Welcome to the LAST post in the Back to School for Writers blog series. Today’s guest is Jodi Lea Stewart, telling us why she’s proud of the Navajo Code Talkers. Read on for a fascinating glimpse into history.
Recipe for Military Success
- Twenty-nine brave and brilliant Navajo men fluent in both English and Navajo willing to join the Marine Corp
- One extremely difficult Athabaskan language, not yet written
- Major war
- Seven hundred phonetically created and memorized code words
Mix all ingredients, then add:
- Four hundred more willing Navajos to become Marine Code Talkers
Turn mixture out into well-seasoned platoons and…
- Bake in the jungles of Guadalcanal.
- Simmer in the black sands of Iwo Jima.
- Spread into every major engagement of the Pacific theater from 1942-1945
- Re-use all ingredients later in Korea and Vietnam.
The above “recipe” produced the world’s first and only indecipherable code and a group of heroes who were the military’s best-kept secret until 2001.
Major Howard Conner, fifth Marine Division signal officer said that were it not for the Navajo Code Talkers, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima. According to the Navajo Code Talkers World War II Fact Sheet, six Navajos were in Iwo Jima working around the clock non-stop for the first two days of the battle. They sent and received over 800 messages, ALL WITHOUT ERROR!
Where did these outstanding Code Talker candidates come from?
The Rez! Government-run boarding schools were set up in the 1890s to assimilate Native Americans into American culture. The children were stolen participated by leaving their families at the age of five or six years old. They didn’t return until after graduation. The schools were run with rock-hard rules similar to an adult military boot camp.
From these prisons schools, came the Navajo Code Talkers, the only men in all of history to create a code so magnificently ironclad that the best code crackers in the world couldn’t touch it. It makes me want to scream, it’s so cool!!
The recruits had to meet age, weight, health and language requirements, and went through the standard Marine boot-camp training. It is said that drill instructors and other recruits were in awe of the physical endurance of the Navajo men. After boot camp, the initial group of Navajo Code Talkers were charged with creating 211 military terms. The codes were memorized and never written down. Before it was over, the secret code words numbered more than 700, thus marking the end of constant interception and sabotage of US. military communications from our enemies.
Exactly how the code was conceived and implemented is nothing short of breathtaking.
Are you getting it why I’m so proud of the Navajos?
The code itself was declassified in 1968, but the Code Talkers were still under wraps until 2001. Some of the Code Talker’s own families had no concept of how their relative had served in the wars in which they participated.
In 2001, the Navajo Code Talkers were honored and recognized by this country as heroes. President George Bush awarded Congressional Gold Medals to the original twenty-nine code talkers. Of the original twenty-nine, only five were alive, and four were able to travel to Washington D.C. to receive their medal. Later, in Window Rock, Arizona – the capitol of the Navajo Nation – silver medals were bestowed upon the other men who later qualified as Navajo Code Talkers. Because recognition was so slow to come, most of the medals were handed off to survivors.
On a smaller but not lesser scale, members of the Sioux, Choctaw, Comanche and Mohawk tribes also used their native languages as a code during World War II for the Army. (If I left any tribes out, I apologize. Contact me, and I’ll be more than happy to add them to this list.)
It is stunning and sad to realize that the Native American men (and women) who sacrificed everything to serve their country in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War were not allowed to vote in US elections until:
Arizona – 1948 *three years after the end of World War II*
New Mexico – 1953 *After the end of the Korean War*
Utah – 1957 *After Native Americans had served in World War II and the Korean War*
On the Official Website of the Navajo Code Talkers, it says: They were a small band of warriors who created an unbreakable code from the ancient language of their people and changed the course of modern history.
That gives me goose bumps. I’ve studied the Navajo people enough to know that the sacrifice those young men made to the war effort is incalculable, and that it goes far beyond serving a stint in the US military.
Navajo Code Talkers…we salute you!
Diné – what the Navajos call themselves. It means the people.
Diné Bizaad – the native language of the Navajo.
In Code Talker language:
Hitler was: He Who Smells His Mustache.
Mussolini was: Gourd Chin.
Pretty creative, right?
In case you want to read about the Code Talkers on Wikipedia in their own words and language, please be my guest, and good luck!
What about you? Did you already know about the Navajo Code Talkers, or is this something you’ve never heard of? If you are familiar with the real Code Talkers and their contribution to US history, do you think the movie Wind Walkers with Nicholas Cage exemplified them properly? I lean toward no. What do you think about that? We’d all love to hear!
