Navajo Code Talkers: The Code to Success
By Shelby Nelson Contains 1,992 words
The Navajo Indians are just recently well known for serving in World War Two. America joined the Allies (The Soviet Union, Great Britain, China, France, and the U.S.) in WWll when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. The
bombing killed more than 2,300 Americans.
Many Native Americans served in WWll from 1942 to 1945. They were stationed at various war locations. The Allies needed an unbreakable code to use against the Japanese and Germans, to communicate information. Without the Navajo, we would’ve lost the war. They were vital to history.
BIA Problems
Years before WWll, the United States was unfair to many Native Americans. The BIA1forced Native Americans to leave their homes and the land they had lived on for thousands of years. Navajo children were forced to go to boarding schools where they
1Nez, Chester, and Judith Schiess Avila. Code Talker. New York, Dutton Caliber, 2018. BIA
were treated terribly and punished for speaking their language. But they still did, in secret. At one school that Chester (one of the Navajo men who created the unbreakable code) and his sister Dora went to, they were fed very poorly. “We were fed milk and one thick cracker, about the size of a small woman’s palm”, said Chester Nez.2Sometimes, kids would go to the garbage and eat food from there, spoiled or not. Chester and Dora left that school and went to Fort Defiance with their brother Coolidge instead.
However, things got violent between the U.S. and the Native Americans in the 1860’s. The U.S. Army was not going to be friendly about it. General James Carleton ordered Colonel Kit Carson to force the Native’s to either surrender or starve. In 1863, Carson’s troops burned and ruined cornfields, gardens, orchards, killed the game, slaughtered the sheep, and burned the firewood and villages to the ground. They also killed any Native’s who resisted.3The BIA forced Chester’s family to put most of their animals into a trench. The BIA burned them, all three hundred.
The Long Walk
Without homes and food for the winter, many Native Americans surrendered. They were all rounded up and driven like cattle on a 300-mile walk to Fort Sumner in Eastern New Mexico. The Navajo people called it The Long Walk; it lasted three
weeks.3The people had no clue where they were going, or why they were going there. They were all cold and hungry. Tiny infants and elders died along the way. It is still
thought of as one of the great tragedies of Native American history. The Long Walk gave many Natives a feeling of kinship and shared history.
The Navajo Language
The Navajo language is very tricky. There is no alphabet, no symbols, it’s not written, and it has extremely hard syntax and tonal qualities. For a non-native speaker, it would take a long time for them to become just a little fluent. Fewer than thirty non Navajos could speak the language when WWll started.
The Navajo language was so successful in WWl that Adolf Hitler sent
anthropologists to the U.S. to learn the language before WWll started. He hoped if they learned the language, that they would be able to break the code in the future. But, the language was just too complicated to learn in a short period of time.4
Recruiting
Chester, Roy, and three of their friends went to Fort Defiance. (The place they went to boarding school.) There, about 200 other Indian men were applying for the Marines’ special project. The recruiters wanted young men who were fluent in English and Navajo. They were needed for a special project that would benefit their country. Joining the Marines would mean leaving school and the reservation. Chester and Roy were recruited, and recruits from Arizona and New Mexico made up the rest of the group which would be called the “original twenty-nine.” The plan called for thirty men.
4Small, Cathleen. Code Breakers and Spies of World War II. New York, Cavendish Square,
Thirty men were recruited, but the thirtieth man dropped out. It may have had something to do with the fact that he wasn’t comfortable with the dialect of Navajo they used. In combat, that could be deadly.5
Time to Serve
More than 3,600 out of a population of 55,000 overcame the bitter memory of The Long Walk to serve our country in WWll. Many others tried to join, but couldn’t because of health issues, or because they couldn’t speak enough English. More than 300 Navajo men gave their lives in the war.
When the 29 code talkers had to come up with the code, an officer locked them ina room and told them they would be released at the end of the day for dinner. They were forbidden to speak to anyone outside the room about the task they were given. If they needed to go anywhere, they would have to use the buddy system.5If anyone was caught alone, they were punished. The Navajo code talkers had to follow four rules in creating the code. First, the word had to have some connection to the word it meant. That was so they could memorize it easier. Second, memorizing the words would be easier if the code words were descriptive. Third, the words had to be kind of short because time was crucial in the Military. Last, they had to avoid words that could be confused with other words. They had to come up with code words for different Military officers, but they needed some help. So they called for three Navajo-speaking Military men. Felix Yazzie, Ross Haskie, and Wilson Price.5Historians don’t count them, but Chester Nez will always see them as the original thirty-two. Hundreds of Navajo tribe
members were trained as code talkers. Between 375 and 420 Navajos used the code to send information about troop movements over the radio and telephone during the war. The Japanese could not decipher it and it was very crucial for the American victories for Saipan, Iwo Jima, and other major battles.
