Battle of Honey Springs

Group of Choctaw soldiers holding American flag
Choctaw soldiers in training in World War I for coded radio and telephone transmissions

A code talker was a person employed by the military during wartime to use a little-known language as a means of secret communication. The term is most often used for United States service members during the World Wars who used their knowledge of Native American languages as a basis to transmit coded messages. In particular, there were approximately 400 to 500 Native Americans in the United States Marine Corps whose primary job was to transmit secret tactical messages. Code talkers transmitted messages over military telephone or radio communications nets using formally or informally developed codes built upon their Indigenous languages. The code talkers improved the speed of encryption and decryption of communications in front line operations during World War II and are credited with a number of decisive victories. Their code was never broken.

There were two code types used during World War II. Type one codes were formally developed based on the languages of the Comanche, Hopi, Meskwaki, and Navajo peoples. They used words from their languages for each letter of the English alphabet. Messages could be encoded and decoded by using a simple substitution cipher where the ciphertext was the Native language word. Type two code was informal and directly translated from English into the Indigenous language. If there was no corresponding word in the Indigenous language for the military word, code talkers used short, descriptive phrases. For example, the Navajo did not have a word for submarine, so they translated it as iron fish.[1][2]

The term Code Talker was originally coined by the United States Marine Corps and used to identify individuals who completed the special training required to qualify as Code Talkers with their service records indicating "642 – Code Talker" as a duty assignment. Today, the term Code Talker is still strongly associated with the bilingual Navajo speakers trained in the Navajo Code during World War II by the US Marine Corps to serve in all six divisions of the Corps and the Marine Raiders of the Pacific theater. However, the use of Native American communicators pre-dates WWII. Early pioneers of Native American-based communications used by the US Military include the Cherokee, Choctaw and Lakota peoples during World War I.[3] Today the term Code Talker includes military personnel from all Native American communities who have contributed their language skills in service to the United States.

Other Native American communicators—now referred to as code talkers—were deployed by the United States Army during World War II, including Lakota,[4] Meskwaki, Mohawk,[5][6] Comanche, Tlingit,[7] Hopi,[8] Cree, and Crow soldiers; they served in the Pacific, North African, and European theaters.[9]

Languages

Assiniboine

Native speakers of the Assiniboine language served as code talkers during World War II to encrypt communications.[10] One of these code talkers was Gilbert Horn Sr., who grew up in the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation of Montana and became a tribal judge and politician.[10]

Basque

In November 1952, Euzko Deya magazine[11] reported that in May of that year, upon meeting a large number of US Marines of Basque ancestry in a San Francisco camp, Captain Frank D. Carranza had thought of using the Basque language for codes.[12][13][14] His superiors were concerned about risk, as there were known settlements of Basque people in the Pacific region, including: 35 Basque Jesuits in Hiroshima, led by Pedro Arrupe; a colony of Basque jai alai players in China and the Philippines; and Basque supporters of Falange in Asia. Consequently, the US Basque code talkers were not deployed in these theaters, instead being used initially in tests and in transmitting logistics information for Hawaii and Australia.

According to Euzko Deya, on August 1, 1942, Lieutenants Nemesio Aguirre, Fernández Bakaicoa, and Juanana received a Basque-coded message from San Diego for Admiral Chester Nimitz. The message warned Nimitz of Operation Apple to remove the Japanese from the Solomon Islands. They also translated the start date, August 7, for the attack on Guadalcanal. As the war extended over the Pacific, there was a shortage of Basque speakers, and the US military came to prefer the parallel program based on the use of Navajo speakers.

In 2017, Pedro Oiarzabal and Guillermo Tabernilla published a paper refuting Euzko Deya's article.[15] According to Oiarzabal and Tabernilla, they could not find Carranza, Aguirre, Fernández Bakaicoa, or Juanana in the National Archives and Records Administration or US Army archives. They did find a small number of US Marines with Basque surnames, but none of them worked in transmissions. They suggest that Carranza's story was an Office of Strategic Services operation to raise sympathy for US intelligence among Basque nationalists.

