Building destroyed by shelling

W6721. Battlefield scene. 1921, France or Belgium. Joseph K. Dixon, photographer.

The Native American soldiers told their war experiences in different ways. Some of the men wrote detailed sketches of their time in the European battlefields, some list the battles they fought in, others created reticent and stoic phrases about what they witnessed.

World War I was unlike any previous war in the scale of action and the use of new weapons that dehumanized participants, and the starkness of this war permeates the words written by soldiers who withstood its horrors.  At the same time, the personal accounts provide glimpses of how soldiers maintained their own characters and values.

Though each questionnaire reflects a unique experience of war, the wider experience was shared by thousands. These documents, taken together, convey a unified experience of war and its effects.

                                         

                                         Questionnaires:                                         

Benjamin T. E. Prettyboy

Leo Miles

Lewis Sanderson

John W. Smith

Joseph Filario Tafoya

Edward Two Horses

Amos Woods

 

Photographs:

John Whirlwind Horse

Paul Widow or Came-At-The-Camp