Jim Northrup

Ogichidaa. I was born in war WWII, listened as the old men told stories of getting gassed in the trenches WWI. Saw my uncles come back from Guadalcanal North Africa and the Battle of the Bulge. Memorized the war stories my cousins told of Korea. Felt the fear in their voices. Finally, it was my turn, my brothers, too. Joined the Marines in time for the Cuban Missile Crisis. Heard the crack of rifles in the rice patties south of DaNang. Saw my friends die there. And tasted the bitterness of the only war America ever lost. My son is now a warrior. Will I listen to his stories or cry into his open grave? Way of the Warrior is made possible in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities great ideas brought to life; the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation; and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Patty Loew

Native Americans have one of the highest military enlistment rates in the country. Some might find that ironic given their historic mistreatment. They serve for the same reasons other Americans serve out of patriotism, or economic reasons, opportunity. But there's another layer that's uniquely cultural. My grandfather, Edward DeNomie is one of the veterans you're about to meet. He was one of 12,000 American Indians who volunteered for World War I. Why? He wasn't even a citizen yet was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. In the stories you're about to hear we explore the deeper meaning to being Ogichidaa, "one who protects" and follows the "Way of the Warrior." In 1918, in the terrible trenches along Europe's western front the "war to end all wars" signaled a new beginning. The era of modern warfare, with airplanes tanks, poisoned gas, horrifying new ways to die. America created an army of farmers and shopkeepers citizen soldiers. But there were other Americans fighting with them First Americans, American Indians many of whom were not citizens. Men like Edward DeNomie, an Ojibwe Indian from Wisconsin. For DeNomie and 12,000 other American Indian soldiers World War I was a frightening introduction to the American mainstream. ( rapid gunfire ) How does an Indian boy from a remote reservation in northern Wisconsin find himself here? For DeNomie and many others, the journey began in an Indian boarding school. They sent him to Tomah. They gave him a uniform and, "We'll make a white man out of you if it kills you." So, they made the kids wear the uniforms. They didn't know what to do with them.

Loew

Ed DeNomie's father was a standout athlete. "Dynamite DeNomie" they called him. In 1916, just the kind of man the Wisconsin National Guard was looking for. He heard that they gave them a dollar a month. And he said to him that was a lot of money. He said they had no money.

Professor Thomas Britten

These were highly regimented schools where the students wore uniforms. They marched to and from class marched to and from the dining hall.

Professor Rosemary Ackley Christensen

Boarding schools were something that the U.S. government did to assimilate Indian people. It seems to me the government was so interested in changing Indian kids to make sure they weren't like their parents and grandparents.

Britten

It was very much a West Point, almost, type of environment kind of a seamless transition from military school to training camp then to the front lines.

Loew

In June of 1916, DeNomie's Guard Unit, Company K of the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry, trained here at Camp Douglas west of Madison. A year later, he found himself on the Mexican border with American troops chasing Pancho Villa. DeNomie's unit saw little action. And DeNomie had ample time to document camp life with the one luxury item he had brought with him, a camera. The photos reveal a largely Native American unit. Indian boys so pleased to be in uniform. The monotony of camp-life broken by the occasional dice game. Or the posed production of young men playing at war. There's no hint of the hell they're about to experience. ( rapid gunfire and explosions ) When America entered World War I in April, 1917 Guard units from Indian boarding schools played a critical role. As some of the only combat-ready troops in America Guard units became the vanguard of the AEF American Expeditionary Forces. The Wisconsin and Michigan Guard combined to form the 32nd, also known as the Red Arrow Division. The 32nd saw some of the war's heaviest fighting.

Britten

There were Indians sprinkled throughout almost all of the divisions in the U.S. Army. But there were five or six that possessed larger numbers those from the Great Lakes region, like the 32nd. Indian troops are going to fight in every major battle. They're going to be there when General Pershing lands with the AEF in France.

Loew

Unlike African-American troops who served in segregated units in World War I Native American soldiers were integrated into the military. On tribal documents, DeNomie is listed as a full-blood Ojibwe but his Army enlistment papers say he's white.

