D-Day Warriors Exhibition Tells of WWII Medic’s Quest to Honor Fellow Native Servicemen

© Field Museum photo by Michelle Kuo

Published March 30, 2019

CHICAGO — At Charles Shay Memorial Park on France’s Normandy coast, a granite sculpture of a turtle sits, looking across the sea. Its eyes align with another statue just like it in Maine, where the park’s namesake, Penobscot elder Charles Norman Shay, currently lives.

These sculptures, and that park, commemorate the contributions American Indians have made to maintaining peace in the United States and around the world. Opened yesteray, March 29, 2019, the Field Museum’s newest exhibition, D-Day Warriors: American Indians in the Military, tells the story of how the park came to be, and how Shay’s efforts memorializing his fallen Native soldiers and fellow Native veterans connects to the larger narrative of American Indian military service.

Created in partnership with the Trickster Gallery, a Native-owned arts institution located in Schaumburg, Illinois, D-Day Warriors: American Indians in the Military features photo panels, video interviews of Shay, and a display case featuring a U.S. infantryman’s helmet used in France during World War II. “We wanted to focus on Charles Shay as part of the story, presenting him in the broader context of American Indian service in the military,” says Field Museum Exhibitions Operations Director Tom Skwerski.

Charles Shay at Normandy

For over a decade, Shay has returned to Omaha Beach in Normandy every year to honor fallen Native and non-Native servicemen and servicewomen through traditional American Indian ceremonies. Shay has also worked with fellow tribespeople to identify unmarked graves in France, having found 58 to date. Now 94 years old, Shay continues his annual trips to commemorate D-Day and combat the erasure of American Indian military narratives.

Joe Podlasek, CEO of the Trickster Gallery and a citizen of the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Tribe, hopes the exhibition will challenge misunderstandings visitors may have about American Indian history and culture. “Hollywood, literature, and history books about our people—but not written by our community—have kept us in that stereotypical role of fighting against, rather than for, this country,” says Podlasek. “Twenty-two percent, or nearly one in four Native people, have served in the military. We have served in the United States Military in higher rates than any other ethnic group since the Revolutionary War—and that history needs to be shared at its fullest.”

Field Museum Curator of North American Anthropology Alaka Wali seconds Podlasek’s sentiment, encouraging veterans and the American Indian community to visit. “It is an honor to host this exhibition here at the Field Museum with our longtime collaborator, the Trickster Gallery,” Wali says. “The remarkable story of Charles Shay is very moving, as it brings to light this little-known dimension of American Indian contribution to safeguarding the United States. We look forward to welcoming American Indian community members, veterans of all wars, and our general public.”

D-Day Warriors: American Indians in the Military will be on display at the Field Museum’s Marae Gallery, near the Māori meeting house, until February 2, 2020. This exhibition is included with Basic Admission and will be presented in both English and Spanish. For more information visit fieldmuseum.org/d-day.