AMERICAN INDIAN VETERANS HONORED IN D-DAY MEMORIAL EVENTS IN FRANCE FOR SERVICE - A Quiet Hero: The Saga of Charles Norman Shay
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
OMAHA BEACH, France — In the first week of June this year, there were seven memorial events within France which marked the first anniversary of “ Charles Shay Indian Memorial Park” on the shore of Omaha beach.
France welcomed with respect and honored our Native American Veterans and community members from around the United States, as they gathered to support 93-year-old Charles Norman Shay, a Penobscot Tribal elder and hero, who landed with the Big Red One Army 1 st Division. Shay, who was a medic, was on the first wave to land on Omaha Beach, June 6th, 1944. He then went on to serve in Korea, was a POW, and then finished his service to our country.
One ceremony, which fell on June 5, 2018, remembered all the contributions of Native soldiers who gave their all on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Over 500 American Indian served during the World War II campaign.
Surrounded by eagle staffs representing numerous tribal nations is Charles Shay (Penobscot).
These ceremonies marked history in another way, as CEO of Trickster Art Gallery Joseph Podlasek organized for the first time Native Veterans and the Native community to be a part of multiple ceremonies around France, with the eagle staffs from the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi of Michigan, Miles Lac Tribe of Minnesota, and Williams Family Staff represented. Tribal flags were also presented from the Oklahoma Seminoles, the Penobscot Tribe of Maine, and each of the tribes that honored us with their Eagles Staffs.
Normandy survivor Charles Norman Shay remembers.
Representative from the Penobscot Tribe Jennifer Francis performed a ceremony on Omaha beach at the Park, and Trickster Art Gallery Native youths from Illinois Steven and Tristan Podlasek joined in to help carry the tribal flags. Native veteran of 28 years of service, Julia Kelly, gifted a jingle dress to Agiina Podlasek, to share a special healing and water ceremony. Christina Pike, a Native youth from MN, also helped share tobacco and join in the ceremonies. Cherokee flute music was presented by Mark Cleveland, to honor and soothe the souls of those who never made it home.
The delegation visited 58 grave sites, performing a small ceremony at each grave. The veterans smudged the crosses, gifted tobacco, and placed a beautiful picture, name plate, and a rose tied with a ribbon of the United States colors. Emily Farr, Multimedia Specialist of Trickster, and Corporal Kevin Payne, with the Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs -Office of Tribal Government Relations, will create photo slide shows and a documentary, which will be available soon at www.trickstergallery.com .
There will be a full exhibit covering the inaugural opening ceremony of the park dedicated in his honor, “D-Day Omaha Beach – Scarlett Waters, Charles Shay Indian Memorial Park” at Trickster Gallery, opening July 22nd, 2018, at 2 pm. This will be accompanied by the Smithsonian “Patriot Nations” exhibit to conclude the 4 th Annual National Gathering. This all began with the National Gathering of American Indian Veterans, held the 3 rd weekend each July at Cantigny Park, where 43 tribes were represented by their veterans in 2017. Native Veterans across the country began to meet and discuss the untold stories of Native peoples’ contributions as the highest percentage of any race of people per capita to serve in the military, discussing topics such as health, wellness, employment, and policy change.
Funding for the ceremonies were made possible through a formal partnership with the McCormick Foundation, Cantigny Park, 1 st Division Museum, and the France D-Day organizer Marie LeGrande. Marie’s niece Alice made the name plates with the soldier’s pictures for each of the Native grave sites. The sage was gifted for the trip by the Pala Band of Mission Indians in California. They worked with their youth group to pick and send sage and tobacco to Joe Podlasek, to be used throughout the week.
More Native Veterans and eagle staffs are invited to join thg group next year from June 1 – June 7 to celebrate the 75 th anniversary of D-Day. Since it is the 75 th anniversary, rooms need to be booked by February, 2019. We also have a research team from Trickster, the Smithsonian NMAI, and of tribal historians gathering to verify names from the tribes who landed on D-Day, June 6 th , 1944, to be read on the beach during future ceremonies.
