Code Talking during the
Second World War
Despite everything that American Indians had endured in the past, many of them served in the United States military during World War I and especially World War II, during the Pacific War.
In 1940, the Army recruited different American Indian tribes such as the Comanches, Choctaws, Hopis and Cherokees. The Code Talkers’ role in war required bravery, intelligence, memory skills and precision since they had to encrypt and decrypt communications in front line operations.
The marine Corps recruited Navajo Code Talkers in 1941 and 1942 and a key figure at this time was Philip Johnston, a World War I veteran who had grown up on the Navajo reservation and suggested to the Marine Corps that the help of Navajos and other tribes could be essential in maintaining communications secrecy. After a demonstration of messages sent in the Navajo language, the Marine Corps recruited 29 Navajos to develop a code within their language.
After the Navajo Code was developed, soldiers and officers had to attend a Code Talking school. Eventually, as the war progressed, more than 400 Navajos were recruited as Code Talkers (many of them were very young, so they had to lie about their age to join the army).
Constructing the Code
The Navajos, together with other tribes, developed two strategies.
The first one consisted in having a Navajo word for each letter of the English Alphabet. Since they had to memorize all the words, they used familiar things, such as kinds of animals.
The second strategy concerned war terms: the Navajos had to develop special words for types of planes, ships or weapons because they didn’t have a word for tanks or submarines. As an example, for tank the Code Talkers decided to use the word a wakaree´e, that means turtle in Comanche words. (“It has a hard shell and it moves, so it’s just like a turtle.”)
The spy plane was Ne-as-jah (Owl).
This task was not the easiest, not only for the soldiers, who had to learn and remember all these words and new codes, but also for the Navajos, who went through a difficult training.
But how could the Navajos, Comanches, Choctaws, Hopis and Cherokees memorize such a complex code so quickly? Carl Gorman, one of the 29 Navajos who were given the mission of developing the Navajo code, answered the question: “For us, everything is memory, it’s part of our heritage. We have no written language. Our songs, our prayers, our stories, they’re all handed down from grandfather to father to children—and we listen, we hear, we learn to remember everything. It’s part of our training.” (Power of a Navajo: Carl Gorman, the Man and His Life, by Henry and Georgia Greenberg,1996)
These people with their precious languages served proudly and their help was crucial in several important campaigns, saving thousands of American and allies’ lives. Their work and participation has been recognized by several US Presidents over the years.
The first one consisted in having a Navajo word for each letter of the English Alphabet. Since they had to memorize all the words, they used familiar things, such as kinds of animals.
The second strategy concerned war terms: the Navajos had to develop special words for types of planes, ships or weapons because they didn’t have a word for tanks or submarines. As an example, for tank the Code Talkers decided to use the word a wakaree´e, that means turtle in Comanche words. (“It has a hard shell and it moves, so it’s just like a turtle.”)
The spy plane was Ne-as-jah (Owl).
This task was not the easiest, not only for the soldiers, who had to learn and remember all these words and new codes, but also for the Navajos, who went through a difficult training.
But how could the Navajos, Comanches, Choctaws, Hopis and Cherokees memorize such a complex code so quickly? Carl Gorman, one of the 29 Navajos who were given the mission of developing the Navajo code, answered the question: “For us, everything is memory, it’s part of our heritage. We have no written language. Our songs, our prayers, our stories, they’re all handed down from grandfather to father to children—and we listen, we hear, we learn to remember everything. It’s part of our training.” (Power of a Navajo: Carl Gorman, the Man and His Life, by Henry and Georgia Greenberg,1996)
These people with their precious languages served proudly and their help was crucial in several important campaigns, saving thousands of American and allies’ lives. Their work and participation has been recognized by several US Presidents over the years.