1941–45: American Indian war effort in World War II is remarkable

American Indians have the war’s highest rate of voluntary enlistment in the military. Of 350,000 American Indians in the U.S., 45,000 enlist in the armed forces. In some tribes, 70 percent of the men enlist. In the Women's Army Corps (WACS), hundreds of American Indian women serve. Another 65,000 American Indian men and women go to work in the wartime defense industry, often relocating from rural reservations to cities, where they form the first intertribal urban Indian communities.

Theme

Federal-Tribal Relations

Region

Arctic, California, Great Basin, Great Plains, Hawai‘i, Northeast, Northwest Coast, Plateau, Southeast, Southwest, Subarctic