>>IN AMERICAN HISTORY, NO CULTURE IS MORE TIED TO THE WARRIOR IMAGE THAN THAT OF NATIVE AMERICA.

THENATIVE AMERICAN WARRIOR HAS BEEN PORTRAYED IN ART, LITERATURE, AND THE MEDIA WITH MANY FACES.

THE TREACHEROUS VILLAIN, DEFEATED DEFENDER OF A VANISHING RACE, THE NOBLE SAVAGE.

SINCE THE BIRTH OF OUR NATION, NATIVE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN FORCED TO DEFEND THEIR VERY EXISTENCE, AND YET IN THE HEARTS OF INDIAN MEN AND WOMEN WHO FIGHT FOR THEIR LAND AND OUR COUNTRY, THE NATIVE WARRIOR TRADITION REMAINS >>Laura Tohe: Before contact with the Europeans, we always had people in our tribe who were protectors and defenders of family and the clan and the homeland against enemies.

After contact, then I think we had a different kind of warrior who then had to defend [00:01:30] against the settler colonizers.

So I think that we've always had what we call Naabaahii, warriors.

>>Patricia Sandoval Cate: Well, in the stories Guynewa, is a warrior.

In the village, ordinary man,the spirit, was greater than himself.

Our villages would get attacked when they saw this man ridingon a horse or coming up the hill, he was feared.

He was feared because he was fearless defending his community.

>>Philip Conrad Bread: On the Comanche side, I'm a descendant of Chief Ten Bears.

On the Kiowa side,I'm a descendant of Set-Tainte.

That translates into White Bear.

Chief White Bear.

They mean that I'm a descendant of great leadership and that one day I will hopefully fulfill that role.

>> SINCE THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, AMERICAN INDIANS HAVE SERVED OUR MILITARY IN EVERY MAJOR CONFLICT.

THEY HAVE JOINED THE ARMED FORCES IN GREATER NUMBER PER CAPITA THAN ANY OTHER ETHNIC GROUP.

27 NATIVEAMERICANS HAVE RECEIVED THE MEDAL OF HONOR, OUR NATION'S HIGHEST MILITARY HONOR.

>>Raymond Naranjo: You know, I'm from here, you know.

I have to just fight for my country.

>>Cheston Bailon: Growing up, you know, I've always heard about Crazy Horse.

I though he was a greatwarrior and he was fierce on the battlefield and everything.

But the more I began to learn about history, the more I began to learn about what a real warrior was, you see that he was a very soft spoken person.

He was very gentle.

His primary goal was to take care of his people.

Jeff Haozous: or the courage to stand up for what is right.

>>Kooper Curley: A warrior is born.

Soldiers are made.

What's the difference between both?

Soldiers are told what to do.

Warriors already know what to do.

>>Julia Wall: What I would consider a warrior is somebody who is conscious and somebody who is resilient and somebody who finds strength and grounding being a part of their culture.

>>Depree Shadowwalker: Me and my dad we talking about the word warrior and the closest words I couldcome to was defender or protector because that's what everybody was doing.

Keeping the children alive and keeping the culture alive.

And so that doesn't really sound like a warrior or a soldier.

During that time, everybody was trying to protect and defend our way of life, which was basically independence and freedom.

>>Porter Swentzell: The ancestors of Pueblo people have been in the southwest for thousands of years.

There are other groups as well who migrated into this area at later times.

Athabasckllk an speakers, Apaches, Navajos, and each group that would come in, sometimes conflict would arise between different groups traveling through areas.

There is a stereotype that Pueblo people are completely peaceful group of people.

However, prior to the Spanish arrival there was conflict that existed that can beclearly seen in archeological settings and ancestral villages.

There's many ways to fight in a conflict and some of those are through violent acts and many times there's a very different way of approaching conflict.

My great, great, great grandmother would tell the men as they're going out to the fields to plantin the springtime to make sure that they plant enough for those Navajos.

Maybe the way we defend ourself is by planting a little extra so that our enemies have enough to eat.

When Coronado invaded the southwest and was deeply disappointed to not find cities of gold, he useda Tiwa speaking village as his winter quarters.

He ejected a whole community from their homes.

And this is known as the Tigeux War.

You have an army from that time period with armor and these armoredwar horses and these war dogs, set the dogs on people.

Juan De Onate is the invader who comes to stay.

>> IN 1598, DURING A DEFENSIVE AMBUSH, THE WARRIORS OF ACOMA KILLED 11 OF JUAN DE ONATE'S MEN.

ONATE RETALIATED BY BURNING THE VILLAGE AND KILLING OVER 600 PEOPLE.

500 MORE WERE TAKEN PRISONER AND FORCED INTO SLAVERY.

THESPANISH THEN AMPUTATED THE RIGHT FOOT OF EVERY MAN OVER 25 YEARS OF AGE.

>>Swentzell: And they do conversion at the point of a spear and the crack of the whip.

