* The Role of Native Americans in America's Wars, Fort Devens

What part Native Americans played in America’s various wars from the beginning of our country to modern times – that will be the subject of Sandy Shepherd’s talk on Saturday, January 17, at Fort Devens Museum. The museum will be open from 10-3 and the program will start at 1:00.
 
Shepherd’s presentation will include mention of the Alamo Scouts of the U.S. 6^th Army’s Special Reconnaissance Unit, but he also says there were code talkers in World War I. He’ll talk about the 45^th Infantry Regiment, formed in Oklahoma but trained specifically at Fort Devens for landing at Anzio beachhead during the Italian Campaign in World War II. Shepherd will display photographs and artifacts from his own military collection.
 
Shepherd comes by this subject naturally. His grandmother was a Penobscot. He maintains contact with Native Americans in the tribe in Maine and has long been active in the United Native American Cultural Center located on Antietam Street, Devens.
 
A graduate of Chelmsford High School, Shepherd served in the U.S. Navy from 1953 to 1958 in communications. Work for the National Park Service and continuous volunteering has taken him to the Lowell historic park’s Boott Mill and to Minuteman Park at the historic Concord Bridge. He has been part of a 45-person crew of volunteers working to restore a destroyer, the Cassin Young, located at the pier alongside Old Ironsides in Charlestown. He has served with Boy Scouts for 62 years. At home he creates wood carvings to display at craft shows and maintains a collection of antique cars.
 
 This program is free and open to the public but donations are much appreciated. The Museum is located on the third floor at 94 Jackson Road, Devens, and is wheelchair accessible. Please call 978-772-1286 or email info@fortdevensmusuem.org for more information.