Cherokee

The first known use of code talkers in the US military was during World War I. Cherokee soldiers of the US 30th Infantry Division fluent in the Cherokee language were assigned to transmit messages while under fire during the Second Battle of the Somme. According to the Division Signal Officer, this took place in September 1918 when their unit was under British command.[16][17]

Choctaw

During World War I, company commander Captain Lawrence of the US Army overheard Solomon Louis and Mitchell Bobb having a conversation in Choctaw. Upon further investigation, he found that eight Choctaw men served in the battalion. The Choctaw men in the Army's 36th Infantry Division were trained to use their language in code and helped the American Expeditionary Forces in several battles of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. On October 26, 1918, the code talkers were pressed into service and the "tide of battle turned within 24 hours ... and within 72 hours the Allies were on full attack."[18][19]

Comanche

A group of twelve uniformed US Army servicemen gathered around two Native American men dressed in traditional tribal clothing
Comanche code talkers of the 4th Signal Company

German authorities knew about the use of code talkers during World War I. Germans sent a team of thirty anthropologists to the United States to learn Native American languages before the outbreak of World War II.[20] However, the task proved too difficult because of the large array of Indigenous languages and dialects. Nonetheless, after learning of the Nazi effort, the US Army opted not to implement a large-scale code talker program in the European theater.

Initially, 17 code talkers were enlisted but three were unable to make the trip across the Atlantic when the unit was finally deployed.[21] A total of 14 code talkers using the Comanche language took part in the Invasion of Normandy and served in the 4th Infantry Division in Europe.[22] Comanche soldiers of the 4th Signal Company compiled a vocabulary of 250 code terms using words and phrases in their own language.[23] Using a substitution method similar to that of the Navajo, the code talkers used descriptive words from the Comanche language for things that did not have translations. For example, the Comanche language code term for tank was turtle, bomber was pregnant bird, machine gun was sewing machine, and Adolf Hitler was crazy white man.[24][25]

Two Comanche code talkers were assigned to each regiment, and the remainder were assigned to the 4th Infantry Division headquarters. Shortly after landing on Utah Beach on June 6, 1944, the Comanche began transmitting messages. Some were wounded but none killed.[24]

In 1989, the French government awarded the Comanche code talkers the Chevalier of the National Order of Merit. On November 30, 1999, the United States Department of Defense presented Charles Chibitty with the Knowlton Award, in recognition of his outstanding intelligence work.[24][26]

Cree

In World War II, the Canadian Armed Forces employed First Nations soldiers who spoke the Cree language as code talkers. Owing to oaths of secrecy and official classification through 1963, the role of Cree code talkers were less well-known than their US counterparts and went unacknowledged by the Canadian government.[27] A 2016 documentary, Cree Code Talkers, tells the story of one such Métis individual, Charles "Checker" Tomkins. Tomkins died in 2003, but was interviewed shortly before his death by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. While he identified some other Cree code talkers, "Tomkins may have been the last of his comrades to know anything of this secret operation."[28][29]

Hungarian

In 2022 during the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Hungarian language is reported to be used by the Ukrainian army to relay operational military information and orders to circumvent being understood by the invading Russian army without the need to encrypt and decipher the messages.[30][31] Ukraine has a sizeable Hungarian population of over 150,000 people, who live mainly in the Kárpátalja (in Hungarian) or Zakarpatska Oblast (in Ukrainian) division of the Ukraine, adjacent to Hungary. As Ukrainian nationals, men of enlistment age are also subject to military service, hence the Ukrainian army has a Hungarian-speaking capability. It's one of the most spoken and official languages of this region in present-day Ukraine. The Hungarian language is not an Indo-European language like the Slavic Ukrainian or Russian, but a Uralic language. For this reason it is distinct and incomprehensible for Russian speakers.

Meskwaki

A group of 27 Meskwaki enlisted in the US Army together in January 1941; they comprised 16 percent of Iowa's Meskwaki population. During World War II, the US Army trained eight Meskwaki men to use their native Fox language as code talkers. They were assigned to North Africa. The eight were posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2013; the government gave the awards to representatives of the Meskwaki community.[32][33]

Mohawk

Mohawk language code talkers were used during World War II by the United States Army in the Pacific theater. Levi Oakes, a Mohawk code talker born in Canada, was deployed to protect messages being sent by Allied Forces using Kanien'kéha, a Mohawk sub-set language. Oakes died in May 2019; he was the last of the Mohawk code talkers.[34]

Muscogee (Seminole and Creek)

The Muscogee language was used as type two code (informal) during World War II by enlisted Seminole and Creek people in the US Army.[35] Tony Palmer, Leslie Richard, Edmund Harjo, and Thomas MacIntosh from the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and Muscogee (Creek) Nation were recognized under the Code Talkers Recognition Act of 2008.[36] The last survivor of these code talkers, Edmond Harjo of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, died on March 31, 2014, at the age of 96. His biography was recounted at the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony honoring Harjo and other code talkers at the US Capitol on November 20, 2013.[37][38][39]

Navajo

Navajo code talkers
Navajo code talkers, Saipan, June 1944

Philip Johnston, a civil engineer for the city of Los Angeles,[40] proposed the use of the Navajo language to the United States Marine Corps at the beginning of World War II. Johnston, a World War I veteran, was raised on the Navajo reservation as the son of missionaries to the Navajo. He was able to converse in what is called "Trader's Navajo" - a pidgin language. He was among a few non-Navajo who had enough exposure to it to understand some of its nuances. Many Navajo men enlisted shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and eagerly contributed to the war effort.

