{"id":25889,"date":"2022-07-05T13:56:11","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T17:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=25889"},"modified":"2022-07-05T14:03:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T18:03:41","slug":"cherokee-nation-veteran-dwight-birdwell-receives-medal-of-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/07\/05\/cherokee-nation-veteran-dwight-birdwell-receives-medal-of-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"Cherokee Nation veteran Dwight Birdwell receives Medal of Honor"},"content":{"rendered":"Dwight Birdwell, a citizen of the <a href=https:\/\/www.cherokee.org\/>Cherokee Nation<\/a>, receives the Medal of Honor during a ceremony at the White House on July 5, 2022.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nBirdwell was recognized for his <a href=https:\/\/twitter.com\/indianz\/status\/1541533990536056833>heroism during the Vietnam War<\/a>. President Joe Biden said the Cherokee soldier went above and beyond the call of duty to save other members of his U.S. Army unit during a particularly violent period of the military conflict.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n&#8220;When he was ordered to load onto the medevac helicopter, he complied &#8212; this I find amazing &#8212; only to crawl right back off the other side and to keep on fighting,&#8221; <a href=https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/indianz\/president-biden-pays-tribute-to-cherokee-nation-veteran-dwight-birdwell>Biden said at the White House<\/a>, noting that Birdwell sustained serious injuries of his own.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"20\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1300038349&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;inverse=false&#038;auto_play=false&#038;show_user=false\"><\/iframe>\r\n<P><\/p>\r\nBiden also pointed out that American Indians and Alaska Natives serve in the military at the highest per capita rates of any racial or ethnic group in the United States.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nFollowing his military service, Birdwell returned home to Oklahoma and started his own law firm. He later served as a chief justice for the Supreme Court of the Cherokee Nation.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAt the end of the <a href=https:\/\/youtu.be\/cTwWWGM6SzY>White House ceremony<\/a>, Biden awarded Birdwell the Medal of Honor, the highest and most prestigious U.S. military decoration.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThree other soldiers also received a <a href=https:\/\/www.army.mil\/article\/257979\/president_biden_to_award_four_soldiers_the_medal_of_honor>Medal of Honor during the ceremony<\/a>.\r\n<P><\/P>\r\nVideo provided by White House. Thumbnail incorporates graphic created by Army News Service.\r\n <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/05\/DwightBirdwellMedalofHonor.png\" alt=\"Dwight Birdwell - Medal of Honor\" width=\"0\" height=\"0\" class=\"invisible\" \/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dwight Birdwell, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, receives the Medal of Honor during a ceremony at the White House on July 5, 2022.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-video-entry.php","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1,334],"tags":[77,346,3092,53,410,25,127,47,106,57,3091,569],"class_list":["post-25889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law","category-national","category-video","tag-cherokee","tag-dc","tag-dwight-birdwell","tag-joe-biden","tag-law-firms","tag-military","tag-oklahoma","tag-race","tag-tribal-courts","tag-veterans","tag-vietnam","tag-wars","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/05\/DwightBirdwellMedalofHonor.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-6Jz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}