Title: Honoring and recognizing the military service and contributions of Native American veterans and communities.
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
This resolution honors the disproportionately high military service, sacrifice, and patriotism of Native American veterans. The resolution also expresses the House's commitment to addressing the unique hardships and inequities faced by Native Americans who are veterans, servicemembers, and families who have lost a loved one in military service.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 403 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 403

  Honoring and recognizing the military service and contributions of 
               Native American veterans and communities.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 23, 2019

 Mr. Gallego submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
 the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and in addition to the Committees 
     on Natural Resources, and Armed Services, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
  of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
                               concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Honoring and recognizing the military service and contributions of 
               Native American veterans and communities.

Whereas the contributions, sacrifices, and disproportionate service of Native 
        American veterans has been integral to the success of the United States 
        military over the course of its history;
Whereas Native American veterans have served with distinction in the United 
        States military in every major conflict for over 200 years, earning 
        Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars, Silver Stars, Congressional Gold Medals, 
        the Congressional Medal of Honor, and other medals, awards, and 
        decorations;
Whereas, during the Revolutionary War--

    (1) the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Tribes heeded General George 
Washington's call on December 24, 1776, for supplemental troops for his 
army by sending 600 of their own to fight on behalf of the American 
Revolution;

    (2) the Delaware Tribe signed the Treaty of Fort Pitt with the United 
States in 1778 to provide Native troops and grant Americans permission to 
stage attacks on the British from Delaware territory; and

    (3) the Oneida Nation fought alongside American soldiers in the battles 
of Oriskany and Saratoga, providing critical support that prevented an 
early American defeat in the Revolution;

Whereas, during the American Civil War--

    (1) roughly 3,600 Native Americans served in the Union Army; and

    (2) General Ely S. Parker, a Seneca Indian, adjutant, and secretary to 
Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, contributed to the brokering of peace 
by drafting the final articles of Confederate surrender signed by General 
Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865;

Whereas more than 12,000 Native Americans served in World War I, many of whom 
        were not conscripted, but had volunteered to serve despite the fact that 
        one-third of all Native Americans still had not been granted full 
        citizenship by the United States Government at the time;
Whereas the Choctaw Indians, largely without American citizenship status, 
        stationed at battlefield command posts pioneered the use of Native 
        American languages to encode United States military communications, 
        successfully protected United States and Allied troops, supply 
        locations, and plans from enemy intelligence, ensured the security of 
        Allied resources and Allied lives, and contributed to the Allied victory 
        in World War I;
Whereas over one-third of able-bodied Native American men between the ages of 18 
        and 50 and as much as 70 percent of certain tribal populations served 
        during World War II, representing the highest per capita contribution to 
        the total war effort of any demographic group in the United States;
Whereas United States Marine Corporal Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian born in Sacaton, 
        Arizona, fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima and was 1 of the 6 
        servicemembers immortalized in an iconic photograph raising an American 
        flag over Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945;
Whereas the United States World War II mobilization efforts infringed on several 
        Indian reservations, diminished the influence of the Bureau of Indian 
        Affairs within Congress by moving its Washington office to Chicago, cut 
        funding for Indian programs, and caused a shortage of nurses and doctors 
        on reservations as medical professionals joined military operations;
Whereas the United States Government's annexation of Indian land for the 
        establishment of Japanese internment camps on the Gila and Colorado 
        River Indian Reservations (Mohave and Chemehuevi) in Arizona occurred 
        without the prior consultation of the tribes impacted;
Whereas over 400 Native Americans served integral roles in World War II as 
        ``code talkers'', employing their knowledge of Navajo and other Native 
        American languages (which the United States Government had long 
        attempted to suppress through the forcible assimilation of Native 
        children in church and Government-sponsored Anglophone boarding schools 
        since the late 1800s) to develop unbreakable codes to send messages 
        across the Pacific;
Whereas Navajo Code Talkers contributed to every Pacific Marine-led assault from 
        1942 to 1945, including Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Peleliu, and 
        in 2001, 28 Navajo Code Talkers received Congressional Gold Medals, 
        mostly posthumously;
Whereas 42,000 Native Americans served in the Vietnam War, over 90 percent of 
        them volunteers, and the names of 232 American Indian and Alaska Natives 
        who were killed in combat or went missing in action are etched on the 
        Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC;
Whereas over 10,000 Native Americans served in the Korean War and 194 were 
        killed in combat;
Whereas Lori Ann Piestewa, a member of the Hopi Tribe born in Tuba City, 
        Arizona, was the first Native American woman in the United States 
        military killed in the Iraq War, the first Native American woman in 
        history to die in combat on March 23, 2003, while serving in the United 
        States military, and was extolled by her surviving servicemembers as the 
        heroine of the ambush in which she died;
Whereas roughly 31,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives are currently on 
        active duty, serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world, where 
        they continue to serve in greater numbers per capita than any other 
        demographic group;
Whereas Native American women serve in our Armed Forces at disproportionately 
        high rates; and
Whereas Native American veterans experience higher rates of homelessness and 
        substance abuse than other groups, and face limited access to medical 
        care due to the shortcomings of the Department of Veteran Affairs in 
        administering culturally sensitive treatment and establishing facilities 
        within accessible distances to rural reservations: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) honors the disproportionately high military service, 
        sacrifice, and patriotism of Native American veterans;
            (2) recognizes the indispensable contributions of Native 
        Americans in advancing United States interests, military 
        successes, and global stability, often as the United States 
        Government failed to fulfill its Federal trust responsibility 
        and protect Tribal treaty rights, lands, and resources; and
            (3) commits to addressing the unique hardships and 
        inequities faced by Native veterans, servicemembers, and Gold 
        Star families as well as upholding our Nation's solemn 
        responsibilities to support the indigenous communities and 
        Tribes that continue to serve our country since our Nation's 
        founding.
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