Because Navajo has a complex grammar, it is not mutually intelligible with even its closest relatives within the Na-Dene family to provide meaningful information. At the time, it was still an unwritten language, and Johnston believed Navajo could satisfy the military requirement for an undecipherable code. Its complex syntax and phonology, not to mention its numerous dialects, made it unintelligible to anyone without extensive exposure and training. One estimate indicates that at the outbreak of World War II, fewer than 30 non-Navajo could understand the language.[41]

In early 1942, Johnston met with the commanding general of the Amphibious Corps, Major General Clayton B. Vogel, and his staff. Johnston staged simulated combat conditions which demonstrated that Navajo men could transmit and decode a three-line message in 20 seconds, compared to the 30 minutes it took the machines of the time.[42] The idea of using Navajo speakers as code talkers was accepted; Vogel recommended that the Marines recruit 200 Navajo. However, that recommendation was cut to one-platoon to use as a pilot project to develop and test the feasibility of a code. On May 4, 1942, twenty-nine Navajo men were sworn-into service at an old US Army Fort that had been converted into a BIA Boarding School: Fort Wingate. They were organized as platoon 382. The first 29 Navajo recruits attended boot camp in May 1942. This first group created the Navajo code at Camp Pendleton.[43]

The First Twenty-Nine and the creation of the code

One of the key features of the Navajo Code Talkers is that they employed a coded version of their language. Other Navajos who were not trained in the Navajo Code could not decipher the messages being sent.

Platoon 382 was the Marine Corps' first "all-Indian, all-Navajo" Platoon. The members of this platoon would become known as The First Twenty-Nine. Most were recruited from near the Fort Wingate, NM area. The youngest was William Dean Yazzie (aka Dean Wilson) who was only 15 when he was recruited. The oldest was Carl N. Gorman—who with his son, R.C. Gorman, would go on to become an artist of great acclaim and who would design the Code Talkers' logo—at age 35.

Names of the First Twenty-Nine and areas of birth[44]
Code talker's name Area of birth Other notes to service
Samuel Begay Toadlena, AZ
John Brown, Jr Chinle, AZ
Lowell Damon Fort Defiance, AZ
James Dixon Shiprock, NM
Carl Gorman Chinle, AZ
Alfred Leonard Lukachukai, AZ
Johnny Manuelito Sheep Springs, NM
William McCabe Ganado, AZ Purple Heart
Balmer Slowtalker (aka Joe Palmer) Leupp, AZ
Nelson Thompson Leupp, AZ Purple Heart
Benjamin Cleveland Fort Defiance, AZ Purple Heart
Jack Nez Canyon del Muerto, AZ
Oscar Ilthma Lupton, AZ Purple Heart
George Dennison Fort Defiance, AZ
Chester Nez Two Wells, AZ
Roy Begay Black Mountain, AZ
Cozy Brown Chinle, AZ
Eugene Crawford Tohatchi, NM
John Benally Fort Defiance, AZ
Lloyd Oliver Fruitland, NM
John Willie Shonto, AZ
Charlie Begay Tocito, NM Purple Heart
Wilsie Bitsie Rehoboth, NM
Frank Denny Pete Fruitland, NM Purple Heart
John Chee Tocito, NM
Allen Dale June Kaibito, AZ
Harry Tsosie Rough Rock, AZ Purple Heart, KIA
David Curley Phoenix, AZ
Bill Yazzie (aka Dean Wilson) TeecNosPos, AZ

The Navajo code was formally developed and modeled on the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet that uses agreed-upon English words to represent letters. Since it was determined that phonetically spelling out all military terms letter by letter into words while in combat would be too time-consuming, some terms, concepts, tactics, and instruments of modern warfare were given uniquely formal descriptive nomenclatures in Navajo. For example, the word for shark referred to a destroyer, while silver oak leaf indicated the rank of lieutenant colonel.[45]

