Native Americans have a long tradition of service in the United States military. Although Native Veterans were, in 1919, among the first groups of Native Americans to be extended U.S. citizenship, many still faced challenges obtaining and using their Veteran benefits. This was in part due to changing Federal policies affecting tribal groups.
As settlers moved westward across the Mississippi River in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many settled on land that belonged to Native tribes. Native Americans were allotted plots of land for farming, but they often turned out to be unsuitable for raising crops. The allotment system ended in 1934 as the Federal Government began to recognize tribal governments and set aside funds for Indian education. Two decades later, Federal policy shifted again, this time toward a “termination” stance, which ended Federal aid and recognition of tribes. In 1975, President Nixon ended the termination policy and gave Native tribes greater autonomy and responsibility for programs and services administered to them by the Department of the Interior. Federal policy changed again in 2000 when President Clinton issued Executive Order 13175 mandating that Federal agencies, through tribal consultation, honor the government-to-government relationships between the United States and tribal governments. In 2011, VA implemented this executive order by establishing the VA Tribal Consultation Policy.
Initially, Native American troops who served with Union forces during the Civil War and subsequent Indian Wars of the late nineteenth century were eligible for pensions from the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Pensions, which oversaw military pensions for American Veterans until 1930.[1]
When the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, better known as the GI Bill of Rights, was signed into law on June 22, 1944, Native Veterans became eligible for education, home loan, and other Veterans benefits. The Department of Interior operated 18 schools where VA-approved courses were available for Native Veterans.[2] However, Native Veterans living on tribal land had difficulty securing VA home loans because banks would not extend loans for land on reservations.[3]
Specific VA outreach to tribal groups and Veterans in the decades after World War II was driven by local medical centers and employees working near reservations. In 1975, for example, Veterans Benefits Specialist Robert Blankholm from the VA Phoenix Regional Office took Benefits Van #5 on a tour of the Navajo Nation. Blankholm met with Native Veterans in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, answering questions of special interest to Navajo Veterans about job training and housing loans.[4]
To better serve Navajo Veterans, VA worked with IHS to create a Benefit Service Program in the Navajo Nation in 1976. Prior to this agreement, Native Veterans received their healthcare at IHS clinics. The Benefit Services Program put VA staff within IHS units in the Navajo area. These staff positions were recruited from the local Native population, aligning with efforts at the time to recruit bilingual Native Americans to help advise Native Veterans about their VA benefits. Additionally, the VA representatives at IHS units provided all eligible Native Veterans with access to the VA health care system and assisted with their benefits applications.[5]
VA began more formal outreach to tribal groups and Native Veterans in the 1980s and 1990s. Hawaiian Senator Spark Matsunaga initiated a major project to study the readjustment experiences of American Indian and other minority Veterans returning from service in Vietnam. VA’s National Center for PTSD began the Matsunaga Project in 1990 with the express purpose of examining American Indian Veterans’ experiences coming home from war and their experience using Veterans Affairs health care services. The Matsunaga Project represented one of the first times that American Indian Veterans’ perspectives and experiences with war had been studied in-depth by VA. The project informed numerous VA initiatives regarding Native Veterans during the next decade.[6] For example, the study led to the creation of a sweat lodge on the St. Cloud Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), the first of its kind at a VAMC. This traditional Native American structure combined ancient rituals with modern medicine and gave Native Veterans a place to heal both spiritually and physically. Several other VAMCs have also adopted the practice.[7]
VA took steps to resolve Native Veterans’ issues with obtaining VA home loans for tribal lands in 1992. The Veterans Home Loan Amendment, passed that year, included the Native American Veterans Direct Housing Loan Pilot Program, allowing VA to issue direct loans to Indian Veterans living on tribal lands.[8] The pilot program allowed the Veteran to use a VA home loan to purchase, construct, or improve their dwelling on a reservation. To receive a VA home loan through the pilot program, the Veteran’s tribe was required to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with VA. By the end of 1998 fiscal year, 205 loans had been processed and 54 official MOUs had been signed between the VA and tribal groups.[9]
In addition to helping with home loans, VA also worked to establish additional Veteran Centers on reservation lands. The first center opened in Kearns Canyon, Arizona, on Navajo tribal lands in 1992. A second center opened in 1994 in Chinle, Arizona, and a third opened in 1996 in Anchorage, Alaska. These new Vet Centers were part of the VA’s Readjustment Counseling Services tailored specifically to Native Veterans. In addition, VA’s Center for Minority Veterans, established in 1994 after an executive memo from President Bill Clinton, also helped coordinate outreach to Native Veterans. The office’s Indian liaison participated in Native American powwows and worked individually with Native American tribes.[10] VA’s outreach to tribal groups has continued into the twenty-first century. A February 2003 MOU between VA and IHS established official agency-to-agency coordination between VAMCs and IHS health clinics. VA has also established an Office of Tribal Government Relations and a separate Advisory Committee on Indian and Tribal Affairs, each of which seek to continue enhancing VA efforts to care for Native Veterans by working through respectful government-to-government collaboration with tribal governments.[11]
[1] National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, “Indian Health Service Today”, Revised March 5, 2024. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/if_you_knew/ifyouknew_09.html.
[2] U.S. Veterans’ Administration, Annual Report 1956, Administrator of Veterans Affairs (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Veterans’ Administration, 1956), 141.
[3] U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 1993 Regulatory Program of the United States, August 20, 1993, 7.
[4] U.S. Veterans’ Administration. “Benefits Van Tours Navajo Nation”. VAnguard, no. 24 (May 20, 1975), 1.
[5] U.S. Veterans Administration Annual Report 1976, Administrator of Veterans Affairs (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Veterans’ Administration, 1976) 25.
Annual Report 1956, Administrator of Veterans Affairs (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Veterans’ Administration, 1956), 141.
[6] “Psychological Trauma for American Indians Who Served in Vietnam: The Matsunaga Vietnam Veterans Project” PTSD: National Center for PTSD, Last updated March 25, 2025. https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/type/vietnam_american_indians.asp.
[7] Pam Schmid, “Ancient Indian ritual made part of alcoholism treatment,” Brainerd Dispatch (Brainerd, Minnesota), Oct. 23, 1991.
[8] U.S. Congress, An Act To amend title 38, United States Code, with respect to housing loans for veterans. HR 939, 102d Cong., introduced on October 28, 1992, https://www.congress.gov/102/statute/STATUTE-106/STATUTE-106-Pg3633.pdf
[9] U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Annual Report of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Fiscal Year 1998 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 1998), 19.
[10] U.S. President, Executive Memorandum, “Government-to-Government Relations With Native American Tribal Governments, Memorandum of April 29, 1994”, Federal Register 59, no. 85 (May 4, 1994): 94-10877. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1994-05-04/html/94-10877.htm.
[11] U.S. Congress, An Act To provide flexibility for the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in caring for homeless veterans during a covered public health emergency, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out a retraining assistance program for unemployed veterans, and for other purposes. HR 7105, 116th Cong., introduced on January 1, 2021, https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/PLAW-116publ315.
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