Britten

They wanted Indians integrated into regular units so that assimilation would be encouraged and enhanced. So, during the war, Indians were classified as white and integrated into regular units.

Loew

For many, it was the first time they'd ever left their reservations.

DeNomie's Diary

February 18, 1918. Arrived in Brest, France.

Loew

DeNomie's diary offers a window into the war.

DeNomie's Diary

August 4, 1918. Got shelled on the road, observation by a Boche balloon. Heavy casualties. Under severe shell fire. High explosives and gas. Lost my friend, "Chub," by shrapnel. A bomb had hit in a little village in France. I don't know what the village was. But he saw it hit and he saw the flash. And it must have ricocheted back and forth in these little buildings. It hit the back of his ear. He went to the field hospital and he says, "Sew that up." And he looked around a guy with a big bandage around his head maybe one leg off. He says, "Sew it up. Get me out of here." He went back to the front. He was a tough cookie. September 29, moved into Cheppy. Very recently taken from the enemy. Mines exploding in dugouts and trenches.

Britten

Hours or days of constant artillery bombardment to soften up the enemy, followed by an assault. Meanwhile then, the men that are suffering are trapped in these trenches that, after rain, are filled with water and sewage and rats. And so, the men are going to be contracting diseases. Their feet are going to be in terrible shape. They're going to be sleep deprived. And so, it must have been a horrendous existence.

Loew

The Red Arrow suffered 14,000 casualties nearly 60% of their fighting force. Because of stereotypes, Native soldiers were singled out for the most dangerous assignments.

Britten

Indians were, first of all, very eager to fight. They were especially brave. That they had certain talents that non-Indians lacked. For example, they had an instinctive sense of direction. They had especially keen hearing and eyesight. The consequences of those stereotypes were deadly for Native American men. The result of that is that the casualty rate is about five times that of the AEF as a whole.

Loew

Americans weren't the only ones who stereotyped Indians. Generations of Germans had grown up admiring and fearing Native people because of the fiction of German author Karl May. Enormously popular, May wrote more than 80 books most of them about the American Wild West. Captured German soldiers confessed they were terrified at having to fight Indians.

Britten

There was actually some serious consideration given in the higher echelons of the military to outfitting frontline Indian troops with Plains war bonnets just in war paint, presumably, to instill fear in the enemy.

Loew

On the home front, groups like the Society of American Indians tried to break down the stereotypes and promote racial pride. They also wanted citizenship.

Britten

Everyone, citizen or non-citizen had to register for the draft. But when it came to inducting them only citizen-Indians could be drafted. But many young men didn't know if they were citizens or not. They didn't know what their status was.

Loew

Citizenship was tied to allotment a 19th century federal policy intended to privatize Indian reservations across the country. Allot parcels of land to individual tribal members and open the rest to white homesteaders. Still, enlistment on some reservations topped 70%. Even in communities that had fought against the United States barely a generation earlier. In these communities, warriors were revered. But entrance to warrior societies required combat a right of passage denied to young men during the boarding school era. For them, volunteering for World War I was an opportunity, not to show how American they had become but how tribal they still really were.

Professor Donald Fixico

So much of their culture had been changed that they didn't have the opportunity to really have the full-fledged military societies the warrior societies, so to speak because the federal government had changed them, forcibly onto reservations, and to stop practicing tribal ways. And in that era of transition, so much was lost. And so, the only opportunity for Native men to prove them as warriors was to go into World War I.

Loew

And when they returned their communities welcomed them home with victory dances and traditional ceremonies. Then... and now. ( drumming and singing )

PA Announcer

Ladies and gentlemen here come the warriors of the 21st century. Right here in Milwaukee Indian Summer Fest...

Fixico

At Pow Wows, there are honor dances and veteran dances, and so forth. And to me, it's not anything new, because we've always done that. And I think a lot of the tribes have those traditions of having victory dances, and scout dances, and so forth. So, it's an extension kind of carried over from the past that kind of cultural past, kind of a new past.

