Colonel Mark Wells

‘Sky Warriors: Native Americans in the Army Air Corps/Air Force, 1940-1997’ 

Most people are familiar with Native Americans who served in the Army and Marines, and who gravitate toward elite units such as Marine Force Recon and the Army Rangers and Special Forces.  Most people probably find it easy to equate Native Americans with land battles in Europe; Korea; Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf.

Most are not that familiar with Native Americans who served in the Army Air Corps and Air Force.  Most would not even equate Native Americans with the aerial battles fought over Europe; Korea; Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf.

During the 20th century many Native Americans have suffered individual prejudice and been measured against stereotypes fostered by the entertainment media.  As a racial entity, they didn’t suffer the organizational prejudice that led to the formation of the Niseis of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, or the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II.  Despite the prejudice and stereotypes, despite the lack of public acknowledgment, Native Americans have served from the beginning in the aviation forces of the United States.

For example, Carson Walks Over Ice (Crow), a Vietnam paratrooper, and Assistant Librarian at Little Big Horn College, is directing the Crow Indian Veteran’s Project, a project listing all Crow veterans who served in the armed forces.  Among those who served in World War I, though their story is not within the time frame of Sky Warriors, was PFC Frank F. Thomas, 53rd Spruce Squadron; PFC Paul V. Scott, 150th Spruce Squadron, and CPL George W. Peters, 27th Pursuit Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group.

Captain Harlyn Vidovich (Paiute Shoshone), grandson of Wovoka (creator of the Ghost Dance) flew a P-40 Warhawk with the Flying Tigers in China during World War II.  He earned the respect of his non-Native crew chief, Robert Smith, when Smith first reported to Cpt Vidovich, who asked him “...What shape the aircraft was in and what we could do to make it better.  When he said “WE” in that statement I knew we would make one hell of a team...”  Robert Smith also commented “Capt Vidovich was one hell of a man and Officer, I would go to hell and back for that Man.”  Cpt Vidovich was credited with 2 aerial kills, then he disappeared during a flight on 18 January 1944.  His body was recovered two weeks later from the wreckage of his P-40.

Staff Sergeant Fred T. ‘Chief’ Littlewolf (Chippewa), flew in a B-17 along the west coast on submarine patrols, then in England with the 8th Air Force, and finally in North Africa.  He was an Air Gunner/Radio Operator on the B-17 ‘Thunderbird’, and he was credited with shooting down 2 German aircraft.  He shot one down on a mission when the Thunderbird, returning home to North Africa, should not have made it through a 1,500 foot pass in the mountains, since they were flying below 1,500 feet.  He completed his 50 missions and returned to the United States, where he was killed in a training accident, in 1944, while flying in a B-24 bomber.

Memories of serving in the Army Air Corps/Air Force are not always grim.  Sergeant Steve Russell (Cherokee), now Judge Steve Russell, served from 1964-1968, and was a Computer Operator.  Before he left the Air Force he wanted to change his name, so he “hired a civilian lawyer, who copied a name change petition out of the form books and added some filigrees of his own”...Sergeant Russell was removing “the Cherokee name “Teehee,” the suffix on Wilma Mankiller’s Cherokee name, (which) means “killer”...(the lawyer) put some BS in the petition about how the name had held me up to ridicule--which was true enough but was not my reason.”  Sergeant Russell was returning to active duty after 7 months in the hospital due to an accident, and the petition had to be signed by his commanding officer.  As it happened, his “new squadron commander (was) a Major Teehee, a Cherokee from Oklahoma!”

There was Senior Master Sergeant Walter R. Echo-Hawk (Pawnee), who served from 1951 to 1971.  As his family wrote, “Walter was a full blood Pawnee Indian...(he) was born and raised in the family home near Pawnee, Oklahoma...His Pawnee Indian name, Lay-ti-coots Tee-it, which means “Flying Eagle”, was given to him in 1966 at a Pawnee War Dance as an earned name following a tour of combat duty in Vietnam...”  (As his family proudly remembers, the) “...Echo-Hawk family members have (a) long warrior tradition, with veterans in the Pawnee Scouts during (the) so-called “Indian Wars”, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and Bosnia.”