Deployment and evolution of the code and post-war code talkers

A codebook was developed to teach the many relevant words and concepts to new initiates. The text was for classroom purposes only and was never to be taken into the field. The code talkers memorized all these variations and practiced their rapid use under stressful conditions during training. Navajo speakers who had not been trained in the code work would have no idea what the code talkers' messages meant; they would hear only truncated and disjointed strings of individual, unrelated nouns and verbs.[46][47]

Code talker memorial with etched words: "Navajo Indian Code Talkers USMC. Used their native language skills to direct US Marine Corps Artillery fire during WWII in Pacific area. Japanese could not break code. Thus these early Americans exemplified the spirit of America's fighting men. Sponsored by: Disabled Veterans South Marion DAV#85 serving veterans and dependents." The memorial also includes the United States Marine Corps emblem.
Code Talkers Monument Ocala, Florida Memorial Park

The Navajo code talkers were commended for the skill, speed, and accuracy they demonstrated throughout the war. At the Battle of Iwo Jima, Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer, had six Navajo code talkers working around the clock during the first two days of the battle. These six sent and received over 800 messages, all without error. Connor later said, "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima."[43]

After incidents where Navajo code talkers were mistaken for ethnic Japanese and were captured by other American soldiers, several were assigned a personal bodyguard whose principal duty was to protect them from their own side. According to Bill Toledo, one of the second group after the original 29, they had a secret secondary duty: if their charge was at risk of being captured, they were to shoot him to protect the code. Fortunately, none was ever called upon to do so.[48][49]

To ensure a consistent use of code terminologies throughout the Pacific theater, representative code talkers of each of the US Marine divisions met in Hawaii to discuss shortcomings in the code, incorporate new terms into the system, and update their codebooks. These representatives, in turn, trained other code talkers who could not attend the meeting. As the war progressed, additional code words were added and incorporated program-wide. In other instances, informal shortcut code words were devised for a particular campaign and not disseminated beyond the area of operation. Examples of code words include the Navajo word for buzzard, jeeshóóʼ, which was used for bomber, while the code word used for submarine, béésh łóóʼ, meant iron fish in Navajo.[50] The last of the original 29 Navajo code talkers who developed the code, Chester Nez, died on June 4, 2014.[51]

Four of the last nine Navajo code talkers used in the military died in 2019: Alfred K. Newman died on January 13, 2019, at the age of 94.[52] On May 10, 2019, Fleming Begaye Sr. died at the age of 97.[53] New Mexico State Senator John Pinto, elected in 1977, died in office on May 24, 2019.[54] William Tully Brown died in June 2019 aged 96.[55] Joe Vandever Sr. died at 96 on January 31, 2020.[56] Samuel Sandoval died on 29 July 2022, at the age of 98.[57][58] Only three remaining members are still living as of 2024, John Kinsel Sr., Thomas H. Begay, and Peter MacDonald.[59]

Some Code Talkers such as Chester Nez and William Dean Yazzie (aka Dean Wilson) continued to serve in the Marine Corps through the Korean War. Rumors of the deployment of the Navajo Code into the Korean War and after have never been proven. The Code remained classified until 1968. The Navajo code is the only spoken military code never to have been deciphered.[45]

Nubian

In the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, Egypt employed Nubian-speaking Nubian people as code talkers.[60][61][62][63][64]

Tlingit

During World War II, American soldiers used their native Tlingit as a code against Japanese forces. Their actions remained unknown, even after the declassification of code talkers and the publication of the Navajo code talkers. The memory of five deceased Tlingit code talkers was honored by the Alaska legislature in March 2019.[65][66]

Welsh

A system employing the Welsh language was used by British forces during World War II, but not to any great extent. In 1942, the Royal Air Force developed a plan to use Welsh for secret communications, but it was never implemented.[67] Welsh was used more recently in the Yugoslav Wars for non-vital messages.[68]

Wenzhounese

China used Wenzhounese-speaking people as code talkers during the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War.[69][70]

Post-war recognition

Navajo code talker veteran Thomas Begay with a framed picture commemorating National Navajo Code Talkers Day

The Navajo code talkers received no recognition until 1968 when their operation was declassified.[71] In 1982, the code talkers were given a Certificate of Recognition by US President Ronald Reagan, who also named August 14, 1982 as Navajo Code Talkers Day.[72][73][74][75]