Loew

As they do every year, the DeNomie clan gathers at Milwaukee's Indian Summer Fest. For Tom DeNomie, a Korean War Veteran and his brother Ed, who served in World War II the Grand Entry is especially meaningful. The first dance is reserved for veterans.

Tom DeNomie

That's when I really felt his presence, my father. Those were moments that he really liked. We never missed the parade. Oh, man, that was great. And salute... when the flag went by, you know. Even though you weren't in uniform, you still saluted. I could feel the pride in me just being there and listening to the drums. All the things that have taken place through all the years it makes me feel real proud.

PA Announcer

Here are the champions in the house! Get down! Here we go!

Loew

General Patton once called the 45th Infantry perhaps the best division in the history of American arms. The Thunderbirds, as they were known were National Guard troops from Oklahoma, Colorado Arizona and New Mexico.

Joyce Bear

They were Indian soldiers. They were one of our own.

Loew

Creek Cultural Director Joyce Bear. They're to be revered. I mean, the Thunderbirds, they were always revered. They always went in with -- especially with the insignia of the Thunderbird on their shoulder. People always just set them apart. The Thunderbirds saw fierce fighting in World War II battling their way from Sicily up the boot of Italy. They were the first to reach German soil

and paid a terrible price

3,700 dead 4,400 missing, more than 18,000 wounded. The Thunderbirds were one of the most highly decorated divisions of World War II accounting for scores of Silver and Bronze Stars and three Medals of Honor the nation's highest battlefield award. One of them went to this man, Lt. Col. Ernest Childers. In the Creek Nation in eastern Oklahoma no warrior stands taller. September, 1943, Oliveto, Italy. Childers' platoon was pinned down by a wall of German artillery. He was a platoon commander...

Loew

His nephew, Kenneth, knows the story well. How Childers ordered his enlisted men to stay back. How he, himself, alone and out of hand grenades crawled toward the machine guns killing two snipers along the way. For some reason, his hand fell on a rock. So, he picked the rock and throws it. And he assumed they thought it was a hand grenade. When that guy jumped out of there, then he killed him. Childers continued to crawl up the hill and single-handedly captured another German soldier. Later, he said he crawled because he couldn't walk. In the initial assault, he had stepped into a shell hole and fractured his ankle. Amazingly, Childers had killed three enemy soldiers wounded one, and captured another all on a broken foot. Childers was sited for exceptional leadership and conspicuous gallantry. I'm in awe of him, and I'm not in awe of very many people. I get the same way when I talk about him. I'm serious, you know. He's way beyond an ordinary person. I remember as a child, after the war was over he came to visit the family. And I remember being just a small child. I looked up at him and I thought he was ten feet tall. And he was just-- It was just awesome. And to think back as to the reverence that we all showed to him for the deeds he had done. And not so much for the reward but it was the fact that one of our own was capable of doing that sort of thing. As Childers and the Thunderbirds were fighting in Italy another Creek Warrior was trying to survive the fall of the Philippines. What little we had, I think we gave it all we had. Sergeant Phillip Coon a machine gunner in the Army's 31st Division was stationed on the Bataan Peninsula. The 31st was in terrible shape. Out of food, out of ammunition many of the soldiers sick with malaria. In April, their commanding officer ordered the men to surrender to the Japanese.

I got captured about 10

00 in the morning. I will always remember that because it was on my dad's birthday, April 11.

Loew

Coon and his unit were marched more than 60 miles with little food or water. He remembers a Filipino village the Japanese set fire to the burned bodies of children and elders are images that continue to haunt him. They wouldn't allow us to help anybody you know, help them along. I know there was a Filipino about my size. The Filipino Army was on that march. His ankle was swollen, and that foot. I told him to put his arm around my neck. You know, we'll go slowly, but we were walking. They took him out of the crowd. I heard a rifle shot. I think they shot that Filipino. I think to this day I'm talking, the reason we survived I said all the actions are on the side up front and in the back. So, we stayed in the middle of the pack.

