Code talker: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:37, 2 June 2025

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==={{anchor|Navajo code talkers}}Navajo===

[[File:Navajo Indian communication men with the Marines on Saipan landed with the first assault waves to his the beach. - NARA - 532526.tif|thumb|upright=1.2|Navajo code talkers, Saipan, June 1944|alt=Navajo code talkers]]

[[Philip Johnston (code talker)|Philip Johnston]], a civil engineer for the city of Los Angeles,<ref>{{cite book|last=Holm|first=Tom|title=Code Talkers and Warriors|publisher=Chelsea House Pub|year=2007|access-date=November 28, 2012|author-link=Tom Holm|url=https://archive.org/details/codetalkerswarri00holm_0|url-access=registration|isbn=978-0791093405}}</ref> 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 Nation|Navajo reservation]] as the son of missionaries to the Navajo. He was able to converse in what is called "Trader's Navajo," a [[Pidgin|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 [[Navajo grammar|grammar]], it is not [[mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] with even its closest relatives within the [[Na-Dene languages|Na-Dene family]] to provide meaningful information. It was still an unwritten language at the time, and Johnston believed Navajo could satisfy the military requirement for an undecipherable code. Its complex syntax, phonology, and numerous dialects made it unintelligible to anyone without extensive exposure and training. One estimate indicates that fewer than 30 non-Navajo could understand the language during World War II.<ref>{{cite web|last=Vogel|first=Clayton|title=Letter to Commandant, USMC|url=http://archive.library.nau.edu/u?/cpa,44718|work=Demonstration in California, 1942|publisher=[[Northern Arizona University]], Cline Library|access-date=July 20, 2011|author2=Johnston, Philip|author-link2=Philip Johnston (code talker)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140705092953/http://archive.library.nau.edu/cdm/ref/collection/cpa/id/44718|archive-date=July 5, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

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

Platoon 382 was the Marine Corps's first "all-Indian, all-Navajo" Platoonplatoon. TheIts 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 Nelson Gorman|Carl N. Gorman]]—who with his son, R. C. Gorman, would become an artist of great acclaim and design the Code Talkers's logo—at age 35.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+Names of the First Twenty-Nine and areas of birth<ref>{{Cite book |title=Our Fathers, Our Grandfathers, Our Heroes The Navajo Code Talkers of World War II A Photographic Exhibit |publisher=Circle of Light, Navajo Educational Project |year=2004 |___location=Gallup, New Mexico}}</ref>

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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."<ref name="ww2fact" />

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 side. According to Bill Toledo, one of the second groups 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 waswere ever called upon to do so.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-code-talkers-29-05-2002/ |title=The Code Talkers |date=May 29, 2002 |first=Mary-Jayne |last=McKay |publisher=[[CBS News]] |access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.math.ucsd.edu/~crypto/Projects/MichaelMay/Navajo%20Code%20Site/Procon.html |title=Navajo Code Talkers |publisher=[[UCSD]] |access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref>

To ensure consistent use of code terminologies throughout the Pacific theater, representative code talkers of each of the US Marine [[Division (military)|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 shortcuts [[Code word (communication)|code word]]s were devised for a particular [[military campaign|campaign]] and not disseminated beyond the area of operation. Examples of code words include the Navajo word for ''buzzard'', {{spell-nv|jeeshóóʼ}}, which was used for ''bomber'', while the code word used for ''submarine'', {{spell-nv|béésh łóóʼ}}, meant ''iron fish'' in Navajo.<ref name="latimes">{{cite news |first=Dennis |last=McLellan |title=Joe Morris Sr. dies at 85; Navajo code talker during World War II |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-joe-morris-20110722,0,3839149,full.story |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=July 24, 2011 |access-date=July 29, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131221095650/http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-joe-morris-20110722,0,3839149,full.story |archive-date=December 21, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The last of the original 29 Navajo code talkers who developed the code, [[Chester Nez]], died on June 4, 2014.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-newmexico-navajo-idUSKBN0EF1Z920140604 |title=Last of Navajo 'code talkers' dies in New Mexico |publisher=reuters.com |date=2014-06-04 |first=Joseph |last=Kolb |access-date=June 4, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140604211125/http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/04/us-usa-newmexico-navajo-idUSKBN0EF1Z920140604 |archive-date=June 4, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>

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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."<ref name="NYT_code_talkers_2017">{{cite news |title=Trump Mocks Warren as 'Pocahontas' at Navajo Veterans' Event |date=November 27, 2017 |access-date=November 28, 2017 |newspaper=The New York Times |first=Julie Hirschfeld |last=Davis |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/27/us/politics/trump-elizabeth-warren-pocahontas-navajo.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171127223316/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/27/us/politics/trump-elizabeth-warren-pocahontas-navajo.html |archive-date=November 27, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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'."<ref name="NYT_code_talkers_2017"/><ref name="code_talkers_2017">{{cite news |title=Statement in response to remarks by President Trump |date=November 27, 2017 |access-date=November 28, 2017 |agency=The Navajo Nation |___location=Window Rock, Arkansas |url=https://twitter.com/electgarrick/status/935363089293238272 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190521001039/https://twitter.com/electgarrick/status/935363089293238272 |archive-date=May 21, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Navajo_Nation_Statement_(November_27,_2017) |title=Navajo Nation Statement (November 27, 2017) |via=Wikisource |date=November 27, 2017 |access-date=December 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201042347/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Navajo_Nation_Statement_(November_27,_2017) |archive-date=December 1, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> The National Congress of American Indians objected to Trump's use of the name [[Pocahontas]], a historical Native American figure, as a derogatory term.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.yahoo.com/families-navajo-code-talkers-slam-122710613.html |title=Families of Navajo Code Talkers Slam President Trump for 'Pocahontas' Slur |last=Fonseca |first=Felicia |date=November 28, 2017 |magazine=Time |agency=Associated Press |via=[[Yahoo! News]] |access-date=March 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207202500/https://news.yahoo.com/families-navajo-code-talkers-slam-122710613.html |archive-date=February 7, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

On March 17, 2025, ''[[Axios (website)|Axios]]'' reported that numerousat articlesleast about10 Nativearticles American Code Talkers were removed from some military websites. Accordingpertaining to itsNative reporting,American ''Axios''code identified at least 10 articles whichtalkers had disappeared from the U.S. Army and Department of Defense websites. Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot is quoted in response: "As Secretary [Pete] Hegseth has said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department. ... We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Alberty |first=Erin |date=2025-03-17 |title=Navajo Code Talkers get "DEI" label as military info disappears under Trump order |url=https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2025/03/17/navajo-code-talkers-trump-dei-military-websites-wwii |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=[[Axios (website)|Axios]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/18/native-american-code-talkers-dei-military |title=Articles about Native American code talkers removed from military websites |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |first=Lauren |last=Aratani |date=March 18, 2025 |access-date=March 18, 2025}}</ref>

==See also==