For more information: joep@trickstergallery.com or www.trickstergallery.com 847.301.2090.
THE CHARLES SHAY STORY.A Quiet Hero: The Saga of Charles Norman Shay
Recently, I attended a conference on World War II in New Orleans hosted by the National World War II Museum, where I was privileged to moderate a panel on D-Day. On the panel were two great American patriots, both combat veterans of that momentous event. One was a paratrooper of the 101st Airborne Division who parachuted into Normandy on D-Day. His profile will appear in a forthcoming article.
The other was retired Master Sergeant Charles Norman Shay, a tribal elder and a member of the Penobscot tribe of Indian Island, Maine – one of four brothers who served during World War II.
{default}On D-Day 1944, Charles Shay was one of over five hundred North American Indian soldiers who landed on the beaches of Normandy. These men represented a number of American and Canadian tribes. Shay served in the 1st Infantry Division, the Big Red One. He was only nineteen years old and was a recently drafted combat medic.
Shay was assigned to an assault platoon in the 16th Regiment, and was part of the first wave that landed on June 6 on bloody Omaha Beach under very heavy German fire. The Big Red One sustained about 2,000 casualties on D-Day; most were sustained during the first hour of the landings. Many of the wounded were treated by Charles Shay.
His actions on Omaha Beach on D-Day speak volumes about this modest, humble man. "Blood stained the water red,” he later recalled. There were countless men dead or dying in the rising tide. Armed with only his two satchels of medical supplies, he sought refuge behind a sand dune where he began tending to those who were mortally wounded. Looking seaward, Shay saw wounded men struggling to get ashore loaded down with equipment who were drowning. With utter disregard for his own safety, he braved a barrage of fire to pull wounded soldiers to the shelter of a sand dune where he treated them.
His heroic actions that morning earned him the Silver Star. His citation reads: “The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Private Charles Norman Shay (ASN: 31308724), United States Army, for gallantry in action while serving as a Medical Aidman in the 1st Infantry Division, in action in the vicinity of Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, on 6 June 1944. Subordinating personal safety to the welfare of his comrades, Private Shay repeatedly plunged into the treacherous sea and carried critically wounded men to safety. Private Shay’s unselfish heroism exemplified the finest traditions of the Medical Department.”
Although he was miraculously never wounded, seven other medics from his regiment were killed on D-Day and twenty-four others wounded. “Being a combat medic is a very special privilege. I have always been proud to be a medic and I felt that I was doing something good for other people,” Shay has said. To this day he still gets emotional when speaking of the friends and fellow soldiers who were lost in combat. Like virtually all soldiers who have survived combat, Shay has pondered how he did so unscathed. “I am a great believer in a spiritual way of life,” he said, “and I know that my mother’s prayers must have guided me.”
He also saw action with the Big Red One during the siege of Aachen, the Battle of the Huertgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge. After crossing the Rhine at Remagen Bridge in 1945 Shay was captured but survived the POW camps.
After returning to the Penobscot reservation in 1945, he reenlisted and served in occupied Austria and then returned to combat as a medic in Korea, where he was awarded the Bronze Star with two Oak Leaf clusters for valor for again saving lives. This was followed by a stint in the southern Pacific where atomic bombs were tested. He also served in the Air Force before retiring in 1954 as a master sergeant.
For most of the next forty-five years Shay worked in Vienna for the International Atomic Energy Commission and later for the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees before returning to his native Maine and a well-earned retirement.
Three Penobscot soldiers died in the war. Shay and his three brothers were among the eighty or so Penobscots — nearly every eligible male at Indian Island–who served in the Pacific, African, and European theaters of World War II.
On June 6, 2007, Governor John Baldacci of Maine honored Charles Shay and other Native Americans by proclaiming it Native American Veterans History Day in the State of Maine. What Gov. Baldacci said that day bears repeating: “Native Americans – like many other Americans – have contributed greatly in service to their country over many decades. Unfortunately the part they have played in protecting their country has been neglected. We are here today to issue public recognition that is long overdue.”
