million Americans volunteered for the Armed Services.  50 million registered for Selective Service and 15 million were screened.  10 million were drafted by the Selective Service.  THE MILITARY’S PEAK STRNGTH? 12 MILLION PEOPLE!!!

4. Answer the Call to Arms!  The total U.S. population in 1941, by the way, was around 340,000,000 people & 350,000 were Indians. To the right: CENSUS MATERIAL.

5. Answer the Call to Arms! “The United States never broke a treaty with a foreign nation and never kept one with the Indians.” --Will Rogers, Humorist & Native American

6. Nazis & Native Americans! During WWI, the United States used the Choctaw language to send secret messages. In the 1930s, the Nazis actually used spies disguised as researchers & anthropologists to infiltrate native American tribes in an attempt to learn their languages!!!

7. Nazis & Native Americans!  German-American organizations actively worked to persuade native Americans not to register for the draft.  Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, predicted that Native Americans would revolt against the U.S. government because the Swastika was so closely related to a Native American Symbol.

8. Native American Response “War Department officials maintained that if the entire population had enlisted in the same proportion, the response would have rendered Selective Service unnecessary”. —Lt. Col. Thomas Morgan

9. Native American Response The six Iroquois Nations declare war on the Axis Powers in July of 1942.  The Mohawks  The Oneida  The Seneca  The Onandaga  The Tuscarora  The Cayuga

10. Native American Response  99% of all eligible Native Americas—those males between the ages of 21 and 44— registered for the draft.  Annual Native American enlistment increased from 7,500 in 1942 to 22,000 in 1945.  On Pearl harbor Day, there were 5,000 Native Americans in the Army.  AT THE END OF THE WAR, 44,500 NATIVES HAD SERVED THEIR COUNTRY AND ANSWERED THE CALL TO ARMS!!!

11. Native American Response  Many native Americans were eager to join the war effort.  Young and older Natives stood in lines for hours waiting to register.  A Native American was rejected by the Selective Serice because he had no teeth and responded to the doctor by saying, “I don’t want to bit’em, I just want to shoot’em!”  Another native American rejected because of his weight replied “I didn’t come to run! I came to fight!”

12. Native American Response