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The Why We Serve exhibition honors the generations of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian members of the United States Armed Forces, and commemorates the National Native American Veterans Memorial, dedicated at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

A group of Kiowa men inside a tipi depicting illlustrated battles and lists the names of those killed in combat since WW II

Cultures of War

Choctaw Chief Pushmataha in uniform

Origins of Native American Military Service

General Ulysses S. Grant and his staff, including Lieutenant Colonel Ely S. Parker, in front of a tent

Civil War

General George Crook on a mule alongside two American Indian scouts in the Arizona desert

Army Scouts 1866–1890

Rough Rider William Pollock in uniform

Spanish-American War

Joseph Oklahombi, in uniform, sitting on a porch alongside John Golombie and Czarina Colbert Conlan

World War I

Code talker Charles Chibitty and three other soldiers landing on Utah beach

Code Talkers

Historic image of five marines and a navy corpsman raising a U.S. flag in Iwo Jima durng World War II

World War II

Three Marine Corps Women Reservists, Minnie Spotted Wolf, Celia Mix, and Viola Eastman posing at Camp Lejeune

Native Women and World War II

Three guardsmen, one standing, one kneeling, and one laying on his stomach, holding guns and looking out from a grassy hill

Alaska Territorial Guard

Two airmen, Ben Nighthorse Campbell and a young South Korean man, sharing a laugh together

Korea

Two American Indian soldiers in uniform, including the artist T.C. Cannon, drinking beer in a Vietnamese bar

Vietnam

A group of soldiers from the United States Army’s 120th Engineer Combat Battalion posing with the Cherokee Nation flag

Conflicts in the Middle East

Four Native American Women Warriors, wearing jingle dresses, leading the grand entry during a powwow

War and Peace

Marine Corps Vietnam Veteran Harvey Pratt sitting and holding a wooden cane in front of his body

National Native American Veterans Memorial