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On July 26, 2001, President
George W. Bush awarded the Congressional Gold Medal—the highest civilian medal Congress bestows—to the original
29 Navajo code talkers. Four of the five living code talkers and family members of the deceased code talkers attended the
ceremony. During World War II, these Native Americans were successful in relaying secret military messages using Navajo words
from nature. The Japanese were never able to decode them.
Sixty-five
years earlier, the Navajos’ language ability was brought to the attention of the Marines by Philip Johnston. Johnston
was aware the Japanese were easily breaking the American military codes. He was a missionary’s son who had grown up
on a Navajo reservation. He knew the Choctaw language had been successfully used to encode messages in WWI, which the Germans
were unable to decipher. He realized that the Navajo’s unwritten language could also become an undecipherable code against
the Japanese.
Twenty-nine
young Navajos were sworn into military duty. They trained at Camp Pendleton and then were tasked with developing an unbreakable
code using their native language. They developed an unwritten Navajo dictionary of military terms and committed them to memory.
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| Choctaw Coders |
The Navajos did not have words
for military terms. Instead, these Native Americans used words of nature with which they were very familiar. The types of
airplanes became names of birds. Think of a chicken hawk (GINI) diving for its prey. Does this bird make you think of a dive
bomber? Have you ever watched an eagle (ATSAH) pluck its food and then soar through the air with it? It acts much like a
transport plane. Think of how a hummingbird (DA-HE-TIH-HI) flits in and out of the flowers. This action is similar to that
of a fighter plane.
The
code talkers were able to transmit and decode the messages with incredible speed and accuracy. Some 400 code talkers eventually
were deployed with the six Marine divisions. Thirteen of the Native Americans were killed in action.
When a code talker sent a message
in his native language, the recipient would translate the message into English words. The first letter of each word then formed
the message. When the Marines on
Iwo Jima raised the flag on Mount Suribachi, the code talkers relayed the message in the Navajo code. Translated into English
it read: "sheep-uncle-ram-ice-bear-ant-cat-horse-itch." (SURIBACHI)
The
code talkers sent their messages over portable radios they carried in the field. Some of these messages identified planes.
Other dispatches told pilots where to drop bombs. Many gave lists of needed supplies. The Navajos always found a way to make
their language work for whatever code was needed for these messages. Their language skills made a significant difference in
the battles of Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Peleilu.
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| Comanche Code Talkers |
The code talkers’ efforts
were so successful,
the unbreakable code was kept classified until 1968. A movie, Windtalkers released in 2002, chronicled the challenges and successes of these heroes. Ironically, the use of their language had
previously been banned by the U.S. Government in an attempt to assimilate the Native Americans into the general population.
Why
was their language so successful as a code? Navajo was a little-known and little-used language. It was difficult for anyone
to know the language other
than a person brought up in the oral tradition of a Navajo. They were very familiar with words from nature and readily changed
military terms to well-known words.
The
code talkers, with their remarkable Navajo language ability, were heroes in the South Pacific Islands, although it took over
60 years for this acknowledgement to be made public. Their heroic actions and patriotic sacrifices were finally recognized
by a grateful nation.
NAVAJO CODE TALKERS AIRPLANE TYPES* (6)
|
AIRPLANES |
BIRDS |
NAVAJO LANGUAGE |
|
Bomber plane |
Buzzard |
JAY-SHO |
|
Dive bomber |
Chicken Hawk |
GINI |
|
Fighter plane |
Hummingbird |
DA-HE-THI-HI |
|
Observation plane |
Owl |
NE-AS-JAH |
|
Patrol plane |
Crow |
GA-GHI |
|
Torpedo plane |
Swallow |
TAS-CHIZZIE |
|
Transport plane` |
Eagle |
ATSAH |
NAVAJO CODE TALKERS SHIP TYPES* (6)
|
SHIPS |
ANIMALS/FISH/INSECTS |
NAVAJO LANGUAGE |
Battleship |
Whale |
LO-TSO |
Cruiser |
Small whale |
LO-TSO-YAZZIE |
Destroyer |
Shark |
CA-LO |
Mine sweeper |
Beaver |
CHA |
Mosquito boat |
Mosquito
|
TSE-E |
Submarine |
Iron fish |
BESH-LO |
*Abstracted from word Navajo Code Talkers’ Dictionary http://groups.msn.com/WWIIHobiests/codetalkersguide.msnw
REPRINT:
published in Kidz Chat (Oct. 2000)-revised 2007
Photographs
Copyright © 2008 Wikipedia
Text Copyright © 2008 Annie Laura Smith
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