Delphine Red Shirt: Veterans show solidarity with Standing Rock


Nearly 4,000 veterans traveled to North Dakota during the week of December 4, 2016, to support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the #NoDAPL movement. Photo by Indigenous Rising Media [Support the Indigenous Environmental Network]

Native American Veterans
By Delphine Red Shirt
Lakota Country Times Columnist
lakotacountrytimes.com

The U.S. military veterans who are supporting the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe water protectors are displaying a welcomed sign of solidarity. Especially as a group who understands what it is like to be both loyal to one’s homeland and to the government that protects that homeland. These are veterans who are men and women who have volunteered to be ‘human shields” for the water protectors.

Their selfless act reminds me of a story told by one of the Navajo Code Talkers who served in World War II. During WWII, the United States Marine Corps enlisted approximately five hundred Code Talkers who were Navajo, Lakota, Meskwaki, and Comanche. These men were trained to transmit code for the Marines in key battles using their heritage languages instead of English. They transmitted these messages over military telephone or radio communication networks in encrypted code for the military that the enemy could not decode. Many of them were sworn to silence until their involvement in the secret WWII operation was declassified in 1968.

What the elder Native American veteran told was that very often, the officers in the battlefield acted as human shields for the code talkers. He described a time when during a battle, his commanding officer urged him, as he was sending code to move his head lower. As the code talker complied with the order, a bullet flew past him, hitting the commanding officer, killing him instantly.

Many of us, Native American men and women have voluntarily served in the U.S. military. In 2012 there were over 22,000 Native Americans and Alaska natives on active duty. This number may seem small but in comparison to the actual population of Native Americans in the U.S. it is significant. In the 2010 census there were over 150,000 veterans from many tribes.

When a veteran speaks of that service, it has more meaning than a politician who has never served a day in his or her life, in service for his or her country. Veterans see it all the time, the elite politicians in Washington D.C. who when it is politically convenient commemorate this or that day for U.S. veterans when they had not served a moment for what every veteran has voluntarily given up their individual freedom to do.

The show of solidarity by veterans for the water protectors at Standing Rock is that much more meaningful for those of us who have served and are loyal to our homeland and the government that protects it. My own service in the United States Marine Corps came long after the service of the code talkers when I became the first Native American woman to train as a field radio operator in a combat position.

The very first woman to serve as a field radio operator was Irish and had served right before I came in to train. For me, it was a job for my country and once basic training began at Parris island, South Carolina there was no turning back. When I entered I wanted to be an aerial photographer. My first plane ride was a view of the Black Hills from the air while flying from Rapid City to Denver where I went to college and it made a lasting impression on me. I wanted, at that time, to learn how to photograph from the air, my homeland. But, the military had other plans for me.

Once I served, I felt that I had done something honorable with my life, and still do. It taught me to respect others, no matter how different, and no matter where they came from; but especially this flag that flies over this land.


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Seeing the veterans arrive this cold December, to be a human shield for the water protectors is a true act of courage. They are heroes. Their action speaks volumes for those Native Americans who have served, sometimes in silence as the code talkers did; the code talkers whose delayed recognition by the government exacerbated their experience after their service.

As a Native American (Lakota) veteran who was the first woman to serve in the U.S. Marines in a combat position: “pila unya yapi ksto," thank you for coming and showing solidarity.

(Delphine Red Shirt can be reached at redshirtphd@gmail.com)

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