Professor Kenneth Townsend

Soldiers were dropping out from heat exhaustion from starvation, from a variety of diseases. And once the soldier dropped out he was immediately killed by a Japanese guard. The brutality was inconceivable. Some Japanese officers wanted to practice their swordsmanship and would take prisoners out of the marching ranks have them get on their knees, and then behead them.

Loew

Coon survived the march and two and a half years in Japanese work camps. In November, 1944, he and other American Prisoners of War were put aboard unmarked ships and sent to Japan. Coon became a slave laborer at an underground smelting factory. That Coon survived his ordeal is nothing short of miraculous. Two out of three American prisoners on Bataan did not. If few Americans knew who Phillip Coon was by March, 1945, everyone knew who this man was. Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona became the most famous American Indian Marine in World War II. It was because of this photograph the historic flag raising on Iwo Jima.

Townsend

The Marine Corps wanted to know the names of each of these individuals. The general public wanted to know. And of course, Washington wanted to know because Washington wanted to bring each of them home to help sell War Bonds for the 7th War Loan. Before the identities of all six men could be found three of them were killed in combat. So, fortunately, for Hayes he had survived the following days of battle and was identified as one of the flag raisers. Immediately pulled off the front lines and sent back stateside.

Loew

Native American Marines played a crucial role at Imo Jiwa. In the first two days of the battle using a code developed in their own language Navajo Marines sent and received 800 messages relaying critical information about troop movements and military strategy.

Townsend

Every Marine commander from the summer of '42 until the end of the war commended the Navajo code talkers and ascribed success of battlefield victory to their service, to their work.

Loew

The Navajo are perhaps the best known code talkers but they were not the only tribe to provide this service. There were more than a dozen others. And they weren't the first. During World War I, Choctaw code talkers using telephones sent encrypted messages in their language. Their success inspired the Indian code talking of World War II. Despite their contributions, Indian soldiers still battled stereotypes. Nearly every Native man remembers being called "Chief" sometimes as a term of endearment sometimes not. Native women seemed to face less discrimination. During World War II, Joreen Coker was one of 800 Native women on active duty. Coker served in the volunteer emergency services better known as the WAVES. From her base in Pearl Harbor, Coker processed paperwork for soldiers who had completed their tours of duty. They were polite. And they were-- just took me as a human being and no discrimination whatsoever. And I think that that was one thing that I learned that there were people, you know, did not discriminate. And I think that, probably, I've seen more discrimination since I've been out of service than while I was in service. There were women warriors on the home front, as well. Women like Alice Loew the daughter of World War I veteran Edward DeNomie. Loew worked on blueprints for the Norden Bombsight at the Perfex Corporation in Milwaukee. It was imperative that I make everything match these specifications little alterations in the blueprints from one to another. I made sure that it came out exactly right. Because I hadn't met my husband yet. But my older brother was in the Air Force my brother-in-law was in the Air Force. And there were people that I knew that were going in to serve. So, I felt I was doing my part. Loew's job at the Perfex Company paid $45 a week three times what she had been making as a telephone operator.

Townsend

When the war comes to an end, there's a sudden drop in this momentary wealth that urban Indians, particularly had enjoyed. Their income drops from $3,200 to $1,200 a year in the immediate post-war period. So, a lot of the Indian women are losing their jobs. But also, Indian men in these factories are likewise losing their jobs in preference to white veterans who were coming home.

Loew

Families who had relocated to cities now found themselves disconnected stranded economically and culturally.

Fixico

So much change occurred after World War II. Changes in countries, country boundaries, leadership changes in industry, changes in technology. But the greatest change of all which didn't occur was a change in attitudes. Indians were still outside of American mainstream. Everybody knew that we were going to be engaged because we knew that the Chinese were in the area.

Loew

November, 1950. As night fell on Ken Bradshaw and other nervous members of Company E of the Army's 19th Infantry Regiment they knew the enemy was close.

