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Original Patriots: Northern California Indian Veterans of World War Two

The voices of the elders ring out loud and clear in this ambitious, high-quality, and important book. Chag Lowry's exceptional work is an essential contribution to wartime history, to the history of the Northwest, and to the history of its Native Peoples.

This book is not just very readable: it's impossible-to-put-down. Lowry presents over fifty interviews in which Indian veterans talk frankly about their war experiences-with members of just about every branch of the military serving and fighting in every theater, these stories are riveting-about their early schooling experiences, and about life from their particular perspectives. Because the men and women in the book have been interviewed very recently, the book presents a link between the present and the past, with the benefit of these elders' hindsight.

Additionally, Lowry provides historical background and context. He gives an unsparing and comprehensive analysis of the impacts that the coming Euro-American gold-seekers and settlers had on Native Peoples, telling what really went on behind the "fake 'Indian War' illusion" that was put forth for the public, and reminding us that $60,000 was paid by the federal and California government to counties for "expeditions" against Indians: bounty hunters received from 50 cents to 5 dollars per dead Indian in county courts. Lowry also tells of the Indian Boarding Schools-there were six in the California neighborhood-where Indian children were re-educated: "Kill the Indian and Save the Man," was the motto passed down from the founder of the first of these institutions.

And he provides chapters describing the world events leading up to both World War One and World War Two. But the heart of the book is the voices of the men and women who speak from these pages. They are members of our communities and what a wonderful opportunity to get to know them is here provided for the reader. The topics are serious, but there is great life and often humor in the telling of each story. And Chag Lowry's own personal reflections are finely rendered. He is the grandson and grandnephew of two World War Two heroes.