Indian Code Talkers

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Program: Indian Code Talkers

Indian Code Talkers

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American Indians in Military Service

American Indians have participated with distinction in United States Military actions for more than two hundred years. Their courage, determination, and fighting spirit were recognized by American military leaders as early as the 18th century. I think they (Indians) can be made of excellent use, as scouts and light troops.- Gen. George Washington, 1778

Many tribes were involved in the War of 1812 and Indians fought for both sides as auxiliary troops in the Civil War. Scouting the enemy was recognized as a particular skill of the Native American Soldier. In 1866 the Army established its Indian Scouts to exploit this aptitude. The Scouts were active in the American West in the late 1800's and accompanied General Pershing's expedition to Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa in 1916. They were deactivated in 1947 when their last member retired from the Army in ceremonies at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona.

Native Americans from Indian Territory were also recruited by Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders and saw action in Cube in the Spanish-American War in 1898.

As the Military entered the 20th Century, American Indians had already made a substantial contribution through military service and were on the brink of playing an even larger role. It is estimated that more than 12,000 American Indians served in the United States Military in World War I.

Approximately 600 Oklahoma Indians, mostly Choctaw and Cherokee were assigned to the 142nd Infantry of the 36th Texas-Oklahoma National Guard Division. The 142nd saw action in France and its soldiers wre widely recognized for their contributions in battle and were awarded the Croix de Guerre, while others received the Church War Cross for gallantry.

In the closing days of World War I, 14 Choctaw Indian men in the Army's 36th Division, trained to use their language, helped the American Expeditionary Force win several key battles in the Meuse-Argonne Campaign in France; this was the final big, German push of the war. The messages, spoken into the field telephones by Private First Class Mitchell Bobb to Ben Caterby, stationed at Headquarters; was most certain to be intercepted by German troops, who had tapped their lines and knew every move of the American Forces, whom they had surrounded. Bobb spoke the message intended for the Battalion Commander to Ben Caterby. HE was certain it would remain a secret. He was right. To the listening Germans it sounded like someone had scrambled the transmission - but that was impossible. Voice scrambling technology wasn't available for decades. How were they doing this?
The secret of Bobb and Caterby turned the tide of battle within 24 hours after they implemented their "scrambled" voice message. Within 72 hours the Germans were in retreat and the Allies had taken the offensive. The amazing invention deployed that day had no new technology at all. The men were simply speaking in their Native Choctaw language. The Choctaw Code Talkers saved their Battalion and invented secret communications in the closing days of the war. It was to remain their secret, however, as the Armistice was signed and the Choctaw men returned home.

During the annual Choctaw Labor Day Festival in 1986, Chief Hollis E. Roberts presented posthumous Choctaw Medal of Valor to the families of the Choctaw Code Talkers. This was the first official recognition the Choctaw Code Talkers had been given.

On November 3, 1989, in recognition of the important roles the Choctaw Code Talkers played during World War I, the French Government presented Chief Roberts with the Knight of the National Order of Merit; the highest honor that France can bestow.

The outbreak of World War II brought American Indian warriors back to the battlefield in defense of their homeland. Although now eligible for the draft by virtue of the Snyder Act, which gave citizenship to American Indians in 1924, conscription alone does not account for the disproportionate number of Indians who joined the armed services. More than 44,000 American Indians, out of a total Native Population of less than 350,000, served with distinction between 1941 and 1945 in both European and Pacific theaters of war. 40,000 left their reservations and became an integral part of the war effort by working in ordnance depots, factories, and other war industries. American Indians invested more than $50 million in war bonds and

contributed generously to the Red Cross and other relief societies.

World War II was a war with few secrets. American Intelligence had broken the German and Japanese communication codes; but the Japanese had also broken every code the Americans thought up.

Many of the top Japanese code breakers had been educated in the United States and were savy to local references and slang that the American Forces tried to use to disguise their intentions. Perhaps the Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I might have had some success again, but there had only been 8 of them in that test of World War I and they had long since been forgotten --- or had they?

Seventeen Commanches were assigned to the Commanche Signal Corps of the Army and like the Choctaws before them, passed messages among themselves that could not be understood by the Germans. For their service they were also honored by the French Government with the Knight of the National Order of Merit.

The Navajo Code Talkers program was established in September 1942 as the result of a recommendation made the previous February by Mr. Philip Johnson to Major General Clayton P. Vogel, United States Marine Corp, commanding the General Amphibious Corp, Pacific Fleet Headquarters at Camp Elliott, California.

