In partnership with the Irving Archives and Museum
LCpl James Derek Ross, USMC
Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Waco, Tawakoni, and Keechi
Service, 1982–1986
1964–Present
LCpl James Derek Ross, USMC grew up in Anadarko, Oklahoma, rooted in the traditions and history of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. Service was not an abstract idea in his family. It was lived experience.
Just two generations removed from the forced removal of the Waco people from Texas in 1859, his grandfather, M/SP Milo S. Ross, served 30 years in the United States Army. LCpl Ross’ father, SPC James Warden Ross, became a Russian linguist in the Army and later served nearly three decades with the Department of Defense. Within 60 years of removal, members of the Ross family were serving the very nation that had displaced them.
SPC James W. Ross and his father M/SP Milo S. Ross in Gracemont, Oklahoma on leave, 1964.
LCpl Ross’ dad, James W. Ross, has a Wichita name that he was given at birth—Kookish So Kits (little rabbit). As such, James W. Ross has always gone by Bunny. LCpl Ross’ grandpa Milo S. Ross typically sent postcards from wherever he went around the world.
Postcard from Bangkok (back)
Postcard from Bangkok (front)
Postcard from Saigon (back)
Postcard from Saigon (front)
At seventeen, James Derek Ross entered the United States Marine Corps.
LCpl Ross (then a Private), in his dress blues at Marine Corps Recruit Training.
LCpl Ross on break at the Las Pulgas, Camp Pendleton Artillery Gun Park, 1982.
LCpl Ross, qualifying with an M16 on the firing range, 1982.
From 1982 to 1986, LCpl Ross served as an 0811 Field Artillery Batteryman with 2nd Battalion, 11th Marines at Camp Pendleton before transferring to Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station in Hawaii. There he later assumed additional administrative responsibilities. His deployments took him across the Western Pacific, Asia, Africa, and the Indian Ocean.
LCpl Ross (third from the left, second row from the top) graduates from Field Artillery Battery School at Las Pulgas, Camp Pendleton, California, 1982.
In 1985, he was stationed in Adak, Alaska as a 1371 Combat Engineer. In extreme conditions—snow, ice, and remote terrain—his unit worked in joint-service operations to remove World War II debris and unexploded ordnance from a former staging base that once supported 90,000 American troops.
LCpl Ross (third from the right, top row) Marine Corps Adak Support Platoon. In 1985 LCpl Ross was stationed in Adak, Alaska as MOS 1371 Combat Engineer, assigned to Adak Support Platoon.
On October 23, 1983, while deployed in the Indian Ocean, LCpl Ross and his fellow Marines learned of the terrorist attack on the Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut, where 241 American service members were killed. The moment underscored what every Marine understands: service carries risk, whether or not one stands in direct combat.
LCpl Ross was honorably discharged in 1986.
Today, he describes service not only as military duty, but as responsibility —to family, to tribe, and to future generations.
LCpl Ross in the field eating canned rations (C-rats).
Truck, 2 ½ ton, for transporting Marines and towing the M198 artillery piece; Mark Indoranto (left) and LCpl Ross (center).
Promotion to Lance Corporal, 1983; LCpl Ross (center).
Mabasa, Kenya—Training Kenyan Army. LCpl Ross with Battalion Landing Team 2/3, sharing MRE’s with youth in the field.
“Love for people overshadows the wrongs that have been done in all of life. Strengthening the people of my tribe is my whole purpose in life. We should not forget past wrongs that have been done to my tribe and Indigenous People of the United States, but we must move forward and grow from it. We are one nation.”
The Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Waco, Tawakoni, and Keechi, are indigenous to Southern Kansas, Oklahoma, and North Texas. Long before state lines existed, Wichita communities built permanent settlements of grass houses engineered from cedar poles, willows, and native prairie grasses. Spanish explorers in the early 1600s described cities that stretched “as far as the eye could see.”
Traditional homes engineered by people from the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes were grass homes made from cedar poles, willows, little blue stem or switch grass, with a grapevine to hold the cedars at the peak.
For centuries, the Wichita were skilled agriculturalists, traders, and diplomats. In the 1700s, they became key middlemen in a thriving trade network with the French, exporting tens of thousands of bison pelts to Europe. Their economy, language, and culture were deeply rooted in the land.
In August 1859, members of the Waco Tribe were forcibly removed from what is now Waco, Texas to Anadarko, Oklahoma. That removal reshaped families for generations.
Today, the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes number nearly 4,000 citizens. The nation continues to strengthen its language, cultural practices, and economic development for future generations.
LCpl Ross descends from Tun-on-tah-sah-sis and Ay-ha-dad, whose families were part of the 1859 removal from Texas. Their daughter, Wah-Kits, born in Anadarko in 1877, represents the first generation born after displacement.
Wah-Kits and Family, 1944, Gracemont, Oklahoma—James W. Ross (LCpl Ross’ father), Lorene Warden Ross, Thelma Warden Standing, Ethylene Ross Thompson, and Wah-Kits.
Bureau Of Indian Affairs Family Tree
Within decades, the legal status of Indigenous people in the United States shifted. When Milo S. Ross—Derek’s grandfather—was born in 1919, Native Americans were not yet recognized as U.S. citizens. The Indian Citizenship Act would not be signed until 1924.
Milo went on to serve 30 years in the United States Army, eventually assisting General Lyman Lemnitzer during international assignments in Asia. LCpl Ross' father, James Warden Ross, followed with his own military and Department of Defense career.
In less than a century, a family that had endured forced removal became a family defined by national service.
For LCpl Ross, being a “warrior” is not confined to the past. It does not exist only in images of bows, feathers, or battlefields. Today, it means protecting culture, strengthening sovereignty, and preserving language.
Since 2024, Ross has served as Indigenous Scholar in Residence at Baylor University and is a Cultural Preservation Board Member for the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. As such, he builds traditional Wichita grass houses—including a completed structure for the Baylor University Museum—ensuring that architectural knowledge passed down for centuries remains visible and alive.
He also supports tribally owned enterprises that continue a long tradition of Wichita economic leadership. From 18th-century bison trade networks to modern tribally owned companies serving federal agencies, the Wichita people have adapted while maintaining sovereignty.
Ross views this work as a continuation—not a departure—from his Marine Corps service. Discipline, endurance, and loyalty now serve his tribe.
Ross in his traditional Ribbon Shirt
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