This results in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

It actually ejected the Spanish out of the southwest.

You can almost think of that as maybe not even a choice, but one of those moments as a collective where we had to stand up and drop what we were doing and protect our very way of life.

>>Haozous: The timeless quality of the warrior is that quality of one who was willing to sacrifice his life.

Either his physical life or his desires so that he gives his energies to the people, to thetribe, for the furtherance of the tribe.

>>Neil Francis S.: We're Chiricahua, we're Warm Springs.

Our space was being invaded.

Our space where we used to gather our food, where we used to go to water.

My grandfather, he wanted to come back to his home in Warm Springs, but he couldn't do that.

>>Haozous: My grandfather was born there.

He was taken away.

He never got to go back to his home.

I want to bring our people home for those ancestors, for those prisoners of war that were taken out.

Our tribe belongs there, our people belong there.

That's where we have to be.

>>Everett Serafin: Stories were told in the evening, especially in the winter time, and they talk about people who were warriors.

Like Geronimo and Cochise.

How they lived and what they had to encounter.

How they used to hide from the cavalry on the mountainsides.

Haozous: You know, it's been said that leaders emerge as they are needed so that when our people were resisting the United States and fighting against the United States leaders emerged.

>>Senida Vigil: My grandfather, Augustine, spoke Spanish and Jicarilla.

During those times, they were fighting.

They were fighting with, like I say, Mangani, which is white people and also people fromMexico.

He was a leader, had a dream of tomorrow for the rest of his people.

The government said, "There's just a bunch of the Jicarilla band and the winters are harsh and nothing is settled up there."

The government says, "They'll all be gone before you know it."

And look how it turn out to be.

>>Michael Darrow: Our tribe has a reputation of being militaristic, of being fierce warlike people.

We always considered ourselves to be peaceful people.

With our tribe, you have to understand that the term warrior did not exist in our language.

The function was to be a provider for your family and for the tribe.

From the time the Spanish started their activities to when Mexico became independent of Spain, for Apaches, we were still being attacked, still being subjected to slave raids and being carried off into captivity.

The situation stayed essentially unchanged.

When the war with Mexico wasover, once the United States revealed its motives, the boundary commission came through.

They met with some of the leaders of our tribe, one of whom was Mangus Coloradas.

They explained that they were going through and to the United States and the part south of the boundary belonged to Mexico, which would have been perplexing to the Apaches because so far as they knew it was their land.

And Mangus Coloradas negotiated a treaty with the United States that was ratifiedby Congress in 1852.

It was not a treaty to turn over land.

It was just a treaty of recognition.

>>Haozous: My great, great grandfather, Mangus Coloradas, he was known as being a very fierce warrior and a strong leader, very intelligent man.

He was also known as being patient and willing to work with the Americans.

He's the only Apache leader that signed a treaty with the United States.

His willingness to work with the United States, but also his willingness to stand up and fight when necessary, are two of the qualities that I really admire in him.

It take a man of discernment to understandwhen those conditions are right to do that.

So that an unseasoned warrior may try to fight at the wrong time, whereas a warrior who has done that and had that experience and failed will understand that perhaps this isn't the time to fight.

This is maybe the time to wait.

>>Mike Darrow: The rest of the people on the Warm Springs reservation were marched from the Warm Springs reservation, which is northwest of what's Truth or Consequences now, and down through Silver City and across over into Arizona to the San Carlos reservation.

That was what started out what's referred to as the Victorio Wars.

>>Neil Francis Smith: Victorio didn't want to be incarcerated on a reservation in San Carlos.

He wanted to come back to Warm Springs and the government didn't want him to be there.

So naturally he lost.

He died defending that.

>>WHILE IT WAS NOT UNUSUAL FOR NATIVE WOMEN TO PARTICIPATE IN WARFARE, THE APACHE WARRIOR LOZEN STANDS OUT AS UNIQUE.

SCHOOLED FROM AN EARLY AGE BY HER BROTHER, CHIEF VICTORIO, IN MARTIAL ARTS AND COMBAT, SHE RODE BY HIS SIDE THROUGHOUT THE VICTORIO WARS.

A SKILLED FIGHTER AND BRILLIANT STRATEGIST, LOZEN WAS WITH GERONIMO WHEN HE SURRENDERED IN 1886.

SHE DIED A PRISONER OF WAR IN ALABAMA.

>>Megan Byers: I look to her for inspiration and power because no matter what, no matter how hard the fighting was, how hard it was to be on a horse all day, and be a woman and everything, She stuck it out and she got through it.

>>AMONG THE GREAT NATIVE WARRIORS OF THE 19TH CENTURY, GERONIMO IS THE MOST NOTORIOUS.

A CHIRICAHUA APACHE, GERONIMO WAS NOT A CHIEF BUT A SPIRITUAL LEADER WHO FOUGHT TO DEFEND HIS PEOPLE AGAINST MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS.

