The Navajo Code Talker

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The Navajo Language On September 11, 2001 the world watched as the lives of many regardless of age, race, gender, and ethnicity changed as we witnessed a terror attack unfold on our homeland, the United States of America. The graphic images of the twin towers collapsing and an airline jet plane crashing into the Pentagon portrayed an image of what the American Indian’s must have seen as the Unites States Government (USG) made advances on their ancestral lands, threatening their very livelihood. As a direct result of conflicts with the USG, American Indians were relocated to reservations, where they suffered poverty, racism, and termination of their culture, traditions, and language. Despite their tragic history, the American Indian Soldiers …show more content…
Philip Johnston. Mr. Johnston, the son of Protestant missionaries, who grew up on the Navajo reservation justified that the Navajo language would be effective because it was unwritten. In addition to an unrecorded language, the complexity of the Navajo language made it difficult for anyone “outside” the tribe to learn and communicate with the language. The USMC was at first reluctant to use the Navajo language as code talking was originally pioneered by the Choctaw Indians serving in the United States (U.S.) Army during World War I. At the end of World War I, European countries sent students to the United States to study American Indian culture and languages. Despite concerns, the USMC approved a pilot program enlisting 29 Navajo’s and allowing them to participate in the program. The Navajo recruits began developing the unbreakable code by taking common words from the Navajo language and applying them to implements of war. For example, the name for different types of birds were selected as the naming convention of military aircraft. Additionally, the Code Talkers developed cryptographic terms representing each letter of the alphabet. To ensure the security of the code, several different words were chosen to represent the more commonly used letters of the alphabet. An example is provided by the Naval History and Heritage Command for the alphabet …show more content…
I don’t know what they mean by that at the time, but later on I decided, oh, they give me a promotion from PFC, and from then on I don’t bother with it (Smith, 2009, pg. 97).
If the Japanese would have won…I wonder what life would be like? This is the question that most people, not just American’s probably ask themselves as they comb through rusty history books. For the Navajo Code Talkers, it was going above and beyond the call of duty. Their job entailed the ability to communicate in English and Navajo fluently, in addition to knowing the Navajo Code inside-out without a written reference. The Navajo Code Talkers, from recruitment through the occupation of Japan, were there every step of the way.
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