Pentagon DEI Purge Targets Native History –
What’s at Stake
Let’s talk about what just happened: The Pentagon mistakenly (yeah, right) removed crucial historical content from their website. The Pentagon DEI purge has systematically erased historical content honoring marginalized groups, including the Navajo Code Talkers, Tuskegee Airmen, female fighter pilots, and the Marines at Iwo Jima.
This calculated effort to remove Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) content from military websites is part of a broader political strategy to rewrite history.
But we see what’s happening—and we’re not letting it go unchallenged. Apparently, acknowledging the contributions of marginalized groups is just too “woke” for the current administration.
At the Hollywoodland News, we are exhausted by how ‘woke’ has been twisted into a slur when all it really means is giving a damn about marginalized communities and the fight for basic human rights.
Jackie Robinson’s tribute was one of the first removals that people noticed, and we’re grateful for that because it forced attention on the issue. But what happened next was even more telling: the removals started trickling down, including the pages honoring Native American veterans. And this is where we need to be clear—the fight for Native American rights is barely 50 years old, despite the fact that we’ve been here longer than anyone else. The attempt to erase our contributions is not new, and it’s why we must remain vigilant.
What the Pentagon DEI Purge Removed –
And Why It Matters
The Department of Defense recently underwent a so-called “DEI purge,” where content mentioning diversity, equity, and inclusion was systematically removed from their websites.
This led to the disappearance of entire pages dedicated to historical figures and groups who shaped American history—Jackie Robinson, the Tuskegee Airmen, female fighter pilots, the Marines at Iwo Jima, and yes, the Navajo Code Talkers.
These weren’t just random deletions. This was a calculated effort to erase the contributions of marginalized communities under the guise of eliminating “woke ideology.”
When people started noticing and raising hell about it, the Pentagon backpedaled, claiming the removals were “mistakes.” Some of the content has been restored—including Jackie Robinson’s page—but it remains unclear if all the pages were reinstated.
The Navajo Code Talkers’ pages were only partially restored, with any references to Native American Heritage Month still missing.
That’s not an accident. That’s a deliberate erasure of Native history under the cover of an “AI-powered automated review” targeting DEI-related content. In other words, the system was designed to eliminate mentions of diversity, and it worked exactly as intended.
We are Indigenous-owned, and we stand firm in protecting the legacies of our people. The Navajo Code Talkers played a critical role in World War II, developing an unbreakable code that helped secure victory in the Pacific Theater. Their service deserves to be recognized, not quietly deleted from history.
And let’s be clear—Indigenous sovereignty is not a DEI issue. The Navajo Nation and the 574 federally recognized tribes across the U.S. are sovereign nations, not footnotes in a culture war.
How Our Government Erased Native Contributions
The broken links extended beyond the Navajo Code Talkers. Content honoring other notable Native American service members was also removed from the Defense Department’s website, including a page on Ira Hayes, a Pima/Akimel O’odham Marine from Sacaton. Hayes was one of the Marines immortalized in the iconic World War II photograph of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima.
Content related to Army Spc. Lori Piestewa, a Hopi soldier and the first Native American woman to die in combat on foreign soil, was also removed. Piestewa was killed in Iraq in 2003 when her vehicle was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade during an ambush.
Trump’s administration has been on a warpath against DEI efforts, branding them as “divisive” or “cultural Marxism.” That’s code for: “We don’t want to talk about race, oppression, or systemic barriers.” The idea is that if they erase these stories, they erase the need for change. If they stop talking about inequality, maybe people will forget it exists.
But history doesn’t work like that.
The truth doesn’t disappear just because a government website deletes a few pages. The contributions of Native American veterans, Black military heroes, and other marginalized groups aren’t lessened just because some bureaucrat decided their stories were too much for their fragile worldview.
Why the Pentagon DEI Purge is a Threat to Representation
There’s this ridiculous argument that acknowledging someone’s race, gender, or background somehow detracts from their contributions. That honoring Jackie Robinson for breaking barriers in baseball and serving in a segregated military unit is “divisive.”
It’s not. It’s the truth.
DEI isn’t about checking boxes. It’s about ensuring history is told accurately. It’s about making sure young Black kids, Indigenous kids, women, LGBTQ+ folks, and every marginalized person can see themselves in the stories of this country’s past. Because when we erase these contributions, we reinforce the false idea that only certain people built this country and deserve recognition.
Intersectionality and Representation:
The Native American Fight for Visibility
This isn’t just about restoring some deleted webpages. This is about who gets to be remembered and who is systematically erased. Native Americans have had to fight for our right to exist in this country—literally and figuratively. The U.S. didn’t even grant Native people full citizenship until 1924.
And let’s not forget that many of our parents and grandparents were still being forcibly taken to Indian boarding schools just a few generations ago, where their languages and cultures were beaten out of them.
Representation matters because without it, we become invisible. When they remove mentions of the Navajo Code Talkers, they are reinforcing the false narrative that Native people are relics of the past—that we aren’t still here, fighting for our land, our sovereignty, and our rights.
The truth is, Native Americans have fought in every single American war, even before we were recognized as U.S. citizens.
The same goes for other marginalized groups—Black Americans, Latinx communities, women, LGBTQ+ folks—who have had to fight for their place in history. This is why DEI matters. This is why intersectionality matters. Because when we tell the full, complex, and true history of this country, we honor the struggles and triumphs of all who built it, not just the ones who fit into a sanitized, revisionist narrative.
Hollywoodland News Stands Strong
Against the Pentagon DEI Purge
The Pentagon DEI purge is an attempt to erase the contributions of marginalized communities and rewrite history to fit a narrow political agenda. But Indigenous communities, veterans, and civil rights advocates won’t let this go unnoticed.
The fight for accurate representation and historical integrity continues. Hollywoodland News remains committed to telling the stories they try to erase.
We’re here to tell the real stories—the ones they don’t want to talk about. The ones that don’t fit neatly into the whitewashed, revisionist history being pushed right now.
If you’re as angry about this as we are, you’re not alone. We see what’s happening, and we’re not letting it go unchallenged. DEI isn’t dead, no matter how much this administration wants it to be. We’re still here, still telling these stories, and still ensuring history is remembered the right way. Our founder, Regina Luz Jordan (Yaqui Nation), is actively fighting against this.
So, to anyone who thinks they can erase history: GOOD LUCK. Because we’re not going anywhere.
Hollywoodland News has reached out to the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) for a statement and is awaiting a response.
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