A brief history of Native American Code Talkers in WWI and WWII.
Transcript
Many Americans have heard of the Navajo code talkers and their heroic actions in the pacific theater during World War Two. At the beginning of the war, 29 Navajos trained at Camp Elliot where these warriors developed a radio code based on their native language. First tested on Guadalcanal, the code proved successful. And by wars end, over 400 Navajos served as code talkers in the United States Marine Corps. In the European Theater, from the first hours of D Day throughout the end of the war in Europe, Comanche Native Americans used their ancestral language to communicate in secret with the allies. In fact, the first messages received from the beaches of Normandy on D Day were transmitted in Comanche. By wars end, men from Navajo, Comanche, Cree, Kiowa, Hopi, and seminal tribes, served in the U.S. Army and Marines as code talkers. But the code talkers story actually started over one hundred years ago on the french battle fields of World War One.
For the men on the front line, getting important messages from the trenches back to their commanders in a timely manner meant running miles of communication line throughout the battlefields and to the rear headquarters. When connected to field telephones, these communication wires provided fast communication to the rear. However, these systems were far from perfect. The wires were often cut by incoming artillery fire, rendering them useless until repaired by members of the Signal Corps., often in dangerous, exposed locations. Even when in working order, using the communication lines had a very serious draw back. The Germans easily spliced into the lines, enabling them to hear all of the Allied plans. Although the Allies created secret codes, they were easily broken by the Germans, and secrecy was rarely achieved for long. Something had to be done. The answer lay in a company of Native Americans serving in the 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Division. Although still not considered U.S. citizens by the government, these brave men had volunteered to fight the great war as soldiers in the U.S. Army. 19 Choctaw soldiers worked together to develop a code based on their indigenous language. A language they had been forbidden to speak aloud by the U.S. government since being forced to attend Native American boarding schools as young boys. Fortunately, the Choctaw men had retained their cultural identity and language. And by late October 1917, their new code was being used on the battlefields of the Western Front. Although Germans listened intently, they were unable to break the code. It proved so effective that the Army continued to enlist other tribes as Code Talkers. By the end of the war, men from Choctaw, Cheyenne, Comanche, Cherokee, Osage and Sioux tribes had enlisted as Code Talkers in the United States military.