page_title: Native Americans and World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Native Americans and World War II
context_page_description: As many as 25,000 Native Americans in World War II fought actively: 21,767 in the Army, 1,910 in the Navy, 874 in the Marines, 121 in the Coast Guard, and several hundred Native American women as nurses. These figures include over one third of able-bodied Native American men aged 18 to 50 and even included as high as 70 percent of the population of some tribes. Unlike African Americans or Asian Americans, Native Americans did not serve in segregated units and served alongside white Americans.
  Alison R. Bernstein argues that World War II presented the first large-scale exodus of Native Americans from reservations since the reservation system began and that it presented an opportunity for many Native Americans to leave reservations and enter the "white world." For many soldiers, World War II represented the first interracial contact between natives living on relatively isolated reservations.
context_section_description: As many as 25,000 Native Americans in World War II fought actively: 21,767 in the Army, 1,910 in the Navy, 874 in the Marines, 121 in the Coast Guard, and several hundred Native American women as nurses. These figures include over one third of able-bodied Native American men aged 18 to 50 and even included as high as 70 percent of the population of some tribes. Unlike African Americans or Asian Americans, Native Americans did not serve in segregated units and served alongside white Americans.
  Alison R. Bernstein argues that World War II presented the first large-scale exodus of Native Americans from reservations since the reservation system began and that it presented an opportunity for many Native Americans to leave reservations and enter the "white world." For many soldiers, World War II represented the first interracial contact between natives living on relatively isolated reservations.
caption: Navajo code talkers during the Battle of Saipan in 1944.
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