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American Indian Code Talkers
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.
Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into World War II. The U.S. Army quickly revived a World War I program that employed Choctaw and other American Indians to use native languages for communicating sensitive messages from the battle lines.
Most people have heard of the famous Navajo (or Diné) 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?
laststandonzombieisland.com
www.nationalww2museum.org
www.neh.gov
www.history.navy.mil
Navajo code talkers photographed in 2005 at Monument Valley, Utah. Photograph by Kenji Kawano.
Though the Navajo code talkers received minimal cryptographic training, they soon devised a code based on word substitution. According to the infographic, the Navajo code and the Navajo men who used it were so efficient that a three-line message that would have taken 30 minutes to send using the old methods could be encoded, sent over open radio channels, and decoded by Navajo code talkers in 20 seconds.
Having shown their worth, Navajo code talkers, eventually numbering in the hundreds, were deployed in all the Marine Corps’ Pacific campaigns from late 1942 on. Again and again, the code talkers’ work proved to be invaluable in helping officers coordinate combat operations. During the first two days of the Battle of Iwo Jima, early in 1945, six code talkers sent and received more than 800 messages without making any errors.
The letter A was assigned the Navajo term wol-la-chee, which literally means “ant.”
The letter Z was assigned the term besh-do-tliz, which means “zinc.”
The word accomplish was assigned the term ul-so, which means “all done.”
The word battleship was assigned the term lo-tso, which means “whale.”
The phrase fighter plane was assigned the term da-he-tih-hi, which means “hummingbird.”
The name November was assigned the term nil-chi-tso, which means “big wind.”
The word tank was assigned the term chay-da-gahi, which means “tortoise.”
www.usmint.gov
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.
Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into World War II. The U.S. Army quickly revived a World War I program that employed Choctaw and other American Indians to use native languages for communicating sensitive messages from the battle lines.
Most people have heard of the famous Navajo (or Diné) 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?
Frogskins, Reisings, and War Bonnets
These 80-year-old images are for your perusal. Official caption: Navajo Code Talkers on Bougainville, December 1943 (left to right, front row): Pvt Earl Johnny, Pvt Kee Etsicitty, Pvt John V. Goodl…
laststandonzombieisland.com
American Indian Code Talkers | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans
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...
Code Talkers Were America's Secret Weapon in World War II
Committed to helping Nahasdzáán, Mother Earth, and the United States, young Diné men joined the Marines and were selected to become code talkers, not knowing they would be tasked with developing and using the Navajo language as a secret weapon.
www.neh.gov
Navajo Code Talkers: World War II Fact Sheet
Additional Resources from the Navy Department Library Navajo Code Talkers Dictionary Navajo Code Talkers: A Select Bibliography
Navajo code talkers photographed in 2005 at Monument Valley, Utah. Photograph by Kenji Kawano.
Though the Navajo code talkers received minimal cryptographic training, they soon devised a code based on word substitution. According to the infographic, the Navajo code and the Navajo men who used it were so efficient that a three-line message that would have taken 30 minutes to send using the old methods could be encoded, sent over open radio channels, and decoded by Navajo code talkers in 20 seconds.
Having shown their worth, Navajo code talkers, eventually numbering in the hundreds, were deployed in all the Marine Corps’ Pacific campaigns from late 1942 on. Again and again, the code talkers’ work proved to be invaluable in helping officers coordinate combat operations. During the first two days of the Battle of Iwo Jima, early in 1945, six code talkers sent and received more than 800 messages without making any errors.
Number of Navajo participants
The infographic provides a graph to help in visualizing how many Navajo men took part in World War II as code talkers. Arrayed in two rows of 40 each are icons of servicemen, each icon representing 5 Navajo marines. In the top row the first 5 icons and most of the 6th appear in a lighter shade of red than the other icons. This represents the first 29 Navajo code talkers. Those men boosted the efficiency and security of military communications so significantly that the Marine Corps eventually employed approximately 400 Navajo code talkers, as represented on the graph by all 80 icons.Navajo code examples
In the code the Navajo marines devised, common military terms in English were assigned a Navajo code word, and the letters of the English alphabet were assigned at least one code word each so that other terms could be spelled out. The code talkers had to memorize more than 400 terms in order to use the code. The infographic provides a table giving examples of those terms. For each example, the table gives a letter of the alphabet or a term in English, the Navajo term substituted for it, and a literal English translation of the Navajo term.The letter A was assigned the Navajo term wol-la-chee, which literally means “ant.”
The letter Z was assigned the term besh-do-tliz, which means “zinc.”
The word accomplish was assigned the term ul-so, which means “all done.”
The word battleship was assigned the term lo-tso, which means “whale.”
The phrase fighter plane was assigned the term da-he-tih-hi, which means “hummingbird.”
The name November was assigned the term nil-chi-tso, which means “big wind.”
The word tank was assigned the term chay-da-gahi, which means “tortoise.”
Other Native American code talkers
The Marine Corps’ Navajo code program was the largest and most systematic of such programs in World War II, but men from other Native American communities serving in other U.S. forces also worked as code talkers. On a map of the United States, the infographic points out the main locations of Native American communities that contributed code talkers to the war effort. They include:- Seminole in Florida
- Cherokee in western North Carolina
- Ojibwa in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
- Menominee and Oneida in eastern Wisconsin
- Sauk and Fox, or Meskwaki, in eastern Iowa
- Dakota- and Lakota-speaking Sioux peoples in North and South Dakota
- Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Pawnee, Kiowa, and Comanche in Oklahoma
- Assiniboin in eastern Montana
- Navajo in northwestern New Mexico and northeastern Arizona
- Hopi in northeastern Arizona
Code talker honored at Montana ceremony
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