FORT GARLAND — Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center has announced that, starting June 21, 2025, the museum will be hosting Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces. 

Organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in collaboration with the National Museum of the American Indian, Why We Serve offers a comprehensive look at Native military involvement and explores Native American military service, from its origins to the modern day. Through historic documents, objects, authentic stories and photographs, the exhibit presents the history of Native veterans who have served in the armed forces of the United States — often in extraordinary numbers — since the American Revolution.  

Visitors will be able to learn about the different eras in Native military history, including Army scouts of the 19th century, the Native code talkers of both World Wars, Native women during World War II and service in Vietnam and the Middle East. The exhibition documents 250 years of Native peoples’ contributions in U.S. military history. 

For its run at the award-winning Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center, Why We Serve features individualized content about Native American veterans from Colorado and Northern New Mexico. This includes stories of these brave men and women as well as a Wall of Honor displaying their names and photographs, and objects loaned to Fort Garland by decorated service members. 

Highlights of this extraordinary exhibit include elite Navy Diving equipment from WWII on loan from retired Chief Warrant Officer Raymond A. Baker (Southern Ute), who dedicated 30 years to service with the U.S. Navy and continues to be a community leader for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe 

Visitors will also see a trio of traditional jingle dresses worn by members of the Native American Warrior Women Association, which is the first all-Native American women’s color guard, established to honor and support Native women veterans. 

Also included in the exhibit, a hand beaded Air Force pendant loaned from retired Master Sergeant Frances T. Dupris (Northern Arapaho & Sicangu Lakota) who devoted more than 24 years to the U.S. Air Force which included taking on groundbreaking roles in intelligence, logistics, and space operations 

These objects and local stories were gathered by the staff at Fort Garland Museum & Cultural Center with the help of the Southern Ute Veterans Association, Jicarilla Apache Nation Veterans Group, and other Native American service men and women throughout Colorado and New Mexico. 

“The belongings and stories we have been able to include in Why We Serve amplify this exhibition by illuminating the unwavering dedication of Native American service members from the Southwest,” said Eric Carpio, director of Fort Garland Museum & Cultural Center and chief community museums officer for History Colorado, a Smithsonian Affiliate. “Each of these objects tells an important story of personal dedication and sacrifice in service of our county and harkens back to the generations of Native Americans who have put their lives on the line for our freedoms even when that commitment has not been reciprocated, nor their personhood recognized by law.” 

Why We Serve also includes a short film featuring resonant stories from Native American veterans from across the United States Armed Forces with diverse viewpoints and personal testimony about their service. Audiences will view the stories of Native peoples who have joined the armed forces, and the impact that it has had on their lives and identities.  

Native people have served for the same reasons as anyone else: to demonstrate patriotism or pursue employment, education, or adventure. Many were drafted. Yet tribal warrior traditions, treaty commitments with the United States, and responsibility for defending Native homelands have also inspired the enduring legacy of Indigenous military service. 

Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces honors the generations of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian members of the United States Armed Forces. It also pays tribute to the National Native American Veterans Memorial at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. The Memorial was dedicated Nov. 11, 2020, to recognize for the first time on a national scale the enduring and distinguished service of Native Americans in every branch of the U.S. military. 

Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces opens at the Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center June 21. Located at 29477 CO-159, Fort Garland, the Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center is open every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. General admission for kids 18 and under is free every day. 

To commemorate the opening of Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces, Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center will be hosting a free opening ceremony on June 21 at 10 a.m. This ceremony will include a Presentation of Colors by an intertribal group of Native American veterans representing Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute, and Jicarilla Apache Nation, as well as a short program.  

The opening ceremony will be followed by a community meal at noon and the museum's third tree planting ceremony in honor of Native American veterans at 2 p.m. The tree planting is offered in collaboration with Shawn Price and the Dine'Tah Navajo Cultural Program. 

For more information about the exhibition, visit www.FortGarlandMuseum.org.