LABELED A DANGEROUS RENEGADE, HE WAS PURSUED RELENTLESSLY BY THE US CAVALRY UNTIL HIS FINAL SURRENDER IN 1886.

GERONIMO, 300 CHIRICAHUA, AND THE APACHESCOUTS EMPLOYED BY THE CALVARY TO TRACK HIM WERE SHIPPED TO FLORIDA AS PRISONERS OF WAR.

DESPITE THE TERMS OF SURRENDER, WHICH PROMISED A RETURN TO THEIR HOMELAND, THEY WERE MOVE TO FORT SILL, OKLAHOMA IN 1894, WHERE THEY REMAINED POWS UNTIL 1914.

>>Haozous: Geronimo fought to save his life because living in San Carlos our people were often tormented and teased by their captors, by the soldiers, and he was often told that he would be killed.andthat's why he left.

I think one of the things that our people really knew, there was no winning this battle with the United States.

They were surrounded.

But they kept trying.

>>Wes Studi: I know how a human being reacts to being cornered, pushed to the point that all you cando is fight back in a violent way.

Magua had to consider warfare on many different levels.

Not juston the battlefield with the axes and the guns, he also had to think about how in the world to make it on an economic level, on a political level.

But always in his heart he's Huron.

>>REVERED FOR HIS FEROCITY IN WAR, GERONIMO'S NAME WAS USED BY WORLD WAR II PARATROOPERS AS THEIR WAR CRY AND LATER AS A CODE WORD FOR COVERT MILITARY OPERATIONS.

THIS PRACTICE IS NOT FAVORED BY MANY NATIVE AMERICANS.

WHILE GERONIMO'S LEGACY AS A WARRIOR IS ACKNOWLEDGED, HE REMAINS A CONTROVERSIAL FIGURE IN THE HISTORY OF THE APACHE.

>>Haozous: A warrior doesn't know if they're going to survive to the next day, so that the day that you're here if you can make the most of it and do the best that you can, that's all that you can do.During the imprisonment period, I don't believe Geronimo was actually a leader.

It's been said thatperhaps our people would not have been released until he died because he was notorious.

By that time, he was a watermelon farmer on Fort Sill.

He was an old man and he was living with his people.

>>Michael Darrow: It is unconscionable to keep a people as prisoners of war for that period of time.Not just the men but the women and children.

Have the children born existence as prisoners and growup as prisoners.

And there wasn't anything the Apaches could do about that.

>>Haozous: There are also any number of psychological and cultural scars that we have from the imprisonment, from the removal.

Our tribe has not had a home since 1877 when the Warm Spring reservation was closed.

That's the last time that we had a home in New Mexico.

Geronimo and his actions led our people to be removed from their homelands.

Ironically, his actions also led to the decision that this wide swath of land here in New Mexico and in Arizona had been ours and we were due compensation for them.

One of the very important things for our tribe happened in 1946 when we filed a land claim.

And my grandfather, Sam Haozous, was one of the plaintiffs for the land claim representing the Warm Springs Apaches.

And that land claim took over 22 years to be resolved.

This is what led to the formation ofthe Fort Sill Apache tribe as we know it.

>>SAM HAOZOUS WAS A TEENAGER WHEN THE CHIRICAHUA WARM SPRINGS APACHE WERE TAKEN TO FLORIDA AS PRISONERS OF WAR.

MANY OF THE CHILDREN WERE SENT TO CARLISLE INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL IN PENNSYLVANIA.

TO ESCAPE THIS FATE, SAM'S COURAGEOUS MOTHER HID HIM FROM AUTHORITIES UNDER HER SKIRTS AND IN RAIN BARRELS.

ONE QUARTER OF THE GRAVES IN CARLISLE'S CEMETERY HOLD APACHE CHILDREN.

>>Haozous: One of my role models as a warrior is my grandfather, Sam.

Because he did what a warrior does, which is that he did something to give to his people that he didn't live to see the results.

And that's the inspiration that I have and I seek to return our people to our homelands and restore our tribe to its rightful place in southwestern United States.

>>Byers: Through assimilation, everything we do, they tried to strip from us.

They took us to boarding school, they cut our hair.

They took us from our parents and I think whenever we fight now, we'refighting to gain all of that back and to keep what we have left of it.

And that's why I fight.

>>DURING THE 19TH CENTURY, THE US GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED A SYSTEM OF BOARDING SCHOOLS FOR NATIVE CHILDREN TO ENFORCE ASSIMILATION.

MODELED AFTER MILITARY INSTITUTIONS, STUDENTS WORE UNIFORMS AND MARCHED IN FORMATION WITH DISCIPLINE AND REGIMENTATION EMPHASIZED OVER ACADEMICS.

THESE STUDENTS EASILY TRANSITIONED INTO THE MILITARY.

>>Byers: Well, when I was 14 I decided to go to New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico.

It was tough, but I just did it because I knew in the long run it would pay off.