Richard Zeitlin

The enemy realized that American fire power was enormous. And yet, as one of the responses that they had was what was called "Holding onto Americans by the belt buckle." Get close. Because then we couldn't use our heavy weapons.

Loew

American forces had pushed to within 60 miles of the Chinese border only to be driven back. They seemed unstoppable. Here was this Asian army that was now challenging the United States. It was very-- It was frightening. Our people were confronted by the numbers always outnumbered. Bradshaw's buddy, Corporal Mitchell Red Cloud a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, was on the perimeter walking the ridge on Hill #123. They get nervous knowing that the big clash is coming, you know. Well, just sitting there waiting. One's sleeping, the other one's staying awake. Then all of a sudden, I heard this voice all around here. "Here they come," or "Wake up" or something like that. But I believe it was, "Here they come." And at that point, all hell broke loose. ( gunfire and explosions ) They hit us from the rear. And you could see them pouring up that hill. When they get to the top-- By that time, I'm looking around me, and guys were killed. Mitchell was maybe 25-30 yards away, at his outpost. Single-handedly, Red Cloud was keeping the Chinese at bay giving his unit time to organize a retreat.

Bradshaw

So I got rid of all the hand grenades that I had. I started falling behind.

Loew

Red Cloud refused to leave his post even after being wounded. According to official accounts, he pulled himself to his feet wrapped his arm around a tree and continued to fire. He sacrificed himself so that others could escape. ( rapid gunfire ) Of course he's the one who saved us. He saved anybody that was alive after that battle. On April 25, 1951, Congress awarded Red Cloud the Medal of Honor for dauntless courage and gallant self-sacrifice. A member of the Thunderbird Clan of the Ho-Chunk Nation Red Cloud grew up among warriors. He was a decorated World War II Marine who re-enlisted in the Army when the Korean Conflict erupted. From what my uncle had said he did want to go through all branches of the service. That he would've hit all four. Talk about proud. You know, that's really taking pride to the limit. I wish he could've done it. To remember Red Cloud and other fallen Native and non-Native veterans each Memorial Day, the Ho-Chunk Nation holds a flag raising ceremony in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. They're kind of a patriotic symbol. Ho-Chunk elder Donald Blackhawk says the ceremony dates back to the end of World War II when the community wanted to recognize the contributions of its fallen warriors.

Blackhawk

We start raising these flags like that and not that many at the beginning. Because the World War II veterans were still pretty much around. Of course, the Korean ones were pretty young yet. When they pass away they're given a flag, because they've done their duty. They've done what they're supposed to do when they were in the service.

Loew

On this Memorial Day the Red Cloud family has asked Ken Bradshaw to raise Mitchell's flag.

Bradshaw

How I remember him is a fantastic warrior. He was good at everything. He's a legend-- one of my legends.

Loew

Over the years, the legend has grown with additional honors the U.S. military has bestowed upon Red Cloud. In 1957, the Army re-named the headquarters of the 2nd Infantry Division in Uijongbu, Korea "Camp Red Cloud." In 1999, the U.S. Navy launched a ship bearing his name.

Anita Red Cloud

The best event of my whole life was to feel the spirit and everything that went around the ship christening and leading up to it just being involved in it. But as soon as the ship hit the water of course, that was just so emotional. And then my daughter, she says, "Look mom, Choka's here." And the red clouds just started to form right behind the ship. It was incredible. Just all the people that came to honor him and be part of that ceremony I can't even tell you how emotional it was. It was just, I mean, still, today, it's just there. It's incredible.