On December 21, 2000, President Bill Clinton signed Public Law 106–554, 114 Statute 2763, which awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the original 29 World War II Navajo code talkers and Silver Medals to each person who qualified as a Navajo code talker (approximately 300). In July 2001, President George W. Bush honored the code talkers by presenting the medals to four surviving original code talkers (the fifth living original code talker was unable to attend) at a ceremony held in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC. Gold medals were presented to the families of the deceased 24 original code talkers.[76][77]

Journalist Patty Talahongva directed and produced a documentary, The Power of Words: Native Languages as Weapons of War, for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in 2006, bringing to light the story of Hopi code talkers. In 2011, Arizona established April 23, as an annual recognition day for the Hopi code talkers.[8] The Texas Medal of Valor was awarded posthumously to 18 Choctaw code talkers for their World War II service on September 17, 2007, by the Adjutant General of the State of Texas.[78]

The Code Talkers Recognition Act of 2008 (Public Law 110–420) was signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 15, 2008. The act recognized every Native American code talker who served in the United States military during WWI or WWII (with the exception of the already-awarded Navajo) with a Congressional Gold Medal. The act was designed to be distinct for each tribe, with silver duplicates awarded to the individual code talkers or their next-of-kin.[79] As of 2013, 33 tribes have been identified and been honored at a ceremony at Emancipation Hall at the US Capitol Visitor Center. One surviving code talker was present, Edmond Harjo.[80]