I want to be a BIA Police Officer and I've chosen that career path because I see it as a protector.

As a protector for my people, for those that can't fight for themselves.

>>Philip Conrad B: Our hair is significant because it symbolizes a stance against complete assimilation.

The chief on the Comanche side and which I'm descendant of, Ten Bears, he had long hair.

I walkaround in public with a single braid and that's that.

That's me.

>>Neil Francis Smith: I was taught from a long time ago culture that this is our land from coast to coast, from up there to here, northeast, southwest.

That's why we pray for all the directions.

And we'll defend that to our death.

And that's why we honor our veterans and that's why a lot of the native people join the service and we have a flag.

We honor that.

>>Tom Dailey: (singing) Men of the Ozark we're marching along, as we go marching we're singing our song... >>Marvin Trujillo: If you talk to men and women of the native communities going back to World War 2,you hear huge battles, such as the Battle of the Bulge that happened in Europe.

You hear about Iwo Jima.

All these different major battles.

Members from our home communities here in the Pueblos, or either in New Mexico.

Some of the men and women were there and part of the Bataan Death March.

>>Dailey: One day the cloud start to disappear and we looked up there and you should have seen the planes coming in.

Thousands of them I would say.

All the ships, all the everythings going across.

God, we're in a war zone now.

I grew up and was born on the rez., 4/4 Laguna blood.

And my family and the whole tribal people were mostly farmers, stock men, sheep herder, so forth.

Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and the war started from that point.

Then Pearl Harbor came around.

The draft.

Guys were getting drafted and I figured maybe I better see if I can enlist now or be drafted later.

So I went in and sure enough I got enlisted right away, accepted.

We say in our native language, "Be a man.

Be a man."

Ha-tse-meh, enough I got enlisted right away, accepted.

We say in our native language, "Be a man.

Be a man."

Ha-tse-meh, ha-tse-meh.

You know when I say that it means, be a man.

>>Clarence Gutierrez: I serve in to the Army Air Force in World War II.

I went to CBI, they called it during the war, China Burma, India theater.

We were in India.

Maintenance crew.

Getting the airplanes flying.

It was our duty.

I was ready to die if I had to die.

I guess made up my mind that that'swhat was going to be.

I prayed both ways, both Indian and Catholic.

I was so lucky to come back home.

>>Naranjo: Well, they got my number, I guess, and I was drafted.

Everybody shipped out different places.

Some went to Japan, some went to Germany.

I went to Germany.

I wasn't afraid.

I've seen so much killing and what have you and that.

Bless their souls.

We were there for a purpose.

>>Dailey: To preserve peace, freedom.

That's what we fought for.

(singing) We are the fighting men of 102.

>>Marvin Trujillo: As I left San Diego, I had my first orders to Yokosuka, Japan, which was on boardthe aircraft carrier, USS Independence.

As I was trained there, I worked on catapults and arrestinggear.

I used to send the planes off from the bow of the aircraft carrier.

From there I went into avionics.

Protection of our families, protection of our homes, protection of our environment was also another reason why I felt that going into the service was something to utilize to protect our families here back in the United States.

>>Robert Trivino: I realized this is the path that I want to take.

And I had a good idea of what I wanted to do.

I wanted to be a fighting soldier.

I wanted to be the guy who is sweating, walking around in the woods, hunting the enemy just like I was hunting the elk.

I wanted to surround myself withpeople who wanted to be part of something larger than themselves.

There is a cultural sense in how we hunt.

And a big part of that was to have patience and hearing.

We would make what is called an offering in its simplest form, a gift and a prayer that is used to help the hunters, one, besuccessful, and two, to be safe and happy during the conduct of their hunt.

Later on as a ground foot soldier in the army, that lessons and that ability to stalk, move silently, translated directly to being able to be successful and staying alive in my military career.

I knowthat my cultural background affected my performance without a doubt because that's who I am.

>>Forrest Goodluck: My grandfather on my father's side, Clement Goodluck, served as a soldier in World War II and fought in Germany.

Clement's brother, John Goodluck, also served in World War II as a Navajo code talker.

My dad always tells me that they were very secretive about what had happened there and, of course, for good reason.

It's interesting to hear that because it's mixed history.

I am always conflicted with wondering why would any Native American go out and fight for a country that doesn't want them.

And I still don't know the answer to that.

>>IN SPITE OF THE FACT THEY WERE NOT US CITIZENS AT THE START OF WORLD WAR I, THERE WERE 17,000 NATIVE AMERICANS IN THE ARMED FORCES.

IT WAS DURING WORLD WAR I THAT CHEROKEE AND CHOCTAW SOLDIERS PIONEERED THE USE OF NATIVE CODE TALKING.

IN 1919, NATIVE VETERANS WERE GRANTED CITIZENSHIP.

NOT UNTIL 1924 WITH PASSAGE OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN CITIZENSHIP ACT DID ALL INDIANS BECOME CITIZENS.

