Some Native American servicemen and women wearing military fatigues or white uniforms stood out among the crowds wearing colorful beaded dresses and feathers at a powwow of 200 tribes in Washington this month.
But although their appearances were at odds with those in traditional dress, Native Americans who serve in the armed forces say there is no inner conflict in fighting for the same military that demolished their ancestors' way of life.
"I am often asked how I can serve a country that has treated us so badly," Aprill Watan, who is a member of the National Guard and whose father is a disabled veteran of the Vietnam war, told AFP.
"Most of us join up when we are young and don't think about that kind of thing. When you're older, you can't take it back," the 26-year-old said.
"But regardless of your race or ethnicity, putting on this uniform is something to be proud of. Native Americans are proud," Watan said.
According to a study carried out for the US Defense Department in 1996, Native Americans have the highest record of service per capita in the US military when compared to other ethnic groups.
The study showed that 12,000 Native Americans fought overseas in World War I, and 44,000 in World War II.
Statistics were not available for Native Americans, who make up about 1.5 percent of the population of the United States, deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
But the first woman soldier to be killed in Iraq was Hopi Indian Lori Piestewa, who died of injuries sustained when she and nine members of her unit, including Private Jessica Lynch who was later dramatically rescued, were ambushed in 2003.
Cheyenne-Arapahoe Melvin Whitebird, a retired Marine Corps master sergeant, who was one of a dozen Native Americans wearing a US military uniform at the national powwow, said he felt "very patriotic to the United States but also true to our traditions."
"Native Americans' strong warrior tradition is one reason why they are so numerous in the military," Glenn Helm, director of the Navy Department Library in Washington told AFP.
"When I talk to Indians, as they often still call themselves, I hear from them that they are equally proud of their tribal affiliation and of the United States, despite the fact that the two have been in conflict," Helm said.
Native Americans began being rounded up and herded onto reservations in 1800, as white settlers began moving westward across North America.
"Let them kill, skin, and sell until the buffalo is exterminated, as it is the only way to bring lasting peace and allow civilization to advance," US Army General Philip Sheridan, who played a key role in forcing Native Americans onto reservations, has been quoted as saying.
As part of the government-endorsed drive to subdue the original Americans, tribal religious practices were disrupted, traditional ceremonies were banned, sacred objects were seized.
"The US government suppressed our movement," said Dennis Bowen, a former elected president of the Seneca tribe who now campaigns for the rights of indigenous peoples around the world.
"They banned religious practices, our native languages, ceremonies. There was a news blackout on land and water rights.
"We have gone through so much, lost so much of our homeland and so many of our people. But part of our tradition is to always have hope," Bowen said.
Among American Indians who have served in the US military was Ira Hayes and the World War II "code-talkers."
Hayes, a member of the Pima tribe who grew up on a reservation in Arizona, features in the iconic photograph of five US soldiers planting the flag on the island of Iwo Jima after the World War II battle in the Pacific arena.
Members of several tribes developed codes using their languages to communicate military messages during World War II.
They came to the aid of the United States despite being second-class citizens and being discouraged from using their languages, according to a bill presented before the US Congress in 2002, calling for them to be honored.