About Jodi
Jodi Lea Stewart was born in Texas and grew up in Apache County on a cattle ranch near Concho, Arizona. She left the University of Arizona in Tucson to move to San Francisco, where she learned about peace, love, and exactly what she didn’t want to do with her life. Since then, Jodi graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Business Management from Letourneau University, raised two children, worked as an electro-mechanical drafter, penned humor columns for a college periodical, wrote regional western articles and served as managing editor of a Fortune 500 company newsletter. She currently lives in Texas and Arizona with her husband, two Standard poodles, two rescue cats and numerous gigantic, bossy houseplants. Silki, the Girl of Many Scarves: SUMMER OF THE ANCIENT is her first novel. Her next book in the series, CANYON OF DOOM, will be out in early 2013.
Visit her online at http://jodileastewartblog.com/.
Thanks for sharing, Jodi!
I had no idea that Navajos weren’t allowed to vote in US elections until so late in the twentieth century. *shakes head*.
Thank you for having me on your fab blog site, Rabia!
It’s a sad fact of our history that men who were giving everything they had to defend and support this country couldn’t come home and vote in a U.S. election!
Fascinating, Jodi. Never knew any of this. Thanks for sharing.
BTW, I dropped by for tea at your author’s page!
So glad you enjoyed it, Janice. I’m amazed how quiet the whole issue of our Navajo Code Talkers has been. Perhaps we can all do our part to tell their amazing story. Oh, yes…I have the the teapot steeping even now!!
Your enthusiasm and excitement shine through in your words, Jodi! Thanks for sharing this valuable insight into the Code Talkers. Totally fascinating.
You’re so welcome, Tami!
Great post, Jodi. I’ve known about the Navajo Code Talkers for some time, probably because I spent time in Arizona. It’s a fascinating story and they were an amazing group we should all be proud of. I was really disappointed in the Nicholas Cage movie – it was more about Nicholas Cage than about the Code Talkers.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with you, Helen. I say it’s time for Hollywood to make an authentic Navajo Code Talker movie. And how about this… actually use some real Navajo actors, or at least mostly Native Americans!
“It makes me want to scream, it’s so cool!!”
Me too, Jodi!!!! What an excellent post this is. Navajo Code Talkers are the ultimate in cool, and although I did know something about these amazing men, your post here took that knowledge into the stratosphere! Fascinating x a bazillion!
Nevertheless this all comes as rather bittersweet.
For starters, shame shame shame on our government for not recognizing these heroes until a completely ridiculous amount of time had passed. Double shame for withholding voting privileges from the ORIGINAL Americans! (Seriously, what the hell???) Worse than shame for robbing a people of their children.
So here’s my own cool tidbit. From the time he was a wee sprout, my son has been a collector of GI Joe action figures (aka dolls!). Over the years he has acquired quite an impressive army of these dudes, but best of all is the one I bought for myself, yep, you guessed it, a TALKING Navajo Code Talker! The voice is that of a genuine Navajo–nothing robotic — and he says about 7 different phrases. And he comes with list of code language. Every once in a while I take him out of his pristine box just to hear him talk! Uber fabulous!
Barbara, that’s an awesome doll…. er, action figure. Neither of my sons has been introduced to action figures, but that is one I wouldn’t mind them having. 🙂
Jodi, could you recommend some books about the Navajo code talkers if we wanted to explore more? I would love to read a biography or memoir or two.
Rabia, I recommend” Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir by one of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII,” dictated by the only original code talker still alive – Chester Nez. It’s available on Amazon.
Going to go put it into my Amazon wishlist right now. 😀
Thank you “a bazillion” for your thoughts, Barbara! You get it about the Navajos, don’t you? I’m so proud of them for many reasons. Not only are they the largest Native American tribe in the U.S., but they have eight colleges in their Nation, exemplifying how important education is to them. Their family values…humor…but, I don’t want to tell everything I know because I’ll be covering those things in my series: Why I’m Proud of the Navajos!
You never, ever cease to amaze me, girl! How many people have a talking Navajo Code Talker doll???!!! I don’t even have one, but now I know I have to own one for sure. That is the coolest thing ever, and I’m proud of you for recognizing something special about those heroes! Kudos!!!