The Navajo were so fast at coding, sending, and decoding that they were faster than the decoding machines! The Navajo encoded, transmitted, and decoded a three line message in 20 seconds, while the machine took 30 minutes!6After those tests, the Marines started recruiting and training Navajo cryptographers. By the end of the war, about 540 Navajo served, and out of that, about 400 were code talkers. The code was so unique and detailed that even a native Navajo couldn’t understand it! Once a Navajo soldier was taken prisoner and was forced to try and crack the code, but he couldn’t! The U.S. officers explained to the Navajo code talkers that they were needed in the Pacific area of the war. The Japanese had taken Guam, the Philippines, and Burma on the Malay Peninsula. The Allies attacked New Guinea and won the battle of the Java Sea. In the Bataan Death March in the Philippines, more than five thousand Americans died.
Even in new places with unknown animals, the Navajo still had to practice, train, and work before a battle. At one place they were at, huge crabs in color of red, orange, blue, and black ate the bodies of dead soldiers, and attacked sleeping soldiers at night. Sometimes the crabs’ bodies were a foot in diameter. They had strong legs, and claws that could rip off a finger. During the day, they dug into the sand, but at night, they would come looking for food. When soldiers sent up flares to see if enemy troops were nearby,
6Small, Cathleen. Code Breakers and Spies of World War II. New York, Cavendish Square,
the light revealed thousands of crabs on the beach. Crab bites were painful and often led to infection. When they latched onto a leg or an arm, they refused to let go.7
During a battle, a runner handed Chester a message, and he sent it with Roy’s help. (His friend from boarding school) “Beh-na-ali-tsosie a-knah-as-donih ah-tho
nish-nah-jih-goh da-di-kad ah-deel-tahi,” is what he said.7That translates to: Enemy
machine-gun nest on your right flank. Destroy. It was destroyed by the U.S.! Roy and Chester switched positions every once in a while. One would send the message and the other would crank the lever to keep the machine running. For Chester, it felt nice to crank and not have to worry about messing up a message that could cost lives. Artillery shells flew past them and they dived to the ground, but they never stopped transmitting messages. Their throats were sore from all the talk. They hadn’t spoken this many words without rest before. They tried to ignore the cramping muscles, growling stomachs, and explosions around them.
The point system was a way to know when someone could go home. Each island had a special number, and when they invaded, or took it back from the Japanese, the number was stamped on their jackets. It was neon bright, and couldn’t wash off. When someone had enough numbers, they could go home.7
Enemies Surrender
Germany surrendered on May 8th, 1945. When Japan did not surrender, the Allies knew they would have to take it a step further. Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, and also on August 9th, 1945, on Nagasaki. Still, the
Japanese would not surrender. After Tokyo was bombed (not atomic) on August 13th by 1,600 U.S. aircrafts, Emperor Hirohito admitted defeat.
After the war, the Navajos were asked to keep quiet about their code just in case they were needed for war again. The Navajo did as they were asked and kept quiet. Some Navajos were even used in Korea and Vietnam in the 1950’s and 1960’s.8The other Marines who made their points sailed with Chester. It took a couple of weeks to reach the stateside. The ship docked in San Francisco, and everything was quiet. There was nobody there to greet them. They still knew that the war was going on, and that their friends were somewhere in the middle of it all too. Chester boarded a train to return to the recruiting station in San Diego for a few months additional work. The Marine security told him not to talk about the code to anyone. He felt disappointed that he couldn’t tell his family about his important role in the war, but he understood that the code might be needed again.
Reserves who had been called to active duty met in Albuquerque. (Men from the Army, Navy, and other branches of service.) They boarded a train to California, and on September 14th, 1950, Chester returned to Camp Elliot near San Diego. At this time, Korea was threatening our country. The Korean War, compared to WWll, was easier and more relaxing for the Navajo. The code was not used because the officers thought the war would end quickly, and did not want to risk the code.
Honoring the Navajo
The Navajo code was kept secret for 23 years! In 1968, the military proclaimed it declassified. Now that they had modern equipment, and better encryption methods, they decided they wouldn’t need to use the Navajo code again. Chester Nez spoke at
Harvard about being in WWll. People wrote books about the code talkers, and he attended book signings, parades, and fairs. In 1971, President Nixon honored the code talkers with a certificate thanking them for their service to the country.9The Navajo who earned gold medals are John Brown, Lloyd Oliver, Allen Dale June, and Joe Palmer who was represented by his son Kermit. They were the last of the original code talkers. Many other Navajo code talkers earned silver medals also. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan declared August 14th, National Code Talkers Day.8
On July 26th, 2001, America honored the 29 original code talkers.10They served by creating a code that turned the tide for us in the war. After the war, they kept
themselves a secret. And now we give them the praise and honor they deserve.
Bush, George W. "Remarks on Presenting the Congressional Gold Medal to Navajo Code