Much like our disgraceful treatment of black soldiers during the war, the United States saw fit to draft Native Americans but did not see fit to permit them the fundamental right to vote. During World War I an estimated 12,000 American Indians served in our armed forces, where they fought defending a nation that had yet to grant them the basic right of citizenship. In 1919, Congress enacted legislation that belatedly granted citizenship to World War I veterans but other Native Americans only became citizens in 1924.
In the years that followed some states granted Native Americans voting rights while others threw up legal roadblocks and used ruses to deny them the right to vote. Many were Western states but the last state to finally grant them this right was Maine, in 1954, when its two recognized tribes were permitted to vote in national elections. However, it took until 1967 before Maine granted them the right to vote in state and local elections. Maine, however, remains the only state that has non-voting tribal members in its legislature – a single Penobscot and one Passamaquoddy. As Shay has said, “We were second class citizens in our own country. However, we served this country faithfully, but in effect we were fighting to protect our own land. I therefore find it very appropriate that the Maine State Legislature passed the bill LD 30 establishing June 21 as Native American Veterans Day in the State of Maine.” (Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission article, 2010)
What Charles Shay modestly did not mention was that he was the inspiration for the enactment of this legislation.
During World War II 44,000 Native Americans enlisted in the Armed Forces; two received the Medal of Honor, 51 earned the Silver Star, 34 the Distinguished Flying Cross. They also earned 47 Bronze Stars and 71 Air Medals.
In 2007, Charles Shay revisited Omaha Beach and other World War II battlefields for the first time. Also in 2007, during his first official visit to the United States, French President Nicholas Sarkozy honored seven American veterans of World War II with the Légion d’Honneur. One of them was Charles Shay.
He is one of America’s finest native sons.
Later this year his biography will be published. It is called “ From Indian Island to Omaha Beach: The Story of Charles Shay, Penobscot Indian War Hero ”
For more about Charles Shay, click here to read Patricia Erikson’s blog.
Quotes about Omaha Beach from the army.mil article " Native American Indian Heritage Month brings history, tradition to Fort Sam ."
Seeders note...The article states that Native Americans were recipients of two (2) Medal of Honor...Actually it should be seven (7) Medals of Honor.
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Chi-miigwetch Charles. (Many Thanks Charles)
Another wonderful lesson about the Native Americans. Thanks Chief!!
Your most welcome Nona.
As a retired/disabled U.S. Navy FMF Hospital Corpsman who served in Vietnam and the 1st Gulf War, it was individuals like Charles Shat and others that served as the role models for me and others like me in the field combat medicine role, no matter what their service. They set the standards by which we tried to live up to and I cannot honor them enough. Whatever their backgrounds, they were, and are all heroes!
100% agreement Doc.
Kavika, thank you for this insightful and historically significant article.
Among other things, can not imagine being in such a situations with a a good rifle.
So much to think about.
Your welcome dave.
What he did and has accomplished in his lifetime makes one sit back in wonder..
No arguments there. The mind spins.
Here is an invitation, very difficult to turn down:
It is good to see the outreach to the recent, yet not so well understood past, coming back to life.
Agreed that the history is coming to life and hopefully it will become more and more.
One parts of the article is the voting rights of American Indians and how we were not allowed to vote and when we were in 1924 many states did everything to keep us from voting. Meanwhile we fought and died for a country that didn't seem to want us.
This is coming to light. Not highly publicized yet, but coming to light.
There is more to surface, learn and continue with.
Thanks for posting one of those fascinating stories that both educate and humble me in light of those who have put their life on the line so that we can live our lives in comfort and security.
Your welcome Buzz, it does make you sit back and just admire the courage/dedication of these men and women.
Evening Kavika....I just came back from France and was there on our ANZAC DAY which we remember on April 25th...We were in a small harbour town called La Ciotat..Anyway I was looking for anything to do with the 2nd World War to put some flowers on as a token of remembrance for our lost Diggers..I came across a memorial to two US airmen who were killed there...So I bought some flowers and left them there....One was a Lieutenant Lewis from IOWA died 10th Oct 1944...the other Lieutenant James Riley died 27th Jan 1944. Both far from home and family...This year they were not forgotten and the French people look after the memorial very well....
