Photo By Sgt. Elizabeth DeGroot | U.S. Army Staff Sgt. James Wyatt Rutledge, an infantryman assigned to 2nd Stryker...... read more read more
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – Staff Sgt. James Wyatt Rutledge is an Infantryman (11B) assigned to 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 7th Infantry Division, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.
“Anything dealing with heavy weapons is the best part of the job,” says Rutledge. “TOW missiles, javelins, anything that shoots a rocket.” He grins, showing off a row of straight white teeth. “Definitely, that's my favorite part of the job.”
He’s 37-years-old but could easily pass for someone in his late twenties. Clear tan skin with a shock of dark hair. He’s tall, over six feet, which he says people find unusual for someone who is half-Hawaiian.
“Back on the reservation, they nicknamed my brother and me ‘the walking trees’,” Rutledge says.
Rutledge is half-Hawaiian, half-Navajo (Diné). This blend of cultures has been both a source of strength and a challenge, especially in a family and a profession where tradition and duty often compete.
A Childhood Rooted in Tradition
Born to a Hawaiian father and Navajo mother in the Air Force, Rutledge and his younger brother were born in Hawaii where his mother was stationed, but returned to her reservation in Tuba City, Arizona, until Rutledge was about 14.
Rutledge recalls the culture shock of first leaving the reservation, meeting people with cell phones when his family still used beepers. “We were like, six generations behind,” Rutledge says.
Rutledge’s early childhood “on the res” was defined by the land and values of the Navajo people but lacked many modern conveniences.
"We really had generators the whole time," Rutledge recalls. "Friday nights, we'd have a movie night...but mostly it was lit by the fire outside. We lived with my aunt, my grandparents-my análís, and they lived in, like, hogans, and we would live in trailer houses."
The reservation lacked running water, and the families often had to walk up and down the nearby stream carrying buckets of water for laundry and bathing, or use a water tank similar to the Army’s “water buffalo” (a vehicle with a large tank for water distribution).
Despite the hardships of living “off the grid,” Rutledge cherishes his childhood memories. He laughs, recalling a prank his uncle played on him as a kid while they were digging a well. “He told me, I’m leaving you at the bottom. Bye.” Rutledge chuckles and adds, “He didn’t!”
Days were spent bull riding and horseback riding, and the skills he learned—hunting, fishing, and living off the land—prepared Rutledge for life in the Army, though he’d originally had no intentions of joining.
A Legacy of Service
Rutledge’s decision to join the military was the dying wish of his grandfather. The men in the family had a legacy of service- Rutledge’s great-great grandfather was Oscar P. Multine, a decorated Navajo Code Talker in World War II.
Rutledge’s grandfather asked him and his younger brother, the last men in the family of enlistment age, to carry on this legacy.
“At first, we kind of laughed it off,” Rutledge admits, “but then he gave us that old-man death look and we were like, oh crap, you’re serious.”
Rutledge’s grandfather passed away the next day.
“At the funeral, my brother and I just looked at each other like, well we promised him, we have to go now!” Rutledge recalls.
Rutledge enlisted as an Infantryman, a role that has taken him across the globe to places like Ghana, Germany, the Philippines, and South Korea.
Preserving Identity in the Army
Military life often demands conformity, but these demands can be especially challenging for people of diverse backgrounds.
However, Rutledge is encouraged by the Army’s decision to honor Native American Heritage Month in November, and believes times are changing.
A recent policy change granted Native American men the ability to begin growing their hair out, a symbol of strength and longevity in many tribes.
The demands of an Infantryman, “down in the mud,” make long hair somewhat of a challenge for Rutledge himself to maintain, but he says that he likes the idea of someday having a job “on the more technical side” where he can grow out a ponytail and honor his heritage.
"I would love to grow my hair out. I would definitely grow it as long as I could, like to the ground,” Rutledge says enthusiastically.
Rutledge's deep connection to his cultural identity is evident in the significance he places on his clans.
"Traditionally, people have four clans. Two from your mom, two from your dad. I only have three because of the fact that I'm only half,” Rutledge explains. "My clans are Máii Deeshgiizhnii (“coyotes pass”), Tó aheedlíínii (“where two waters meet”) and Naakaii,” which Rutledge says translates to “Mexican” despite him being Hawaiian (as the Navajo language originally didn’t have a word for Hawaiian).
This blended heritage presented unique challenges.
"Traditionally, the Navajos- not all Navajos, but my family are- very traditional,” Rutledge tells. “My grandma wanted me to have, like, traditional babies [with a Navajo woman] to maintain the bloodline.”
His grandmother even went so far as to try and arrange a marriage for Rutledge with another Navajo woman’s granddaughter.
(Rutledge declined.)
This was despite Rutledge himself being only half-Navajo, something he states didn’t make him feel like an outcast per se but “I kind of was,” Rutledge says, citing that he isn’t allowed to participate in certain sacred rituals, as they are exclusive only to full-blooded Navajos.
The desire to “maintain the bloodline,” is not universal among all Native American tribes, and “times are changing,” Rutledge says again. “People leave the reservation and go out and explore the world. It’s not like it used to be.”
However, he clarifies the desire to maintain the bloodline doesn’t come from a place of prejudice as much as desire to preserve Navajo culture.
Rutledge’s own grandmother survived the boarding schools which forcibly removed Native American children from their homes and families, and punished them under the very real threat or use of violence for speaking their own languages and practicing their own traditions.
"After she left that school, [my grandma] vowed that she’d only speak Navajo,” says Rutledge. “So, she only speaks Navajo to anyone. Doesn't matter who you are, where you’re from, she will talk to you in Navajo and if you don’t know it then she'll just look at you like you're a weirdo."
The Next Generation of Natives
Rutledge’s children had a very different upbringing compared to his grandmother and even himself. A quarter Navajo, they fall just barely within the Navajo Nation’s criteria for tribal identity.
They have also never lived on the reservation.
Growing up as military children also meant moving far away, and often, from the community.
"I don’t speak Navajo to my girls as much as I’d like,” Rutledge laments. “It’s a hard language to learn—you need to be surrounded by it, but the Army keeps us away, so we don’t get much of that lifestyle.”
While his daughters have at least participated in some traditions, such as jingle dances, Rutledge’s younger sons missed out due to the loss of his grandparents.
Rutledge says jingle dresses are easy enough to make but the tradition is that grandparents make them, bless them, and give them to the children as “a kind of, ‘you’re one of us now.’”
When he was younger, Rutledge briefly participated in jingle dancing but, "My boys didn’t get that chance,” he says.
Going Forward
Despite these challenges, Staff Sgt. Rutledge is determined to pass on his heritage.
The closest indigenous tribe to where Rutledge is currently stationed is the Nisqually tribe. Though the Nisqually differ greatly from the Navajo in many respects, Rutledge still appreciates having a Native community close by and keeps in touch with its members, and is part of a Facebook group which connects Natives across the Pacific-Northwest. “We just talk, share recipes, travel stories,” he says.
Rutledge hopes that military bases will become even more inclusive in the future towards Natives, suggesting that they could welcome Natives on post and even host powwows.
In the meantime, Rutledge works to bridge the gap between his two worlds- that of the modern U.S. Army Soldier and the Navajo man rooted in tradition. He brings his children to the Nisqually powwows, teaches them their own Navajo traditions, and encourages them to embrace and celebrate their unique clans.
"I make sure they recognize who they are," Rutledge says.
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| Date Taken: | 11.21.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 11.27.2024 14:12 |
| Story ID: | 486309 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 66 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Between Two Worlds: A Navajo Soldier's Journey, by SGT Elizabeth DeGroot, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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