Table of Diversity Weekly: Honoring Navajo Code Talkers

Navajo Code Talkers Day, observed annually on August 14th, is a day of remembrance and appreciation for the brave individuals who played a pivotal role during World War II. These remarkable Native American soldiers used their unwavering dedication, unique language, and coding skills to create an unbreakable code that confounded enemy forces and significantly contributed to the Allied victory.

In his book, Chester Nez described the boarding schools designed to strip Native Americans of their language, traditions, and customs so they would be more like European Americans. Throughout the Pacific theater, Navajo Code Talkers played a crucial role in various critical battles, such as the Battle of Iwo Jima. Their ability to transmit vital messages without being intercepted allows the Allied forces to outmaneuver their adversaries and achieve strategic advantages.

Chester Nez, and others, utilized their unique skillset that proved invaluable. The code talkers needed to be themselves. Their success was because of the culture and traditions they came from.

This is a beautiful reminder of the importance of making space for people to show up as fully and authentically. The uniqueness of yourself, and others, is what will solve issues, close gaps, and facilitate meaningful change.

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American Indian Code Talkers. -National WWII Museum

"What is a code talker? A code talker is the name given to American Indians who used their tribal language to send secret communications on the battlefield. Most people have heard of the famous Navajo (or Dine) code talkers who used their traditional language to transmit secret Allied messages in the Pacific theater of combat during World War II. But did you know that there were at least 14 other Native nations, including the Cherokee and Comanche, that served as code talkers in both the Pacific and Europe during the war? The idea of using American Indians who were fluent in both their traditional tribal language and in English to send secret messages in battle was first put to the test in World War I with the Choctaw Telephone Squad and other Native communications experts and messengers. However, it wasn't until World War II that the US military developed a specific policy to recruit and train American Indian speakers to become code talkers. The irony of being asked to use their Native languages to fight on behalf of America was not lost on code talkers, many of whom had been forced to attend government or religious-run boarding schools that tried to assimilate Native peoples and would punish students for speaking in their traditional language."

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Navajo Code Talkers. -National Archives

"The United States Marine Corps possessed an extraordinary, unbreakable code during World War II: the Navajo language. Utilized in the Pacific theater, the Navajo code talkers enabled the Marine Corps to coordinate massive operations, such as the assault on Iwo Jima, without revealing any information to the enemy.

Code talkers didn't speak plain language in Navajo, but rather encoded the messages in a phonetic code and incorporated other vocabulary adaptations to meet the needs of modern warfare.Thus, anyone seeking to intercept the messages would have to know both the Navajo language and the codebook. Long after the war, code talker Peter MacDonald Sr. recorded a sample of Navajo code for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Given their historic significance, the code talkers are underrepresented in National Archives special media. The code talker program wasn't even revealed publicly until 1968. Due to the secret status of the operations, and probably unaware of the impact they would have, the Marine Corps did not extensively photograph or film the code talkers in action."

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Code Talkers. -National Museum of the American Indian

"During World Wars I and II, hundreds of Native American servicemen from more than twenty tribes used their Indigenous languages to send secret, coded messages enemies could never break. Known as code talkers, these men helped U.S. forces achieve military victory in some of the greatest battles of the twentieth century.

Ultimately, approximately 534 American Indian code talkers were deployed in World War II. The U.S. Marine Corps, which operated the largest code-talking program, sent approximately 420 Dine (Navajo) language speakers to help win the war in the Pacific. In Europe, Comanche code talkers participated in the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France as well as many of the major campaigns that crushed the Third Reich.

Consequently, in 1940 and 1941, the army recruited Comanche, Meskwaki, Chippewa, and Oneida language speakers to train as code talkers; they later added eight Hopi speakers. In April 1942, the Marine Corps trained twenty-nine Navajo men in combat and radio communications. They went on to serve as the foundation of the largest code-talking program in the military."

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Chester Nez, last of the original Navajo code talkers of World War II, dies at 93. -Washington Post

"If Chester Nez dared to use his Navajo language in school, punishment was swift and literally distasteful. He had to scrub his tongue with a toothbrush and wash out his mouth with bitter soap.