Good evening Shona,
What a wonderful thing to do in their remembrance...Thanks so much for that Shona.
My cousin was with the 101st Airborne that jumped at Normandy and he was killed at the Siege Of Bastogne (Battle of the Bulge)
Some day I'm going to write an article on the time I spent at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. A great experience and one I'll not forget.
My son-in-law went to Normandy over Memorial Day weekend with his unit. I want to sit down with him and ask him what they did and saw.
Awesome story, Kavika. Thanks for sharing
When you find out what he saw, please relay it so we can all share in it Trout.
ok
I support what you all said.
Mr. Shay is a true hero and great American of the first order.
He, like all his comrades represents the best of who we are, and what we can be.
Peace and Abundant Blessings Always.
Enoch.
That's says it all my friend.
Amen!
Wonderful bio, Kavika. Thank you.
Happy that you enjoyed it Bob.
What a wonderful story about a very brave Warrior and great humanitarian. He will long be remembered by those of many walks of life whose lives he saved in his service to his beloved country, and honor of his people.
The Creator will not forget his contributions to his country and his fellow man. May his road going forward be filled with much happiness and good health.
I agree RW. I'm hopefull that he'll be able to return next year on the 75th anniversary of D Day.
Fingers crossed for his attendance for that great event.
Interesting how the French attitude toward Native Americans have changed from the 1700's to today. Complete turn-a-round.
Chukma/Halito Master Sergeant Shay.
I'm trying to find a good photo of the memorial...It's a turtle for Turtle Island..
Thanks for posting this
IMO the first step in working for change is to raise awareness...among people who are not aware of much of our history. (And there are more of them than many people realize).
IMO, the majority of people in the US are totally unaware of the contributions of Indians in defending this country, Krish.
"IMO, the majority of people in the US are totally unaware of the contributions of Indians in defending this country, Krish"
IMHO, that is because they are not interested in knowing, as they consider all Native Americans to be lazy, drunkards, dope addicts and rapists that do nothing but hold their hands out or free everything they can get at the taxpayers blood.
So how can they possibly be any kind of responsible contributors to our country in any way? They should be annihilated and their reservations used for something useful. Right?
Damn I hate when I hear that crap.
RW, I'm overcome by your words. They scream truth that most choose to not hear.
I drive the roads around my home seeing the "Original Trail of Tears" signs, each and every one brings pain to my being. The how and why incompatible with my upbringing...leaves me with great sorrow. So long ago, yet abhorrent behavior of our fellow man remains to this day.
Thank you Lynne. I have grown up all my life living with the hate and prejudice against Native Americans. I have heard all the reasons told of why Native Americans are worthless and useless and not worth the air they breathe. I have had my share of beatings and name calling simply because I am Native American. Nothing else matters, just that I am Native American. And I am not alone by any means, I am just one of millions who have have suffered.
But, we have persevered and refused to give up, and we have strived to grow stronger and more educated. Today, more Native Americans are running for political office than ever before, and have gained more and more supporters. It is funny how some voters fear the idea of Native Americans gaining political power, fearful they might try to take the country over.
Stupidity knows no bounds, and ignorance does not care.
Reading your post here reminded me of something I saw in a movie, yeah, I know, Hollywood rarely gets it right but, they did get it half right here.
Fun and enjoyable movies, but in the end they were fiction.
This was the real thing...The Siege at Wounded Knee 1973.
Hoka hey...
Interesting movie Galan. It does on a way depict the kind of prejudice that many Native Americans are subjected to, and for many, so much worse. And it is not just yesterday that this kind of hatred and bullying takes place, it goes on even today, and every tomorrow until one day the people of Americas will realize that it has taken people from all walks of life and all skin colors to build this country and keep it growing into the mighty country it became. And it will take people of all skin colors and walks of life to continue to help our country grow and sustain itself as a world leader.