Mr. Johnson, the son of a Missionary, to the Navajo Tribe, was fluent in the language; having lived among the Navajos for 24 years. He believed that use by the Marine Corps of Navajo as a code language in voice (radio and wire) transmission could guarantee communications security.

Mr. Johnson's rationale for this belief was that Navajo is an unwritten language handed down orally from generation to generation and is completely unintelligible to anyone but another Navajo and that it is a rich fluent language for which code words, in Navajo, could be devised for specialized military terms; such as the Navajo word for "turtle" represented a tank.

With cooperation of 4 Navajos residing in the Los Angeles area, and another who was already on active Naval service in San Diego, Mr. Johnson presented a demonstration of his theory to General Vogel and his staff at Camp Elliott on February 25, 1942. Marine Staff Officers composed simulated field combat messages, which were handed to a Navajo, who then translated it into tribal dialect and transmitted it to another Navajo, who then translated it into tribal dialect and transmitted it to another Navajo on the other side of the line. The second Navajo then translated back into perfect English in 20 seconds, in the same form which had been provided originally. It would have taken a code machine 30 minutes to convey the same message.

This system in combat had to be foolproof. Allied forces in the Pacific could be staking their lives on it. The demonstration proved entirely successful and General Vogel recommended the recruitment into the Marin Corps of at least 200 Navajos for the Code Talker Program.

With the Commander's approval recruitment began in May 1942. Each of the recruits underwent basic boot camp training at San Diego before being assigned to the Field Signal Battalion for training at Camp Pendleton. It should be noted that at the onset, the entire Navajo Code Talker project was highly classified and there is no indication that any message traffic in Navajo language, while undoubtedly intercepted, was ever deciphered.

Initially, the course at Camp Pendleton consisted of training in basic communication procedures and equipment. At the same time 29 Navajos comprising the 1st group recruited, devised Navajo words for military terms which were not part of their language. Alternate terms were also provided.

To compound the difficulty of the program, all Code Talkers had to memorize both the primary and alternate code terms; for while much of the basic material was printed for use in training, the upmost observance of security precaution curtailed the use of printed material in a combat situation.

By August 1943 there were 191 Navajo who joined the United States Marine Corps for this special program.

Carl Gorman was one of the Navajos sent to Guadalcanal in the fall of 1942. As a young boy, attending school at Rehoboth Mission in Chinle, Arizona, he had been locked in chains in the school basement because he refused to speak English instead of Navajo. With Japanese forces sweeping over Gualalcanal and listening to every Marine radio frequency; Gorman and his friends William Yazzie, Jack Nez and Oscar Illthama called in artillery fire and provided status reports in what sounded like gibberish to the enemy who had been proficient at intercepting short distance communications and either sabotaged the message or sent our false commands to set up ambushes.

According to Chester Nez, one of the original Code Talkers, "Everything we used in the code was what we lived with on the reservation every day; like the ants, the birds, bears; thus the term for a tank was "turtle", a tank destroyer was "tortoise killer", a battleship was a "whale", a hand grenade was "potato", and plain old bombs were "eggs", a fighter plane was "hummingbird" and a torpedo plane a "swallow", a sniper was "pick-em-off" and pyrotechnic was "fancy fire".

The Japanese cracked every code the Army and Navy came up with but not the Navajo Code. Thus on the dramatic day the Marines raised the Flag on Mount Surabachi on Iwo Jima to signal a key and decisive victory, the first words of this momentous news crackled over the radio in odd gutteral noises and complex intonations.

It didn't take long for the original 29 to expand to an elite corps of Marines numbering at its height 425 Code Talkers. All of them form the American Southwest. Each Talker was so valuable, he traveled everywhere with a personal bodyguard. In the event of capture, the Talkers had solemnly agreed to commit suicide rather than allow America's most valuable war code to fall into the hands of the enemy. If a captured Navajo did not follow the given instructions, the bodyguard's instructions were understood. SHOOT TO KILL THE CODE TALKER.

Joe Kieyoomia, a Navajo soldier who was not trained as a Code Talker, was captured and survived the Bataan Death March, only to be tortured to decode intercepted Marine communications. Left standing in snow, feet frozen to the parade ground, he couldn't confess to what he didn't understand. The secret code made no sense even to another Navajo.