EVEN THEN, SEVERAL STATES CONTINUED TO PROHIBIT INDIANS FROM VOTING.

DURING WORLD WAR II, MORE THAN 44,000 NATIVE SOLDIERS SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES, INCLUDING HUNDREDSOF NAVAJO AND OTHER TRIBAL CODE TALKERS.

ALTHOUGH ELIGIBLE FOR THE DRAFT, MOST ENLISTED.

>>Tohe: My father, who has passed, was a code talker during World War II.

They felt like they neededto defend the Haa- tsan, which is a name for United States, the country.

It also means our mother and Mother Earth.

And this is so ironic because the language that was so crucial in devising this code that the Japanese never deciphered.

This was a language that was meant for obliteration during theassimilation era.

And then they were told, "You will devise a code using the Navajo language."

Theywere astounded.

>>BECAUSE THE CODE WAS NEVER BROKEN, THE CODE TALKER PROGRAM WAS HIGHLY CLASSIFIED.

SWORN TO SECRECY, CODE TALKERS HONORED THIS PROMISE UNTIL THE CODE WAS DECLASSIFIED IN 1968.

>>Marvin Trujillo: You know, as far as looking at some of the stories, especially during World War II, a lot of them felt that honor and that privilege to go and serve their country.

Again, going backto protection.

Protecting their family members here in the small Pueblos, but also the bigger picture of the United States.

>>BETWEEN 10,000 AND 15,000 NATIVE AMERICANS SERVED IN THE KOREAN WAR.

DURING THE KOREAN AND VIETNAMWARS, THE MILITARY BEGAN A CAMPAIGN TO RECRUIT MORE FEMALE TROOPS.

>>Senida Vigil: Recruiter came up and I met him and her and we're all sitting there talking.

Took the test.

That was it.

Joined the Navy.

And what I wanted to go into was parachute and they said thatyou gotta know how to sew.

And I did.

I knew how to sew, so you had to make your own parachute there in class.

After you finished, you're gonna jump with it.

>>Patricia Sandoval Cate: I'm not sure what called me.

I just knew that I wanted to go.

But I knew Ihad to be a little better than everyone because when I was in the military, not a lot of women wanted to do what the guys did.

Not only because I was the smallest and all that, they made me do everything first.

And they used meas an example.

At first, I used to get mad, but at the same time, I toldmyself, "Great.

If I can beat you, I'm gonna be the first in chow line," because that's how it is in the military.

Something like war you don't just go into it alone.

I'm never walking alone.

We all have guardians, whether it's a bear.

In our community it's powerful and it's a protector.

Still being the warrior mother or the mama bear in my home.

>>Depree Shadowwalker: Growing up as Apache, one of the strongest things was it's better to die fighting.

I was taught you don't throw the first punch, but you definitely are the last punch.

(singing) >>Shadowwalker: Throughout my life, my dad to sing us songs when we'd go traveling.

He'd sing Indiansongs from home.

While I was going through basic training and feeling really isolated, and so I started singing this song.

And I think of it more of like it's a social song.

And for me it was a very strong, anchoring.

It's a link from here to the past, but it sets you in the present with all the strength that comes from our family and from our culture.

Apaches, once you commit to something, you have to own your word.

So my commitment with the government as being a soldier, I had to follow through with it and do my best.

Somebody asked me over there,"What do you think about this image that Apaches have?

That they're warriors, that they're fighters, savage."

And I said, "Well, when I come to a strange world and I don't know anybody around here, it's not a bad image to rely on."

For my PhD, my dissertation, I looked at stereotypes in history books, secondary history books, and it was a big struggle with my committee.

They said, "There was no more stereotypes in history books.Oh, no, no, no."

>>Neil Francis Smith: As a young kid on the reservation, in those days there was nothing but cowboysand Indian movies.

You would see the cavalry coming in, blowing their horn, waving their flag, shooting all the Indians.

We would all holler for the cavalry when they came over the mountain.

We used to clap and holler, "Yay.

Here comes the cavalry."

We didn't know.

Is that a sort of propaganda?

>>Cheston Bailon: One of those moments was when I was speaking to a local Iraqi man.

The question came up, "So you're from China, right?"

"Mm-hmm (negative).

I'm Native American."

He says, "Oh.

Wait, they still exist?

I though you guys were all wiped out.

I though you guys were gone."

I said, "No, we're still here in the United States."

And he says, "Then why are you fighting with the cowboys?"

On a human level, it did raise a lot of internal questions.

>>RECOGNIZED AS EXCELLENT TRACKERS, INDIANS WERE ENLISTED AS SCOUTS DURING THE CIVIL WAR.

NATIVES WERE VALUED NOT ONLY AS TRACKERS, BUT FOR A SUPERIOR ABILITY TO ASSESS THE ENEMIES POSITION AND USE THE LANDSCAPE ADVANTAGEOUSLY IN COMBAT.

