ABSTRACT
American Indian and Alaska Native (AI=AN) veterans have a unique military history. Throughout the 1700s, American Indians fought for both the British and French armies on North American soil (Holm, 2007) and were active in the Revolutionary War (Franco, 1999). Approximately 20,000 American Indians served as soldiers, commissioned officers, and noncommissioned officers in both the Confederate and Union armies during the Civil War (Hauptman, 1995). Native Americans volunteered for service at significantly higher rates than other ethnic groups during World War I despite their lack of recognition as U.S. citizens, and many served as valuable ‘‘code talkers’’ duringWorldWar I andWorldWar II (Harada, Villa, Reifel, & Bayhylle, 2005; Holm, 1995b). AI=AN have continued to serve in the military at disproportionately high rates in more contemporary conflicts. Statistics indicate that more than 42,000 Natives served in Vietnam, a rate of 1 in 4 eligible Natives compared to a rate of 1 in 12 in the general population (Holm, 1995b; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2012). Ninety percent of American Indians who served in Vietnam were volunteers (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2012). Approximately 21,380 American Indians served in the first Gulf War and 17,570 in the second Gulf War (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2012). Although statistics are not available on how many American Indians served in Iraq and Afghanistan, the National Congress of American Indians (2014), citing reports from the Pentagon, noted that as of March 2012, 22,248 AI=ANwere serving on active duty in the military, including 4,404 in the Army, 13,511 in the Navy, 2,128 in the Marine Corps, and 2,205 in the Air Force.