And, Kavika, people tend to forget that we are called the "Melting Pot" for a reason, it is our strength that ALL, the people in the country make it great, no matter what our skin color or, religion is.
Absolutely true. And as much as some people in America want to eliminate certain ethnic people from our country for personal and nefarious reasons, our country would not have been able to become the great nation it did over the many hundreds of years without their help.
There were many of my ancestral family members who walked on during the forced march of the Tail of Tears. There were less than 5 out of the 42 who first began the march that were able to live to arrive in OK.
And for many Native Americans who gave their life for our country there are tears of their own family members who were killed or let to die on that attempt to eliminate the Native American Tribes.
But, the Native American Tribes live on, refusing to be wiped from their land forever. And it is Native Americans like Charles Norman Shay that carry on the dreams of those who endlessly hoped to one day see the end of the persecution of all Native Americans.
Often wonder how many citizens today know of the Trail of Tears, the injustice, suffering and death brought on by our government.
I'm on hallowed ground when visiting the Memorial at Blythe Ferry. A quiet place for reflection and tears of my own gazing on this historical recollection.
Thank you for the link, Lynne. A very interesting and moving memorial. Thank for your sharing it with us.
Lack of accurate historical education in our country continues to amaze me. Thank you Kavika for this seed and others that spur me to seek additional information. The Turtle Monument is befitting every Native American who landed at this godforsaken place.
Although the reference is entirely different...found photos of the helmet turtles place on Omaha Beach marking the 67th anniversary. The imagery was stunning.
One cannot be more American than Native American. Proud of this country's heritage, sad the recognition is not only lackluster but often disparaging of NA people groups.
Thank you Lynne. Your kind words are very much appreciated, and I think I speak for many other Native Americans a well.
Racism and prejudice is still alive and well in the US today, and many of the same demeaning, disparaging and insulting accusations and derogatory beliefs are still alive, and the lies that have lived since the Europeans arrived here in America are still alive and widely believed.
I know I will never live long enough to see that kind of hatred and prejudice end, but, I pray that my Granddaughter and her children may one day see it come to fulfillment.
Laughing to self as we've just replied quite simultaneously!
Great minds, as they say.
I know I will never live long enough to see that kind of hatred and prejudice end, but, I pray that my Granddaughter and her children may one day see it come to fulfillment.
You and me both. My hope is also my Granddaughter, I've taught her to see people - for in the seeing comes learning, understanding and ultimately love.
It is important that children of the next generations see all people as human beings, not skin colors, ethnic backgrounds or different countries.
We are all one people, we are all connected, as are all living beings on Mother Earth. There is no superior race, nor any inferior race. Each living being on earth has a purpose, and each purpose is a contribution that helps ensure the survival of all living beings on Mother Earth and Father Sky. Mankind is only one of the millions of different life forms on this planet.
You speak to my heart...blessings upon you always.
Thank you Lynne, and the same to you as well. My your path ahead be filled with love and happiness always. (smile)
Very interesting account. Native Americans have served America well.
Indeed we have JR.
What an amazing piece of history that I never knew. MS Shay not only was a hero on the battle field, but a leader in the homeland. I am totally ashamed that our nation didn't feel fit to give Indians the vote, despite their brave devotion to this country. It is an embarrassment, especially since the French seem to see fit to honor these great Americans.
Kavika, not on topic but want to acknowledge Charles Shay has recently been joined by Navajo code talker Samuel Tom Holiday.
Honorable hero's, may they both be at peace.
I read recently where Mr. Holiday walked on LynneA. Indeed a honorable man and hero. None of the original Navajo Code Talkers (29) are alive and only 10 of the total of 400 are still with us.
I don't think that he'll be joining Charles Shay since Charles will be quite upset to find out that he has died...He is alive and well at 93 LynneA.
...malfunction in my coding, old chick just can't multi-task like days gone by!
When Charles Shay walks on, he'll receive a hero welcome. Their contributions make me proud to be an American.
LOL, ok your forgiven my friend.