THIS BELIEF IN THE INDIAN SOLDIERS' PARTICULAR SKILLS PERSISTSTO THIS DAY.

>>Chester Bailon: There was humorous talk among the Marines among us like, "All right.

We got a native guide with us because they're pretty sharp when it comes to being in combat."

There were several other natives with us and for whatever reason we were always the point man.

The guy at the beginningof the platoon.

Being the eyes and ears.

>>John Bailon: I've always wanted to ask our squad leaders, "Was there some kind of reassurance or were we just like the expendable ones?"

>>Everett Serafin: They always tease you about being eagle eye and can see something behind a tree that they couldn't see.

But maybe we were more aware of where to look for danger than the other soldiers.

If there's an American walking around in the dark, you can distinguish between the enemy and the American.

The American was a little bit more heavy on their feet.

But if something's quiet and moving out there, then you know it's not an American out there.

>>MORE THAN 50,000 NATIVE AMERICANS SERVED IN VIETNAM.

90% WERE VOLUNTEERS.

IT WAS NOT UNTIL 1965 WITH THE PASSAGE OF THE VOTING RIGHT ACTS THAT NATIVE AMERICANS WERE GUARANTEED THE RIGHT TO VOTE IN ALL 50 STATES.

>>Wes Studi: Our company got orders to relocate a village.

In my whole company, there were three indigenous guys, and for some reason or other all three of us were left out of it.

We were told to stayin camp.

We started sitting around thinking, "I wonder because maybe it's something having to do with historical relocations that they decided to leave the Indians in camp."

You know?

I don't know?

>>Marvin Trujillo: You know, as far as the culture in Vietnam, it's very similar to Native American culture in the fact that you have your individualistic cultures, but you also have your cohesive cultures which surround the family.

There are veterans that have talked about their experiences in remembering some of those folks that they saw that reminded them of some of the members here back in their home tribes.

>>Robert Trivino: My first month on the ground dealing with the Afghan people reminded me of the native people back home.

The terrain was very similar, their customs, and the fact that they are culturally driven.

That resonated with me while I was serving my first deployment overseas in Afghanistan.

>>John Bailon: It wasn't until I got that phone call early morning of September 11th where that really got me thinking.

I was like, "Well, do I really want to stay in school?

Or is this one of those moments in life where I go with Cheston and we go and do the Marines together?"

Because it impacted so many people's lives and I made that decision like, "I would like to go with my brother."

>>Cheston Bailon: For whatever unique reason, we were sent as brothers.

The spirit that we both possess is kind of a hidden bond that we seem to develop over time.

>>APPROXIMATELY 3,000 NATIVE AMERICAN SERVED DURING OPERATION DESERT STORM.

>>Cheston Bailon: When we were told that we were going to Iraq, the journey was started again.

The spiritual side of what do we need to do to prepare ourselves?

What are we gonna face?

Are we gonna have to do some acts that we may disagree with as a human?

Can we forgive ourselves?

Are we mentally prepared to handle that type of weight?

>>John Bailon: In the Navajo creation story there's a person named Changing Woman, who gave birth totwins.

So the brothers growing up witnessed these atrocities that were occurring from what they defined are monsters.

They went to their mother and asked, "We heard our father is the sun.

He possessed weapons that can destroy these monsters.

Can we go see our father and ask him for these weapons tofight these monsters and put a shield on you and protect you in your journey through the sun?"

>>Cheston Bailon: Hearing these stories about these two twin warriors, these two brothers, you can'thelp but resonate and have that obligation and say, "Can I live up to that standard?

Can I live up to being a Marine?

Can I live up to these twin warriors?"

>>John Bailon: What is a warrior?

How do we develop that?

We don't like to define it as a goal to seek, but rather a constant development we're aiming for.

>> IN 1968, A GROUP OF INDIAN ACTIVISTS, INCLUDING DENNIS BANKS, GEORGE MITCHELL, CLYDE BELLECOURT, AND EDDIE BENTON BANAI, FOUNDED THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT.

AIM'S MISSION IS TO ENFORCE RECOGNITION OF TREATIES BY THE US GOVERNMENT AND PROTECT NATIVE AMERICAN SOVEREIGNTY AND CIVIL RIGHTS.

>>Swentzell: One of the things that happened with American Indian Movement is there were quite a few of the members were veterans and so they had already served in the military, in addition to activists.

And so there's a convergence of different groups of fighters to join the conflict.

>>Wes Studi: The occupation of Alcatraz and the fishing rights conflicts up in the northwest happened before that.

The fact that so many of the people who became actively involved were straight out ofuniversities and colleges wherein we had begun to learn more about our own history and, It incenseda lot of us.

Yeah, it is time that we stand and began to build the idea of our own sovereignty and we also learned that sovereignty was something that was not a given.

Nobody's going to give you sovereignty.

You have to take it.

That to me was the entire concept of AIM was to rebirth the Nations assovereigns.

