07/05/2025
They were punished as children for speaking their mother tongue - then ordered to save a nation with it 20 years later.
During World War II, the United States military faced a critical challenge: developing a code that the enemy couldn't break.
They found their answer in the complex, unwritten languages of Native American tribes.
Between 400 and 500 Native Americans, primarily Navajo but also including Comanche, Hopi, Meskwaki, and members of at least ten other nations, served as code talkers, mostly from 1942 to 1945.
These men developed and memorized intricate codes based on their native languages. Terms for modern military equipment were assigned code words, often based on animals or familiar concepts – a submarine might be an "iron fish," a tank a "turtle."
The code proved unbreakable, giving American forces a vital edge in communication security during fierce battles across the Pacific.
Code talkers participated in every major Marine assault in the Pacific, including the brutal fight for Iwo Jima, where their rapid and secure communications were credited with saving countless lives.
Ironically, many of these men had attended government-run boarding schools where they were forbidden, sometimes harshly punished, for speaking the very languages that would later become essential to the war effort.
This tradition of using Native languages for military secrecy actually had roots earlier, with Choctaw soldiers transmitting messages during World War I.
The contributions of these code talkers remained classified for decades, only being officially recognized long after the war ended.
Their unique skills, born from cultural heritage the government once tried to erase, were instrumental to Allied victory in the Pacific theater.