The Navajo Code Talkers, sending and receiving as many as 800 errorless messages at fast speed during the fog of battle are widely credited with giving United States troops the decisive edge at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. It was said by high military officers that the Marines would never have taken these battlefields without the Navajo Code Talkers and World War II might have had a different outcome without their contributions.

The language of the Code Talkers, their mission and every detail of their messaging apparatus was a secret they were all ordered to keep, even from their families. They did! It wasn't until 1968, when the Military felt that the Code Talkers would not be needed for any future wars, that America learned of the incredible contribution a handful of Native Americans made to winning history's biggest war.

Long unrecognized because of the continued value of their language as a security classified code, the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II were honored for their contributions on September 17, 1992 at the Pentagon, Washington D.C. 35 Code Talkers, all veterans of the United States Marine Corps. attended the dedication of the Navajo Code Talker exhibit.

In a speech made on the floor of the United States Senate before Memorial Day May 24, 1999; Senator Joseph R. Biden, of Delaware said, "I rise to remind my colleagues here in the US Senate and the American people of one very distinguished group of patriots who gave so unselfishly at a time when their rights of citizenship were restricted -- The Navajo Code Talkers of World War II. My State, Delaware, and the Clarence Vinson-John Chason Post #3238 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars will have the distinct privilege of hosting Mr. Samuel Billison, one of the Navajo Code Talkers who helped the United States of America defeat the Axis power in the Pacific. Each Navajo Code Talker made an invaluable personal contribution to the success of our Nation's effort in World War II to pursue freedom and democracy. What is most astonishing about this is they were willing to take on their responsibilities of democracy at a time when they were not allowed the full blessings and rights of democracy here at home. The historical accomplishments and story of the Navajo Code Talkers must be preserved and retold for future generations. They saw that pulling together was a matter of National survival. They gave unselfishly to defend ideals that even today, all we Americans still have not fully realized here in the United States, because the Navajos had faith that America would always continue to move toward the realization and fulfillment of those ideals. Our entire Country is indebted to all the Navajo Code Talkers and to the thousands of Native Americans from various tribes who served so loyally and selflessly in both the European and Pacific theaters of World War II. We must never forget the ultimate sacrifices those Native Americans were willing to make at a time when they and their families were not even allowed to vote or participate in the full fruits of American citizenship in several states. The Navajo legacy of Patriotism, the Navajo contribution of their unique skills, heritage of heroism and their example of love for America; must be carried forward by us all. To all who served, I THANK YOU !!!!

There have been five American Indians who have received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Battle experienced American Indian troops from World War II were joined by newly recruited Native Americans to fight Communist aggression during the Korean Conflict. The Native American's strong sense of patriotism and courage emerged again during the Vietnam era. More than 42,000 Native Americans, more 90% of them volunteers, fought in Vietnam. Native American contributions in United States military combat continued in the 1980's and 1990's as they saw duty in Grenada, Panama, Somalia, and the Persian Gulf.

As the 20th century came to a close, there were nearly 190,000 Native American military veterans. It is well recognized that historically, Native Americans have the highest record of service per capita when compared to other ethnic groups. The reason behind this disproportionate contributions are complex and deeply rooted in traditional American Indian culture. In many respects, Native Americans are no different from others who volunteer for military service. They do however, have distinctive cultural values which drive them to serve their country. One such value is their proud warrior tradition.

In part, the warrior tradition is willingness to engage the enemy in battle. This characteristic has been clearly demonstrated by their courageous deeds in combat. However, the warrior tradition is best exemplified by the following qualities said to be inherent to most if not all Native American societies: strength, honor, pride, devotion and wisdom. These qualities made a perfect fit with military tradition.

Strength : To be an American Indian Warrior is to have physical, mental, and spiritual strength. A warrior must be prepared to overpower the enemy and face death head-on. They have fought heroically and many times were never formally recognized for their bravery.

More importantly, however, is the warrior's spiritual strength. many traditional cultures recognize that war disrupts the natural order of life and causes a spiritual disharmony. To survive the chaos of war is to gain a more intimate knowledge of life. Therefore, military service is a unique way to develop an inner strength that is valued in Native American society. Having this strong sense of inner spirituality is also a part of the Indian character. Many Native Americans are raised on rural or remote reservations, an environment that fosters self-reliance, introspection, and a meditative way of

thinking. These character traits can be very beneficial when adapting to the occasional isolation of military life in times of both peace and war.