>>Conroy Chino: There was a need to push back, fight back, really with the intent of trying to educate and inform others that this distorted image of native people was not the true image.

It certainlywas not the image that I grew up with.

>>Charlene Teters: The American Indian Movement was about lifting leadership.

It was about taking a stand in the '60s.

They were lifting the next generation of leaders.

>>SINCE THE RISE OF AIM, NATIVE WARRIORS HAVE SHIFTED THEIR FIGHT FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE TO THE COURTS.

THE NATIONAL COALITION ON RACISM IN SPORTS AND THE MEDIA WAS FORMED TO COMBAT NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES OF AMERICAN INDIANS.

CREATED IN 1991 BY A GROUP OF PROMINENT NATIVE AMERICAN ACTIVISTS, THIS COALITION INCLUDED A YOUNG ARTIST AND MOTHER NAMED CHARLENE TETERS.

IN 1988, CHARLENE WAS RECRUITED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS TO PURSUE HER MASTERS DEGREE IN FINE ARTS.

>>Charlene Teters: And so we arrive at the University of Illinois, a dream come true that very quickly turned into a nightmare because we found after we got there that they had as their mascot a dancing chief.

And it was the stereotypical, monolithic presentation of who they think we are as native people.

We went to the bank, there was wallpaper of the headdresses.

There was a bar called Home of the Drinking Illini where there was neon sign of a falling down, drunken Indian over and over again.

Our team was on their way to the Final Four.

My children wanted to go to the game and I tried to prepare them for what they would see.

The antics of the fans who were doing their version of the Tomahawk Chop and the songs and the headdresses, and then when the mascot came out, they go, "Chief, chief."

That was my moment.

For me, it was not looking for a fight.

I just realized I had to.

They did get rid of the mascot in 2007.

The story about the University of Illinois is the catalyst for a lot ofthe discussion that's going on today across the country.

>>IN 1973, THERE WERE TWO PIVOTAL EVENTS THAT GALVANIZED THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT.

THE SIEGE ATWOUNDED KNEE, SOUTH DAKOTA AND THE DEATH OF LARRY CASUSE IN GALLUP, NEW MEXICO.

KNOWN AS THE HEART OF INDIAN COUNTRY, GALLUP'S STREETS ARE LINED WITH BARS, LIQUOR STORES, PAWN SHOPS, AND PREDATORY LENDERS.

RAISED IN GALLUP, LARRY CASUSE WAS 19 YEAR OLD NAVAJO AND CO-FOUNDER OF INDIANS AGAINST EXPLOITATION.

>>Kooper Curley: There was like 60 bars just in Gallup alone.

There's a big campaign to shut them down.

It's hurting our people there.

Still is to this day.

But Larry Casuse had enough one day and he took the mayor hostage at gun point.

Started walking him out towards downtown.

All the SWAT, everybody was there.

And as he was entering what was a sports store, they shot him.

A sniper shot him and he died.

But those are the stories that I grew up with of indigenous empowerment, indigenous movements, indigenous resistance.

It's liberating to go up there on the front line and to just let your voice be heard.

People that are taking up the fight, such as Save the Confluence, Protect the Peaks, Chaco Canyon, the fracking issues, Oak Flat, Standing Rock.

>>IN THE SPRING OF 2016, NATIVE AMERICANS WATER PROTECTORS SENT UP CAMP ON THE BANKS OF THE CANNONBALL RIVER IN NORTH DAKOTA TO STOP CONSTRUCTION OF THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE.

APPROVED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, THE PIPELINE POSES A GRAVE THREAT TO SACRED LANDS AND THE ONLY WATER SUPPLY FOR THE STANDING ROCK SIOUX.

JOINING THE WATER PROTECTORS WERE OTHER NORTH AMERICAN TRIBES, INDIGENOUS PEOPLE FROM AROUND THE WORLD, NON-NATIVE SUPPORTERS, AND VETERANS.

>>Kooper Curley: Why are so many people there?

That's definitely because they see the urgency to speak up and say, "Water is sacred."

And there you can experience that power of the people, the power of prayer, and the collective thought of what is sacred.

>>CONVINCED THAT NATIVE PEOPLE WERE SOON TO VANISH ENTIRELY, 19TH CENTURY ANTHROPOLOGISTS, MUSEUMS, AND PRIVATE COLLECTORS WAGED A VIGOROUS CAMPAIGN TO APPROPRIATE INDIAN ARTIFACTS.

THIS RESULTED IN THE THEFT AND DISAPPEARANCE OF COUNTLESS RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL OBJECTS.

>>Conroy Chino: Presently we're engaged in an ongoing battle to retrieve a piece of what's describedas cultural patrimony.

A sacred object that was stolen off Acoma's traditional homelands.

We began to see images of these items being put up on Ebay and made available to the highest bidder.

When we saw this shield that came from Acoma being offered for sale at the Yves auction in Paris, France, wedecided it's time to take a stand.

