During World War I, 12,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives served in the U.S. military. Their service and sacrifice ultimately catalyzed the passing of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924.
During that time, Native American and Alaskan Native veterans were never considered for Medals of Honor due to their race.
Erin Fehr (Yup’ik) is helping to change that by offering a list of Indigenous World War I soldiers who meet the Medal of Honor requirement to a review task force. The task force will share details about the soldiers with the Department of Defense to review, which will determine whether they should receive the honor.
“These men once, once we discover who they are, they qualify for this extra review if they received a Distinguished Service Cross or a Croix de Guerre with palm,” Fehr said.
Fehr is the Assistant Director and Archivist at the Sequoyah National Research Center in Little Rock. She said her team began researching Indigenous involvement in World War I after putting together an exhibit about the Choctaw Code Talkers in 2017.
This work ultimately led them to make a Wall of Honor, where they paid tribute to the Indigenous men who served in World War I.
“In a matter of like three months, I think we had found about 2,500 names, she said. “And they were mostly out of boarding school publications because those soldiers and sailors were heavily recruited from boarding schools because they already had that military training.”
With a long list of names, Fehr’s team created a database called “Modern Warriors of World War I,” which is available on the World War I Centennial Commission.
The World War One Valor Medals Review Task Force recognized their findings, and in 2019, they asked if they could work together to determine which Indigenous men may be eligible for a Medal of Honor.
So far, Fehr’s team has identified 6,200 men out of the 12,000 Indigenous soldiers. 25 qualify for review by the Department of Defense. Twelve of those Indigenous soldiers were from Oklahoma.
“There were just a huge number of tribal citizens in Oklahoma who volunteered for military service, “ Fehr said. “The 36th [Infantry] Division was very engaged in the frontline battles… It was made up of Texas and Oklahoma men, and that's where those Choctaw Code Talkers came out of that division.”
The Department of Defense's review deadline for the list of eligible Indigenous men is 2028, giving Fehr and her team more time to continue finding more qualified soldiers—a project she remains passionate about.
“What makes [this work] really rewarding is being able to kind of give those stories back to their families that have just been lost over time and being able to share something that helps complete their family's story,” Fehr said.
