Framing the Fourth of July in Perilous Times
How do we celebrate America when the pandemic and politics has laid bare our foibles and inequity?
I took this photo back in 2018 at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque- this memorial honors Native American veterans and is called "Warriors in Battle" by Matthew Panana of the Jemez Pueblo tribe.
The story of Native American military service is a fascinating but complex story. It has long been held that of all the racial and ethnic groups in America, Native Americans (which include Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians) serve in the military at a higher rate. As the military did not keep close tallies of Native Americans over the years enlisting due to not having a category for them (many Native Americans ended up being categorized as "other" or "multi-racial"), the extent of Native American military service may never be fully known. More recent scholarship has indicated it has been well in excess of most other groups given the fraction of population made up of Native Americans.
“The history of Native American service has always been viewed in a reductionist way by the military and by non-Native American society. Natives Americans are ‘great warriors.’ And yet, not every tribe had a so-called warrior tradition, many have had distinctly pacific practices, and most balanced warfare with traditions of diplomacy and peace.”
-Alexandra Harris and Mark Hirsch, authors of the book "Why We Serve, Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces"
Military service by Native Americans has always been a bit of a puzzle for many Americans. Why fight for America given the long history of marginalization, racist policies, massacres, economic injustices and broken treaties? Given the history of the United States military's role in generations of Indian removal actions and conflicts, it elevates the history of Native American military service to a different level of what I would call unmatched patriotism.
Native Americans in the military have long been stereotyped at having some sort of innate warrior skill set that unfortunately through history has resulted in them being placed in dangerous roles- such as having them act as point in a combat environment. And while tribes like the Sioux and Kiowa like other Great Plains tribes have warrior traditions, those traditions were always counterbalanced with peace and diplomacy. Most tribes don't have extensive warrior traditions and some are even pacifist in their traditions.
In the early history of our nation, many Native Americans joined the military as a way of continuing their way of life, even as they were used by the military as scouts to seek out other tribes resisting removal and settlement of their lands. Many believed that serving in the Army would keep their tribe from being persecuted. Through most of the 1800s, the federal government outlawed the practicing of Native American traditions. For those that were in the military, it was a way to covertly maintain those traditions.
Some served as means of waging war against rival tribes- after all, the most powerful ally one could have in those days was the US Army.
By 1900s, the Indian wars and removal efforts were ending and for many Native Americans in the military, that led to expanded roles in active duty. It is of considerable pride amongst Native Americans that one quarter of Native American males served in the First World War despite the fact that Native Americans weren't granted American citizenship until 1924 and the right to vote until after the Second World War.
The Second World War brought about a resurgence of tribal traditions and languages, from the Navajo Code Talkers to the Lakota Sioux protection ceremonies before their young men shipped off to Europe and the Pacific. Tribal ceremonies celebrated the return from combat- such as large luaus by the Native Hawaiians. Many of these returning celebrations were also used as healing ceremonies for returning veterans.
Recent scholarship indicates that Native Americans returning from Vietnam had lower rates of PTSD, depression and substance abuse to the general population thanks to extensive tribal ceremonies and traditions associated with healing and return from war.
Despite this, the long standing inequities amongst Native Americans still means many of the same issues that veterans grapple with from PTSD to homelessness, are magnified in Native American communities.
“We wear the badge of our service proudly, and our veterans suffer the burdens of war with disproportionate rates of homelessness, behavioral health struggles and lack of access to health services."
-Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo. Her father was in the Marines and her mother was in the Navy
We spend a big part of the Fourth of July celebrating America and in these polarized and perilous times, that celebration of America has been co-opted and perverted by fringe nationalist elements, some of whom occupy positions of elected office. I have spent the last year working with Native American communities and have seen not just the unevenness of how the burdens of pandemic have fallen in this nation but also the day to day conditions of inequity. Celebrating what makes America great is challenging at best, hypocritical at worst with what I have seen since joining the Indian Health Service.
I have mentioned in the past that my time with Native Americans since leaving private practice has been instructive on many levels. I've had the opportunity to work with Native American veterans as patients and I've gotten to ask them about their motivations to serve despite a historical legacy with the government littered with broken promises. Like many non-Native veterans, many of them have the same motivations for joining the military but a few of them pointed out to me something which was very illuminating, that they "serve not for what America is but what it can be" as one patient put it.
Once again in the past year, what some of my patients have given me is something immeasurable.
In the words of the director of the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian Kevin Gover (himself a Pawnee):
“They are acknowledging the mistreatment their tribes have suffered at the hands of the United States, yet they still imagine a different and better tribal life in the future. They are optimistic that the U.S. will honor sovereignty, which may be why so many cultural celebrations incorporate the American flag, he says. This is a deep patriotism, a belief that, despite all that has happened, the United States can be better, and we want to be part of that."
To me that's patriotism distilled to its essence. To fight and celebrate not for what we were or what we are, but for what we can be.
And that's how I choose to frame the Fourth of July.