Loew

The legend of Mitchell Red Cloud lingers in memorials like this one. But there's another story the Ho-Chunk remember. the story of Sergeant John L. Rice a kinsman from the Ho-Chunk of Nebraska known as the Winnebago. Like Red Cloud, Rice was a decorated World War II veteran who re-enlisted during the Korean conflict. And like Red Cloud, was killed in action. It took nearly a year for the Army to return Rice's body. His widow Evelyn, who was Caucasian arranged for his burial at Memorial Park Cemetery in Sioux City, Iowa. In August of, I believe it was 1951 they have the burial ceremony for Sergeant Rice. The American Legion Post from Winnebago was there. It's predominantly-- It was a Winnebago Indian delegation there that did the ceremony. And it concludes. The family leaves. John Rice's casket is above the open grave. And it's at that point that the cemetery official remarks to the funeral director "Boy, there sure were a lot of Indians here at this ceremony." And the funeral director says "Well, the deceased, Sergeant Rice, he was a Winnebago." Well, the cemetery director, then, is astonished. Well, wait a minute, stop the burial. We cannot proceed. This is a Caucasian-only cemetery. The local reporters heard about this and began to publicize it. And it very quickly reached through the channel back to Washington. And President Truman found out about this and arranged for the Rice family and Sergeant John Rice, his body to be sent to Arlington Cemetery where perhaps he should've been buried originally. Rice was buried with full military honors.

Britten

Both senators from Iowa were present. I believe both senators from Nebraska were there. The commissioner of Indian Affairs attended. There were very many high-ranking government officials that attended.

Loew

Sergeant John Rice memorialized at Arlington was not the Indian warrior most Americans were used to seeing....fight wagon train...

Fixico

So, an Indian soldier watching a movie, post-World War II and he's watching the U.S. military that he fights for fighting his people in a movie. There's a lot of psychological you know, thoughts going on there.

Loew

In cold war America being Indian brought cold comfort. In the 1950s, some mixed-blood Native people began disappearing into the American mainstream passing as Italians and other southern Europeans.

Fixico

Not-native people and in particular, people who were not full-bloods but people who were mixed bloods who were passable, then could almost invisibly slip into American mainstream society and become part of American mainstream without people realizing that they were part Indian. The people who looked Indian, the three-quarter bloods the full-bloods, those individuals obviously, the stereotypes were cast toward them even more because of McCarthyism because they were not American enough.

Loew

That was all too apparent to veteran Ed DeNomie whose father served in World War I. During a fishing trip to northern Wisconsin the two were denied service. So, I went up and ordered. "Dad, sit back a little bit." I said, "Give us three shorty Pabsts." The bartender leaned over and he said, "I'm sorry." I said-- I thought he didn't hear me. "Give us three shorty Pabsts." He said, "I'm sorry, I can't." Whoa! The red light went on. I said, "You can't? Are you saying what I think you're saying?" He said... like that. And everybody looking at us. Dad says, "Come on, let's go." I said, "Hey, this ain't right." You know, I served eight months overseas and you served in World War I. I said, "We can't get a beer?" For many Native veterans, it was time for change. And the Vietnam War delivered it. Each winter, on the Fond du Lac Anishinaabe Reservation in northern Minnesota Jim Northrup and his family collect sap to make maple syrup.

Jim Northrup

Doing the seasonal activities is very good for my soul because I know I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing at the right time of the year. Regardless of whether I went to war or not every year, the maple sap continued to flow at the right time of the year. And so, regardless of what is happening with me I knew that there was something I could depend on something solid.

Loew

In this quiet setting, even after 40 years true peace eludes this Vietnam combat veteran.

Northrup

I was assigned to India Company 3rd Battalion 9th Marines.

Loew

Northrup's Vietnam's war story begins in familiar territory in a government boarding school. Going to the first boarding school when I was six years old was quite a shock to my young system. But as strange as it was, I adapted to the environment. And I survived it. That just gave me the inner strength to face what came next. By the time I got to the Marine Corps in 1961 I was still doing the same kind of adjusting and adapting but now I was getting paid for it getting my $83 a month. This is something that was taught at a very early age, that I was to be a warrior. That's my role in this society, to be a warrior. Because I heard all the stories about the Chippewa fighting the Sioux or fighting the other tribes before the white man came and then fighting the white man, of course. And then serving, as my grandfather did, in World War I. I have four uncles that served in different theaters in World War II. And so, it just continued to feed this warrior mentality, this warrior ethos. And so, I was just a part of it. Then, when I graduated from High School it was just my turn to go. Northrup saw some of the heaviest fighting in the Vietnam War in places like DaNang, Marble Mountain, An Hua.