On November 27, 2017, three Navajo code talkers, joined by the President of the Navajo Nation, Russell Begaye, appeared with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in an official White House ceremony. They were there to "pay tribute to the contributions of the young Native Americans recruited by the United States military to create top-secret coded messages used to communicate during World War II battles."[81] The executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, Jacqueline Pata, noted that Native Americans have "a very high level of participation in the military and veterans' service." A statement by a Navajo Nation Council Delegate and comments by Pata and Begaye, among others, objected to Trump's remarks during the event, including his use "once again ... [of] the word Pocahontas in a negative way towards a political adversary Elizabeth Warren who claims 'Native American heritage'."[81][82][83] The National Congress of American Indians objected to Trump's use of the name Pocahontas, a historical Native American figure, as a derogatory term.[84]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Code Talking – Native Words Native Warriors". americanindian.si.edu. Archived from the original on January 12, 2019. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  2. ^ "American Indian Code Talkers". The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. Archived from the original on January 27, 2019. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  3. ^ Kent, Jim (March 17, 2017). "Lakota WWI Code Talkers Receive Congressional Gold Medal". South Dakota Public Broadcasting. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  4. ^ Meyer, Holly (June 18, 2010). "Last Lakota code talker Clarence Wolf Guts dies at 86". Rapid City Journal. Archived from the original on June 23, 2010.
  5. ^ Deer, Ka'nhehsí:io (December 4, 2018). "Last WWII Mohawk code talker honoured by Assembly of First Nations, House of Commons". CBC.ca. Archived from the original on December 8, 2018. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  6. ^ "Mohawk Code Talkers Honored in Washington, DC". CKON-FM. November 20, 2013. Archived from the original on May 11, 2015. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  7. ^ D'Oro, Rachel (March 27, 2019). "Alaska Native servicemen finally honored as Code Talkers". Fox News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on April 22, 2019. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  8. ^ a b Magahern, Jimmy (September 2014). "Humble Pride". Phoenix magazine. Phoenix, AZ: Cities West Media. ISSN 1074-1429. Archived from the original on July 31, 2019. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
  9. ^ Lyle, Amaani (June 28, 2015). "Word Power: How Code Talkers Helped to Win Wars". archive.defense.gov. Washington, D.C.: U. S. Department of Defense. Archived from the original on September 30, 2017. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
  10. ^ a b Murray, David (March 29, 2016). "Decorated war hero, code talker Gilbert Horn Sr. dies". Great Falls Tribune. Archived from the original on September 9, 2017. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  11. ^ En Euzkera se dio la orden del desembarco de Guadalcanal, Ramón de Arrieta, Euzko Deya. La Voz de los Vascos en México 149 (November 1952), p. 22, México D.F.
  12. ^ Argüello, Xabier G. (August 1, 2004). "Egon arretaz egunari" [Stay tuned for the day]. El País (in Basque). Archived from the original on October 11, 2012.
  13. ^ La orden de desembarco en Guadalcanal se dió en vascuence para que no lo descubrieran los nipones, Juan Hernani, El Diario Vasco, December 26, 1952, it quotes Revista general de marina. Bibliographic reference in Euskomedia.org Archived May 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Based on Criptografía, Revista General de Marina, 143 (November 1952), pp. 551–552. Ministerio de Marina, Madrid
  14. ^ Rodríguez, Mikel (May 2005). "Los vascos y la II Guerra Mundial – La guerra aérea de los Aldecoa" [The Basques and World War II – The Aldecoa air war]. euskonews.eus (in Basque). Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved December 14, 2007.
  15. ^ Hernández, Jesús J. (June 25, 2017). "Un estudio desmiente que el euskera se usara en código en la Segunda Guerra Mundial" [A study denies that Basque was used in code in the Second World War]. El Correo (in Basque). Archived from the original on August 29, 2017.
  16. ^ Stanley, Captain John W. Personal Experience of a Battalion Commander and Brigade Signal Officer, 105th Field Signal Battalion in the Somme Offensive, September 29 – October 8, 1997. U.S. Army, 1932.
  17. ^ "Cherokee Code Talkers and Allied Success in WWI NC DNCR". www.ncdcr.gov. August 21, 2016. Archived from the original on July 21, 2018. Retrieved July 21, 2018.
  18. ^ "Choctaw Code Talkers of World War II". Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
  19. ^ Greenspan, Jesse. "World War I’s Native American Code Talkers". History.com. Archived from the original on January 27, 2019. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
  20. ^ "Code Talkers Exhibit". NSA.gov. Archived from the original on January 14, 2009.
  21. ^ Connole, Joseph. "A Nation Whose Language You Will Not Understand: The Comanche Code Talkers of WWII", Whispering Wind Magazine, March 2012, Vol 40 #5, p. 24
  22. ^ "Comanche Code Talkers | Comanche Language & Cultural Preservation | Elgin, Oklahoma". Comanche Language & Cultural Preservation. Archived from the original on February 8, 2019. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
  23. ^ Connole, Joseph. "A Nation Whose Language You Will Not Understand: The Comanche Code Talkers of WWII", Whispering Wind Magazine, March 2012, Vol 40 #5, p. 23
  24. ^ a b c Seelinger, Matthew J. (January 28, 2015). "124th Signal Battalion". The Campaign for the National Museum of the United States Army. Archived from the original on January 27, 2019. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
  25. ^ Williams, Rudi (November 8, 2002). "Last WWII Comanche Code Talker Visits Pentagon, Arlington Cemetery". American Forces Press Service. Archived from the original on September 30, 2017.
  26. ^ "Comanche Code Talker Charles Chibitty Dies". Washingtonpost.com. Archived from the original on November 8, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
  27. ^ "Cree Code Talkers: Documentary Explores Role of Canada's Unsung WWII Heroes". IndianCountryMediaNetwork.com. Archived from the original on January 27, 2019. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
  28. ^ "About". Cree Code Talker. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  29. ^ Scott, Peter. "Cree Code Talkers". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on January 27, 2019. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
  30. ^ "Kárpátaljai navajók: úgy használja az ukrán hadsereg a magyarul beszélő katonáinak szuperképességét, mint az amerikaiak a legendás kódbeszélők nyelvtudását (Subcarpathian Navajos: the Ukrainian army uses the superpowers of its Hungarian-speaking soldiers in the same way that the Americans use the language skills of the legendary code talkers)". 444.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved August 8, 2022.
  31. ^ "Угорська мова - найкраща для шифрування на війні (Hungarian is the best for encryption in war)". www.facebook.com (in Hungarian). Retrieved August 8, 2022.
  32. ^ "Last Meskwaki code talker remembers". USA Today. July 4, 2002. Archived from the original on May 5, 2008. Retrieved February 13, 2008.
  33. ^ Lynch, James Q. (November 20, 2013). "Meskwaki 'code talkers' receive Congressional Gold Medal". The Gazette. Archived from the original on January 27, 2019. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  34. ^ Deer, Jessica (May 29, 2019). "Louis Levi Oakes, last WW II Mohawk code talker, dies at 94". CBC News. Archived from the original on May 30, 2019. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  35. ^ "Code Talkers". The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Archived from the original on January 27, 2019. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  36. ^ "An Honor Long Overdue: The 2013 Congressional Gold and Silver Medal Ceremonies in Honor of Native American Code Talkers". Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  37. ^ Attocknie, Dana (April 7, 2014). "Last living Seminole Code Talker walks on, loved ones pay respects, honor hero". Native American Times. Archived from the original on April 27, 2014. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
