Navajo code talkers Corporal Henry Bahe Jr. (left) and Private First Class George H. Kirk helped foil the Japanese forces in World War II. Here, they transmit over a portable radio in Bougainville in the South Pacific during December 1943.
THE CODE TALKERS’ LEGACY
NATIVE LANGUAGES HELPED TURN THE TIDES IN BOTH WORLD WARS
BY WILLIAM C. MEADOWS 14 AMERICAN INDIAN FALL 2020
F
our years into World War I, the German military continued to thwart Allied maneuvers by moni- toring their open-air communica- tions and deciphering their coded
messages. As late as the fall of 1918, German forces were still repeatedly countering Allied actions, so U.S. military strategists scrambled to find a means of rapid yet secure commu- nications. The answer came not from new technology but Native culture—the languages spoken by those American Indians who the Marines would later dub “code talkers.”
THE GENESIS OF A CODE
Myths about Native martial abilities originat- ed in colonial times when American Indians began to be recruited by U.S. Army forces as guides and scouts to perform reconnaissance. Because the Indigenous people who grew up in rural areas were used to navigating rugged landscapes to hunt, trap and fish, non-Native soldiers began to believe that American Indi- ans were natural warriors who were stealthier
NATIONAL ARCHIVES, PHOTO NO. 127-MN-69889-B
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