Northrup

I come around the corner of a building and there was a bad guy facing that way. And he heard me. As he heard me, he swiveled on his knees. And he had an American-made Thompson.45 sub-machine gun. And he was spraying as he was turning. I thought that was so fluid, the way he turned like that. I had time to admire that. Part of me was thinking ( speaking very slowly ) "Oh... my... God... There's... a man... shooting at me. I better do something about that." That's the way it seemed like I was thinking while it was happening. So, I fired a three-round burst, and I saw what I was hitting. And then I adjusted it, fired, and dialed him up.

Loew

In his research, historian Tom Holm found that Native American soldiers were three times more likely to see moderate to heavy combat than non-Indians. He attributes this to the "Indian Scout Syndrome" a stereotype rooted in the youths of Native American trackers by the U.S. military. More than 100 years and four major wars later Indians were still scouting for the U.S. military. Like his father and two brothers Creek Indian John Yahola served in the 82nd Airborne Division. During the Vietnam War, Yahola was in Cambodia before the Cambodian invasion.

John Yahola

And our job, basically was to go in there and scout out or recon where the possible enemy positions were see if there was any weapons, supplies. And we'd recover them. The idea that somehow it's better actually to send an Indian out to walk point, or to scout something because they're natural scouts or something like this.

Loew

The point man is the soldier who walks a few steps ahead of the rest of the unit looking for land mines, watching for danger. Yahola is a member of the Creek Red Sticks a combat Veterans' organization with roots in an ancient warrior society. I volunteered to walk point because I felt that I was most qualified for the job. And I wanted to prove to my ancestors and my elders, like my uncles and father that I had the same that they did. You want to become a warrior. You want to be accepted by your people by the American mainstream, perhaps be promoted and perhaps even earn your own self-respect. But at the same time, you know, you're accepting the situation of risking your life. And risking psychological damage. Because they were more likely to see the horror of war Native American soldiers have a high incidence of PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder what the military used to call shell-shock or battle fatigue. For a long time, you used to have to wake me up with a broom because I'd come out of that bed ready to kill. But that's kind of died down over the years now. I'm not so spooky as I used to be. Thou shalt not kill. That stuff didn't work here. God must've stayed back in the real world. Is any of this real? Is this a green nightmare I'm going to wake up from? Northrup confronted his PTSD by writing poetry. His eyes saw. His ears heard. His heart felt a numb nothing. His mind analyzed it all as he studied the trail. He amused himself as he walked along. The old story about bullets, ha. Don't sweat the one that's got your name on it. Worry about the one addressed "To whom it may concern." This poem, entitled "Walking Point" speaks directly to the fears that contributed to his PTSD. Movement. Something is moving up there. Drop to the mud, rifle pointing at the unknown. Looks like two of them, hunting him. They have rifles, but he saw them first. The Marine Corps takes over. Breathe. Relax. Aim. Slack. Squeeze. The shooting is over in five seconds. The shakes are over in a half hour. The memories are over, never. To the human mind and body everything that you have in your human resource and maybe even beyond that, is to kill. To come back from war you don't want to be a killer anymore.

Holm

I think that anybody who is involved in any kind of combat is going to be wounded in some form or fashion. There's going to be an emotional wound. It's very, very difficult to heal.

Loew

But Holm believes Native American soldiers came with an extra layer of guilt. Participating in the U.S. military's scorched earth tactics in Vietnam was part of their trauma. As we were going through some of the villages I could see that someone had spent a lot of time making the baskets that they used to process rice much like we do here at home how we winnow the rice. I could see that. Somebody had spent a lot of time. And we'd just go through and trash it or burn it, or something. Our feeling was if it moves, shoot it. If it doesn't move, burn it. It was what we did. We were the bayonet end of America's foreign policy. And we killed and got killed. Can we make the peace? You don't want to be that same being that has been trained to kill. Many Native communities purify their returning warriors. The Hopi ritually wash the hair of their returning veterans and give them new names. At the urging of a friend, Creek veteran John Yahola visited the sweat lodge of another tribe. When you're sitting in there in the lodge you're going through the full rounds. You're praying for everybody. I must've really needed it, because at the end of that night I felt like a weight had been lifted off of me. I saw things differently. And it made me go back to my own people and learn our ways and go through a cleansing and healing process. Cleansing rituals, according to Holm are a way for the community to share the burden of its returning warriors.

