Joseph Oklahombi (May 1, 1895, Bokchito, Blue County, Choctaw Nation,

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

- April 13, 1960) was an American

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

of the Choctaw nation. He was the most-decorated

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

soldier from Oklahoma. He served in Company D, First Battalion, 141st Regiment, Seventy-first Brigade of the Thirty-sixth Infantry Division during World War I, where he was one of the

Choctaw code talkers The Choctaw code talkers were a group of Choctaw Indians from Oklahoma who pioneered the use of Native American languages as military code during World War I. The government of the Choctaw Nation maintains that the men were the first America ...

. On October 8, 1918, Private Oklahombi was at Saint-Étienne,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. He and 23 other soldiers attacked an enemy position and captured 171 Germans while killing some 79 more. They held their position for four days while under attack. Oklahombi was awarded the Silver Star with Victory Ribbon, and the Croix de Guerre from France's Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain. At the time the members of the Choctaw nation were not formally U.S. citizens. Oklahombi was married and had a son. He was killed on 13 April 1960 when hit by a truck driver while walking along a road. He was buried with military honors at Yashau Cemetery in

Broken Bow, Oklahoma Broken Bow is a city in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 4,120 at the 2010 census. It is named after Broken Bow, Nebraska, the former hometown of the city's founders, the Dierks brothers. Other Dierks-associate ...

. From Chief Gary Batton of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma: "Many of you know the story of the Choctaw Code Talkers of WWI and WWII and also the story of Code Talker Joseph Oklahombi, who single-handedly captured 171 Germans after moving 200 yards over open ground against artillery and machine gun fire, rushing a machine gun nest and capturing one of the guns. He not only turned the gun on the enemy for four days, keeping them under fire, he was without food and water those four days, killing numerous enemy soldiers until the rest surrendered. Although etroactivelyawarded … the Silver Star and Marshal Pétain, former Commander-in-Chief of the French Armies of the East, awarded him the Croix de Guerre, the Congressional Medal of Honor was never presented. It is a long-overdue recognition and I am working to see the Medal of Honor presented to Oklahombi."Chief Gary Batton, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
March 28, 2016

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oklahombi, Joseph 1895 births 1960 deaths Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma people Native American military personnel Recipients of the Silver Star United States Army soldiers People from Bryan County, Oklahoma United States Army personnel of World War I Choctaw code talkers Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France) Pedestrian road incident deaths Road incident deaths in Oklahoma People from McCurtain County, Oklahoma Military personnel from Oklahoma 20th-century Native Americans