Uploaded July 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
American Indians have participated in every major military conflict since the Revolutionary War and continue to enlist in the US military at higher rates than any other ethnicity. This honorable war record was especially true during World War I, when approximately 2,000 American Indians, who were native residents of Oklahoma and represented approximately 30 tribes, were identified as having served in the US military during World War I. This number does not include those men who attended Chilocco Indian Agricultural School and served. These men represented every military branch and served in various capacities—as bakers, postal workers, scouts, musicians, medical personnel, aviators, and veterinarians, to name a few. The presentation explores the experiences and motivations of Oklahoma’s American Indian doughboys in their own words, as written in letters and questionnaires from the time.
Erin Fehr (Yup’ik) is the assistant director and archivist of the Sequoyah National Research Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. This session was part of “Perspectives in History”: The Oklahoma History Symposium, held on May 4, 2024, at the Oklahoma History Center.
American Indians have participated in every major military conflict since the Revolutionary War and continue to enlist in the US military at higher rates than any other ethnicity. This honorable war record was especially true during World War I, when approximately 2,000 American Indians, who were native residents of Oklahoma and represented approximately 30 tribes, were identified as having served in the US military during World War I. This number does not include those men who attended Chilocco Indian Agricultural School and served. These men represented every military branch and served in various capacities—as bakers, postal workers, scouts, musicians, medical personnel, aviators, and veterinarians, to name a few. The presentation explores the experiences and motivations of Oklahoma’s American Indian doughboys in their own words, as written in letters and questionnaires from the time.
Erin Fehr (Yup’ik) is the assistant director and archivist of the Sequoyah National Research Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. This session was part of “Perspectives in History”: The Oklahoma History Symposium, held on May 4, 2024, at the Oklahoma History Center.