Holm

Bringing these things back into the community and the community gets to know about them and they start absorbing these experiences and ideas, and emotions, and things like this.

Loew

Telling one's war story to clan mothers or an elder is part of the ritual in many Native communities. Northrup says an elder helped him deal with what he called survivor guilt. I couldn't understand it. The bullets were hitting in front of me. The bullets were passing through the brush on both sides of me. I can hear a "tick, tick, tick" noise as they go through. And other Marines were getting hit. I could never understand why they didn't hit me. He helped me understand it a little better. And he said, "It's simple. They did hit you, but they passed right through because you have something to do yet." And that kind of made sense for me. That kind of gave me, I don't know I hate to use the word closure but it gave me some kind of peace I was seeking. Peace for some Native American veterans was short lived. Like Vietnam veterans of other cultures Native soldiers returned to a nation divided over the war. They, too, were divided, and many were disillusioned. You had grown up with, say, poverty. And then you brought and put your life on the line and you come back and nothing changes. Somehow, that's incorrect. That's not acceptable. In the late '60s and early '70s Red Power emerged. Angry protests drew attention to the poverty and despair in Indian country.

At the center of the movement

Native American veterans. I think Native communities also, in many ways looked to those folks to give them an idea of what's happening in the outside world. They've been there. When you look at Indian policy, it's one that changes according to different types of catalysts throughout history that causes that change. War indeed is one of them.

Loew

And the change that was happening on a grand scale was happening to individual warriors like Jim Northrup. I carry an eagle staff, and I have feathers on there. I know it's part of my obligation to talk to the young men going to war now. I've sent three eagle feathers to Iraq. I told each one of those guys I want them back when they get done with it. Bring it back and put it on my staff. Northrup's role as confidant and mentor to the young warriors of his tribal community is part of his obligation to himself as a warrior as a writer. I've begun to realize that after I wrote about the war I didn't have as many nightmares as I used to. It used to be almost every other night. But once I started writing about them, putting them down on paper and then closing the paper up and closing the book up then I didn't dream about them as much. I didn't have as many symptoms of PTSD. So, I think writing about it has saved my life. It's also given people who haven't experienced it a view inside of that crazy chaotic world called war. This is the Native American Vietnam Veteran's Memorial near Neillsville, Wisconsin. The "High Ground," as it's called testifies to the complex relationship Native people have with the United States and to their contributions, often ignored and misunderstood to the U.S. military. But mostly, it testifies to their own tribal traditions and the deep meaning of being a warrior. An Indian Marine. I'm not Crazy Horse. I'm not Sitting Bull. What little we had, I think we gave it all we had.

Northrup

I'm not Ira Hayes. I'm me. Being called "Chief" is not an honor like you think. I said, "You can't? You're saying what I think you're saying?" Hey, do you know this guy? We used to call him Chief. He was Choctaw, Cherokee, Cheyenne, or something. Talk about proud. You know, that's really taking pride to the limit. And I wish he could've done it. I'm not a code talker. Schools brought me the language I used to have. It's almost like being a POW, in boarding school. I'm no braver, no more of a coward than you. And I remember being just a small child. I looked up at him and I thought he was ten feet tall. But when I took that green uniform off I could be Indian again. For more information on Way of the Warrior visit PBS.org Produced by Wisconsin Public Television and a presentation of Native American Public Telecommunications. Funding provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities great ideas brought to life; the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation; and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Way of the Warrior is available on DVD by calling 877-868-2250. Or, write to the address on your screen. We are PBS.