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Veterans from Minnesota recently gathered at the Grand Casino Mille Lacs for a day of connection.
Ojibwe veterans Anthony Pike, Lana Oswaldson and Billie DeFoe attended the resource fair at the event center in Onamia. All three say they expressed interest in military service before the age of 18. Decades later, they feel purpose and pride in serving their country and community through military service.
Pike is a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. The 52-year-old says he wanted to leave his childhood home in south Minneapolis.
“I begged and pleaded my mom to sign the paper. So, I joined a week after I turned 17,” he said. Pike served in the National Guard for about 20 years after getting his mother’s permission to join the military as a minor.
He says he was deployed overseas several times, including to Iraq.
“I've probably had a lot of active-duty time mixed into that. So, everybody's like, ‘Oh, National Guard, one weekend a month warriors.’ I'm like, 'No, completely different,’” Pike said.
Oswaldson is also a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. She says she enlisted in the Army when she was 17 years old.
“My sister had just gone in a couple years before, and so we followed our dad and our uncles,” Oswaldson said. She served four years of active duty, including a deployment to South Korea. Now, at 58, she reflects on what her military service means to her as a tribal citizen.
“Coming from Mille Lacs Lake Reservation, and then also being a U.S. citizen, it was just like I served two worlds,” Oswaldson said.
Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa citizen Billie DeFoe credits her interest in joining the Navy to her foster father’s influence.
“It just kind of felt like that’s what I was supposed to do. There’s no other options, but this is right,” DeFoe said. The 53-year-old served for just under five years.
Community protector
In the Ojibwe language, the word for veteran is “ogichidaa,” or “ogichidaakwe” for women veterans. The translation means “warrior” in English. DeFoe says there is pride in being an ogichidaa.
“It’s pride — like community protector,” DeFoe said. “I think that we’re walking a good path, and it feels good.”
Oswaldson says her service in the military felt like a way of not only defending the United States but also defending tribal sovereignty.
“As Natives, we walk in two worlds. We walk in the world, and then our reservation too. So, we're serving here, and we're still fighting for our own sovereign immunity and keeping what's rightfully ours,” Oswaldson said.
According to the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, Native Americans have one of the highest percentages of military service per capita among any ethnic group. For Oswaldson, she says she knew many other Native Americans serving in the Army, both men and women.
“It was really nice to see other Natives in there, because you didn't feel so alone,” Oswaldson said.
Pike shares a similar pride in being a veteran. He says he feels loved by his community.
“When you're a veteran within a tribal community, you're not really held at a higher standard, but you're looked at, you're looked up to. And they honor you, and they tell you that,” he said.
Pike, Oswaldson and DeFoe are active in their community and connect with other veterans through activities such as honor guard or auxiliary groups.
“I like the camaraderie. I like that I can walk into a room and I can meet another veteran, and I know that I'm probably safe. I can talk to that veteran,” DeFoe said.
All three say they feel their community is just as proud of them as they are of themselves.
Chandra Colvin covers Native American communities in Minnesota for MPR News via Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
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