  38. ^ "Seminole code talker Edmond Harjo dies at 96". Tulsa World. April 13, 2014. Archived from the original on March 11, 2017. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
  39. ^ Peterson, Dick (November 21, 2013). "Treasury and Mint Join Congress to Honor Native American Code Talkers". United States Department of the Treasury. Archived from the original on April 27, 2014. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
  40. ^ Holm, Tom (2007). Code Talkers and Warriors. Chelsea House Pub. ISBN 978-0791093405. Retrieved November 28, 2012.
  41. ^ Vogel, Clayton; Johnston, Philip. "Letter to Commandant, USMC". Demonstration in California, 1942. Northern Arizona University, Cline Library. Archived from the original on July 5, 2014. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
  42. ^ "Native Words, Native Warriors". americanindian.si.edu. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
  43. ^ a b "Navajo Code Talkers: World War II Fact Sheet". Naval Historical Center. September 17, 1992. Archived from the original on November 4, 2017. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
  44. ^ Our Fathers, Our Grandfathers, Our Heroes The Navajo Code Talkers of World War II A Photographic Exhibit. Gallup, New Mexico: Circle of Light, Navajo Educational Project. 2004.
  45. ^ a b Fox, Margalit (June 5, 2014). "Chester Nez, 93, Dies; Navajo Words Washed From Mouth Helped Win War". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 5, 2014. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
  46. ^ Durrett, Deanne (2009). Unsung Heroes of World War II: The Story of the Navajo Code Talkers. University of Nebraska Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-0803224568. The code was designed so that even a person who spoke Navajo as his native language would not understand the coded messages. Only those who has received Code Talker training could decode the messages.
  47. ^ Holiday, Samuel; McPherson, Robert S. (2013). Under the Eagle: Samuel Holiday, Navajo Code Talker. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 120–122. ISBN 978-0806151014.
  48. ^ McKay, Mary-Jayne (May 29, 2002). "The Code Talkers". CBS News. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
  49. ^ "Navajo Code Talkers". UCSD. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
  50. ^ McLellan, Dennis (July 24, 2011). "Joe Morris Sr. dies at 85; Navajo code talker during World War II". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 21, 2013. Retrieved July 29, 2011.
  51. ^ Kolb, Joseph (June 4, 2014). "Last of Navajo 'code talkers' dies in New Mexico". reuters.com. Archived from the original on June 4, 2014. Retrieved June 4, 2014.
  52. ^ Levenson, Eric (January 16, 2019). "Alfred Newman, one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers, dies at 94". CNN. Archived from the original on January 21, 2019. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  53. ^ Zaveri, Mihir (May 11, 2019). "Fleming Begaye, Navajo Code Talker Honored at White House, Dies at 97". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 13, 2019. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  54. ^ Lyman, Andy (May 24, 2019). "NM mourns long-time state senator, John Pinto". NM Political Report. Archived from the original on May 25, 2019. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
  55. ^ "Navajo Code Talker William Tully Brown dies at 96; 3rd death from group in past month". WSET. Associated Press. June 4, 2019. Archived from the original on June 6, 2019. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
  56. ^ Colbert, Claire (February 2, 2020). "Joe Vandever Sr., Navajo Code Talker, dies at 96". CNN. Archived from the original on February 2, 2020. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  57. ^ "Navajo Code Talker Samuel Sandoval dies; 3 left from group". ABC News. July 31, 2022. Retrieved July 31, 2022.
  58. ^ WWII Navajo Code Talker Samuel Sandoval Dead at 98: 'a Loving and Courageous Person' (July 31, 2022) People
  59. ^ Kelly, David (January 28, 2024). "One man is preserving the legacy of the code talkers, America's secret weapon in WWII". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  60. ^ "Changing Egypt Offers Hope to Long-Marginalized Nubians". News.nationalgeographic.com. December 17, 2013. Archived from the original on February 3, 2015. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  61. ^ "Remembering Nubia: the Land of Gold". Al-Ahram Weekly. April 18, 2012. Archived from the original on February 3, 2015. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  62. ^ El Nuba (April 2, 2014). "El Nuba | Cairo West Magazine". Cairowestmag.com. Archived from the original on February 3, 2015. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  63. ^ "Peaceful Societies". Peaceful Societies. February 13, 2014. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  64. ^ "Code Talkers: Native American Languages in the Military". Alpha Omega Translations. June 17, 2015. Archived from the original on January 22, 2016. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  65. ^ D'Oro, Rachel (March 28, 2019). "Alaska Native servicemen finally honored as Code Talkers". Associated Press. AP News. Archived from the original on May 25, 2019. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
  66. ^ McCarthy, Alex (March 20, 2019). "Silent in life, Tlingit code talkers finally getting recognition". Juneau Empire. Archived from the original on May 25, 2019. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
  67. ^ Chapman, H. S. (1987). "Welsh as a Secret Language". Transactions of the Caernarvonshire Historical Society. 48: 113–117.
  68. ^ Heath, Tony (August 26, 1996). "Welsh speak up for their ancient tongue". The Independent. p. 6. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  69. ^ Nanlai Cao (2010). Constructing China's Jerusalem: Christians, Power, and Place in Contemporary Wenzhou. Stanford University Press. pp. 195–. ISBN 978-0804773607.
  70. ^ Zhang Zhixiong (2015). Chinese Education in Singapore: An untold story of conflict and change. Zhixiong Zhang. pp. 38–. ISBN 978-9810939526.
  71. ^ Fonseca, Felicia (February 11, 2008). "Navajo Code Talker dead at age 82". The Denver Post. Associated Press. Archived from the original on March 30, 2008. Retrieved March 19, 2008.
  72. ^ "National Navaho Code Talkers Day". Lapahie.com. August 14, 1982. Archived from the original on February 6, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
  73. ^ "Navajo Code Talkers and the Unbreakable Code". Central Intelligence Agency. November 6, 2008. Archived from the original on March 27, 2010. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
  74. ^ "The Warrior Tradition". pbs.org. Archived from the original on November 15, 2019. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
  75. ^ "Navajo code talkers: Remembering the men behind the code - VA News". August 14, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2024.
  76. ^ "Navajo code talkers honored after 56 years". CNN. July 27, 2001. Archived from the original on August 10, 2014. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  77. ^ "P.L. 106-554, see 114 Stat. 2763A–311" (PDF). gpo.gov. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 25, 2012. Retrieved September 9, 2012.
  78. ^ Mendez, Kendra (September 17, 2007). "Texas military honors Choctaw code talkers". Archived from the original on June 1, 2008. Retrieved May 2, 2008.
  79. ^ "P.L. 110-420" (PDF). gpo.gov. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 21, 2012. Retrieved September 9, 2012.
  80. ^ "Treasury and Mint Join Congress to Honor Native American Code Talkers". treasury.gov. Archived from the original on April 27, 2014. Retrieved September 12, 2015.
  81. ^ a b Davis, Julie Hirschfeld (November 27, 2017). "Trump Mocks Warren as 'Pocahontas' at Navajo Veterans' Event". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 27, 2017. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
  82. ^ Statement in response to remarks by President Trump, Window Rock, Arkansas, November 27, 2017, archived from the original on May 21, 2019, retrieved November 28, 2017 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  83. ^ "Navajo Nation Statement (November 27, 2017)". November 27, 2017. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved December 1, 2017 – via Wikisource.
  84. ^ Fonseca, Felicia (November 28, 2017). "Families of Navajo Code Talkers Slam President Trump for 'Pocahontas' Slur". Time. Archived from the original on February 7, 2019. Retrieved March 12, 2021 – via Yahoo! News. {{cite magazine}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)

