Minnie Spotted Wolf

In 1943, Minnie Spotted Wolf was the first Native American woman to enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. Spotted Wolf served for four years in the Marines as a heavy equipment operator as well as a driver.

Born and raised on a ranch near Heart Butte, Montana, Spotted Wolf stated that growing up doing such ranch work as “cutting fence posts, driving a two-ton truck, and breaking horses” prepared her for the rigors of Marine Corps boot camp, which she was quoted as saying was “hard, but not too hard.”

Minnie Spotted Wolf. Photos of Servicemen – Blackfeet, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1793 – 1999.

This document is being featured in conjunction with the National Archives’ National Conversation on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality.  

The “National Conversation on Rights and Justice” is presented in part by AT&T, Ford Foundation, Seedlings Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the National Archives Foundation.

Special thanks to Perkins Coie for their support in this event in New York City.