Transcript Native Americans & WWII - Liz Collins' Classroom Website

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
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!!!
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.
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
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!!!
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.
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
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
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!!!
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!”
Native American Response