Further reading

  • Aaseng, Nathan. Navajo Code Talkers: America's Secret Weapon in World War II. New York: Walker & Company, 1992. ISBN 0802776272 OCLC 672012184
  • Connole, Joseph. "A Nation Whose Language You Will Not Understand: The Comanche Code Talkers of WWII". Whispering Wind Magazine, March, 2012, Vol. 40, No. 5, Issue #279. pp. 21–26
  • Durrett, Deanne. Unsung Heroes of World War II: The Story of the Navajo Code Talkers. Library of American Indian History, Facts on File, Inc., 1998. ISBN 0816036039 OCLC 38067688
  • Gawne, Jonathan. Spearheading D-Day. Paris: Histoire et Collections, 1999. ISBN 2908182793 OCLC 45700217
  • Holm, Tom. Code Talkers and Warriors: Native Americans and World War II. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007. ISBN 0791093409
  • Kahn, David. The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing. 1967. ISBN 0684831309
  • McClain, Salley. Navajo Weapon: The Navajo Code Talkers. Tucson, Arizona: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2001. ISBN 1887896325 OCLC 48584920
  • Meadows, William C. The Comanche Code Talkers of World War II. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002. ISBN 0292798504 OCLC 55896749
  • Singh, Simon, The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography. 2000. ISBN 978-0385495325

External links