Navajo Code Talkers

The young Navajo marines using the ancient Navajo language, encrypted in military terms helped the U.S. prevail at Iwo Jima and other WorldWar11 pacific fronts. The code, transmitted by radio helped save countless lives and brought a speedier end to the war. A code so complex even the other Navajo Marines couldn’t understand it. The code remained secret and unclassified for decades after the war because of it’s potential post war use.

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“We were told that our code was never decoded.” said 85 year old Keith Littles. “It was all covered in secrecy. We were constantly told not to talk about it.” The Code Talkers felt compelled to honor their secrecy orders, even after the code was declassified in 1968. Many of the Code Talkers were young farmers and sheep herders who had never been away from home. Samuel Tom Holiday, 85, of Kayenta, Arizona was a 20 year old Code Talker when he and two other Marines went behind enemy lines on Iwo Jima to locate a Japanese artillery unit advancing on American troops. When they located the Japanese artillery, Holiday transmitted a message to the Marines in code who promptly fired off artillery which took the Japanese out. “right on target” Holiday coded back.

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Before the Navajo code, the Japanese intercepted the U.S. Military messages at an alarming rate because they had English translators. The Navajo Code Talkers changed that. What most confounded the Japanese was that they used distinctly different words for the same messages. They based the code on the ancient Navajo language. In the first hours of of the Battle of Iwo Jima, six Code Talkers worked nonstop transmitting and receiving more than 800 messages about troop movement and enemy fire, none deciphered by the Japanese.

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Recognition and awareness from the U.S. government of the Code Talkers has been slow coming. It wasn’t until 2002 that the Congressional Gold Medal was bestowed on the survivors of the original 29 Code Talkers and silver medals bestowed on the others. Only about 50 of the 400 original Code Talkers survive. Most live on the Navajo Nation reservation that is in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. They only have a little time left to tell the story of their part in winning the war.”Our language was used to help win the war,” said Holiday, “After we are gone, there will be no one to tell the story.”

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