Because Native American Warriors have served in all branches of the armed forces, we also recognize, in one section of this exhibit, the Army, Navy and Marine Corps.  In recognizing those veterans, we also appreciate the assistance of the Naval Academy Public Affairs Office, the Marine Corps Public Affairs Office, and Army SGM Eugene Redhawk (Mohawk).

For example, Commander Ernest E. Evans (Cherokee), when he assumed command of the Navy destroyer USS Johnston, said “This is going to be a fighting ship.  I intend to go in harm’s way...”  During the World War II Battle of Leyte Gulf, his destroyer, with two others, protected American escort carriers by battling more than twenty Japanese battleships, cruisers and destroyers.  The Johnston finally sank, and less than half of her crew survived; Commander Evans was not among the survivors.  For his part in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Commander Evans was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.  He was remembered as “The skipper was a fighting man from the soles of his broad feet to the ends of his straight black hair.  He was an Oklahoman and proud of the Indian blood he had in him.  We called him - though not to his face - the Chief.  The Johnston was a fighting ship, but he was the heart and soul of her.”

Though this exhibit officially opens today, there are more stories to be told, and as submissions arrive throughout the month, we will continually add to this exhibit.  After the exhibit is over, original material, after being copied, will be returned to the owners.  The exhibit will then become a part of the Academy’s Special Collections.  If  more submissions arrive, they will be added to the exhibit until such time as the exhibit is put on display again.

However, among the stories to be told, Carl Molesworth, in researching the history of the Flying Tigers, wrote that “...Vidovich was not the only American Indian who flew in the 23rd Fighter Group.  At about the same time he was in the 74th, a pilot named Joshua D. Sandford flew in the 75th Fighter Squadron.  A Winnebago Indian from Wisconsin, Sandford completed 100 missions and was credited with one Japanese fighter confirmed destroyed.  He returned to Wisconsin after the war and operated an electronics repair business until he died in 1962.”

James Gray, Historian for the RAF Eagle Squadrons (American fighter pilots who flew with the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain before the United States entered the war against Germany), called and told of a Native American, Gilmore C. Daniel, tribe unknown, who flew with the Eagle Squadrons.  There was another called ‘Indian’ Jim Moore; rumor of an Eskimo who served, and initial research indicates a Choctaw from Oklahoma also flew with the Eagle Squadrons.

As a result the stories of Native Americans, though not as pivotal for an American World War II minority, as those of the Niseis and the Tuskegee Airmen, still remains to be told.

For Warriors who earned their reputation on horseback on the western plains as some of the greatest light cavalry of the world, or who excelled in the mountains of the southwest and the forests of the east in what would later be termed guerilla warfare, the aerial battlefield, ranging from 100 to 36,000 feet, was a new arena for them.  It was a new battlefield filled with deadly anti-aircraft artillery fire, surface-to-air missiles, and well armed enemy aircraft who sometimes closed at rates exceeding 300 miles per hour.  Sometimes survival on the new battlefield, when an aircraft was mortally stricken, depended on diving into the frigid air until a thin, silk parachute opened above them and allowed them to float to safety...often times in enemy held territory.

And like their black, white, yellow and brown comrades in the Army Air Corps/Air Force, these modern Native American Warriors met the challenge, in war and peace, and upheld the honor of their families and their tribes, as Warriors.

 would also like to thank two members of Dr. Edward Scott’s Academy Libraries staff for their assistance in installing this exhibit.  They are Elwood White and LaDora Puhuyesva (Hopi).  Mrs. Carol Semken (Navajo) also volunteered her time to help install this exhibit.

And now, I would like to introduce Mr. Walter Echo-Hawk, Jr., an attorney with the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder.  He, in turn, will introduce the Denver Indian Singers, with Head Singer Frank Sherwood, who will sing (an) (several) honoring song(s) for us.  Because I am not experienced with honoring songs, Mr. Echo-Hawk will first explain the songs to us.

Thank you for joining us today.