And I think there was a considerable amount of public pressure on the auction house and pressure from the US government on the government of France to prevent the sale.

And we were successful.

We were able to have the item removed, but it's still not over.

The fight is still not over for the return of that item.

>>Male: God bless you.

>>Marvin Trujillo: As I came back home, I realized that there was a need for veterans' administration benefit services throughout the state, particularly with Native American veterans.

We were able toestablish the Southwest Native American Veterans Association.

Our goal is to be a number one navigator for our communities in the southwest to guide them to the right benefits, to guide them to the right people that they need to talk to.

>Neil Francis Smith: My father taught me pretty much everything that I know about the native way of life.

He taught me survival in the woods.

He taught me the language.

[speaks in native American dialect] What I'm saying is a Sioux he gave you this pollen.

It comes from the cattail.

That's what we use to bless with, to heal with, everything comes from that pollen.

>>NATIVE AMERICAN CEREMONY AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS ARE MAJOR COMPONENTS OF TRIBAL LIFE.

INDIAN SOLDIERS ARE OFTEN SENT TO WAR BY FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES WITH BLESSING CEREMONIES, SONGS, PRAYERS, AND OBJECT FOR PROTECTION.

>>Cheston Bailon: During the ceremony to Iraq, we were both given eagle feathers to put in our helmets so we would look like any normal Marine.

But it was a safety net for us.

There were times where we're literally, just our heads are peaking over a ledge and I don't quite think that I was afraid because I knew I was protected.

>>Megan Byers: Mescalero we always believe that silver and turquoise are gonna be your protectors.

And for me I always have my silver bracelets on.

I take turquoise with me everywhere in a necklace, even just a piece of it in my pocket.

>>Jeff Haozous: The role of a modern warrior would not just be to fight for a cause, but then also to share.

Because when you're fighting for a cause you're devoting your life to something.

You're developing skills to allow you to do that.

So that if you're developing skill as an artist and if you can share that with those younger people in the community, then in a way it's warrior training.

>>Curley: A lot of warriors today are teachers, artists.

Some people don't know that they are.

But what is a warrior?

It's that strength.

And when you feel strength within someone, you say, "That person is unstoppable.

That person has power.

That person believes in themselves."

>>Robert Trivino: A warrior has to lead.

He has to make tough decisions and they have to do what is right, not just for yourself, but for the people that you serve because it's all about serving, giving back, placing people before themselves.

>>Patricia Sandoval Cate: Someone not with a title, not asked for.

I think leaders and warriors are born out of necessity.

>>Forrest Goodluck: It's something I guess that I acknowledge and something that I guess I want to do with my work as a filmmaker and to also tell our native stories.

The films I'm trying to make and the stories that I'm trying to tell are something that's very truthful to me.

I started to realized the power of a camera in terms of like reflecting my own reality.

I guess that's where my strength comes from knowing that I need to make a positive change in this world or else what was the point of them struggling through the long walk.

Struggling through genocide.

Struggling through smallpox.

What the point of all that if I don't make something of myself?

>>Haozous: In the past, our people thought with arms.

Today we fight with words.

>>Philip Conrad Bread: We're still warriors because we're fighting this war on drugs, domestic violence, drinking, mascots, land issues, water rights.

The list goes on.

That is our war.

I have a dreamthat ties into the future of all indigenous people.

I will have become a lawyer fighting for triballaws and further encroachments.

My motive would be to revolutionize our people, to put aside our tribal differences, and unite.

If you know the law of the colonizer, you can beat them.

>>Laura Tohe: There should be a compassionate side to the warrior and I think this is what the code talkers felt when they enlisted in the military.

>>Conroy Chino: The basic qualities of a warrior, I believe, stay the same, but the issues have become complex and more sophisticated.

They require, I think, a different approach, a different strategyto protect and preserve what has been most significant to us.

Land, the environment, a set of beliefs.

>>Cate: I'm not gone.

My children are not gone.

We were never displaced.

We're still in our homelands.

But at the same time, we always constantly have to fight for our right to be us.

[speak in nativelanguage] Don't allow them to take your power.

>>Curley: Why fight?

That's the biggest question I hear everywhere.

Why do you do this?

I've always had the feeling that I can do anything.

I just have to believe in myself.

I have to believe in my words.

I have to believe in my actions.

I have to believe in my prayers.

That's why I do it.

>>Teters: When you put yourself out there to be sacrificed and you survive it, you can become a verypowerful person.

>>Serafin: You cannot just be an Indian on the outside.

You have to be Indian on the inside also.

It's gotta be here from here.

You learned your songs, you learned your ways, and then you [00:54:30] go forward.

>>Teters: We're the link between the ancestors and the unborn.

To protect those things that are central to our identity.

That there's something very connected to the land.

>>Curley: My mom guided us toward the ceremony and she always told me to stay by the fire, listen tothe fire, whatever you need to know it's all right there within the fire.

There will