So he was intrigued when recruiters from the Marine Corps showed up in 1942 seeking young men who knew both English and Navajo.

That day, four months after Japanese bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, Mr. Nex helped form an elite, top-secret group that became known as the Navajo code talkers. Using the Navajo language, they developed an unbreakable military communications code, then risked their lives on battlefields across the Pacific to send an decipher messages critical to American and its allies in World War II.

He didn't have to volunteer; barred from voting, Native Americans were barely considered citizens. But Mr. Nez's heritage spoke louder than decades of rejection.

'I reminded myself that my navajo people had always been warriors, protectors,' he wrote in a 2011 memoir. 'In that there was honor. I would concentrate on being a warrior, on protecting my homeland.'

Mr. Nez, the last of the original 29 code talkers, died June 4, 2014 at his son's home in Albuquerque, N.M. He was 93 and had kidney failure, said Judith Schiess Avila, who helped Mr. Nez write his memoir, 'Code Talker.'

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Linguistically Elite, Navajo Corps Is Reunited. -New York Times

"William Dean Wilson was only a 15-year-old schoolboy when Marine recruiters came to the Navajo Indian reservation in Shiprock, N.M., where he lived.

To Marine officials, Mr. Wilson was an ideal recruit for an odd reason: He spoke both English and Navajo fluently. He was a perfect candidate not to be just a regular marine but a code-talker, one of a small corps of Navajo radio operators who developed a secret code in their language and played a critical role in the American victory over the Japanese in World War II.

The code baffled the Japanese because of its entirely foreign origins and strange sounds. Even when they found a Navajo to help them understand the code they failed since the words had been assigned new meanings.

A half-century later, the Pentagon is honoring Mr. Wilson and the more than 400 World War II Navajo code-talkers with an exhibit at the Pentagon that shows how they developed what has been called the world's most unbreakable code. From the battle of Bougainville, to Saipan to Iwo Jima, Navajo code-talkers were indispensable."

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Stuff You Should Know: How the Navajo Code Talkers Worked

"In WWII the US Marines devised an unbreakable code-wthin-a-code made from Navajo, one of the most linguistically difficult languages in the world. A handful of Navajos sent messages on the frontlines in a language they'd been forbidden to speak as school kids."

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One of the Last Navajo Code Talkers Remembers WWII's 'Unbreakable Code'. -Our American Stories

"On this episode of Our American Stories, many Americans have heard of the famous Navajo Code Talkers who used their traditional language to transmit secret Allied messages in the Pacific Theater of combat during World War II. This Story is told to us by one of these Marines, Peter MacDonald, the President at Navajo Code Talks Association."

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Navajo Code Talker- Peter MacDonald, Sr.

"APU's University Libraries invites WWII veteran, Peter MacDonald, Sr., to speak about his experience as a Navajo Code Talker in the U.S. Marine Corps."

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Weekly Activities

Activity 1: Culture Fit vs Culture Add. When the Navajo people were allowed to be their authentic selves and show up in their cultural norms and traditions, they were valuable and vital.

Are your policies allowing people to show up as themselves or making them shrink? Check out this article on the difference between 'culture fit' and 'culture add': https://www.betterup.com/blog/cultural-fit

Which concept shows up most in your organization?

Book Recommendation

Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII

"The first and only memoir by one of the original Navajo code talkers of WWII.

He name wasn't Chester Nez. That was the English name he was assigned in kindergarten. And in boarding school at Fort Defiance, he was punished for speaking his native language, as the teachers sought to rid him of his culture and traditions. But discrimination didn't stop Chester from answering the call to defend his country after Pearl Harbor, for the Navajo have always been warriors, and his upbringing on a New Mexico reservation gave him the strength- both physical and mental- to excel as a marine.

During World War II, the Japanese had managed to crack every code the United States used. But when the Marines turned to its Navajo recruits to develop and implement a secret military language, they created the only unbroken code in modern warfare- and helped assure victory for the United States over Japan in the South Pacific."

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