Remaining Navajo Code Talkers Share Their Wishes for America: A Glimpse into Their Final Thoughts
In the heart of the American Southwest, a dream is still in the making. The Navajo Code Talkers, a group of over 400 Native American soldiers who played a crucial role in World War II, are campaigning for a museum dedicated solely to their contributions. As of 2023, the project is still tens of millions of dollars out of reach.
The Code Talkers' legacy has been marked by challenges, including the deletion of webpages documenting their service by the Pentagon in 2021. However, their impact on the war effort cannot be understated. The Navajo Code Talkers developed an extensive and complicated code based on their own language, substituting key military and geographical terms for related images. This ingenious system allowed US troops to organize their movements without the enemy's knowledge, a secret that was never cracked by the Japanese.
The story of the Navajo Code Talkers began with Philip Johnston, an engineer and the son of a missionary, who proposed the idea of using the Navajo language as a code to the Marines. His idea was put into action, and the Code Talkers were born. Among the surviving members is Thomas Begay, a Navajo Code Talker who served in the 5th Marine Division during World War II.
The Code Talker program remained classified until 1968, and even after declassification, the Code Talkers were sworn to secrecy about their service. It wasn't until years later that Begay's family learned of his wartime service.
The proposed National Navajo Code Talker Museum remains in the planning stages, facing significant financial challenges. The project is estimated to require tens of millions of dollars to become a reality, which has been a major obstacle to its development. While there are small exhibits dedicated to the Navajo Code Talkers in museums such as those in Tuba City, Arizona, and Gallup, New Mexico, a comprehensive museum specifically for the Code Talkers is not yet operational.
Efforts to establish such a museum continue, with the aim of recognizing the significant contributions of the Navajo Code Talkers to U.S. military efforts during World War II. In 2017, MacDonald and the surviving Code Talkers expressed a desire to ensure the memory of their accomplishments was kept alive. MacDonald, who served as the Navajo Nation chairman for four terms and had a long post-war career, believes that the Code Talkers' contribution to American history is not fully understood and needs to be remembered.
The Code Talkers faced discrimination during and after the war. They were often mistaken for Japanese soldiers and confronted by U.S. troops. MacDonald, who was sentenced to jail time in 1990 on federal and tribal charges, including bribery and racketeering, expressed anger over the Pentagon's DEI purge and the lack of progress on the museum project.
Despite these challenges, the Code Talkers' legacy lives on. National Navajo Code Talker Day, an annual celebration created by President Ronald Reagan in 1982, serves as a reminder of their invaluable service. The hope remains that one day, the Code Talkers will have a museum to call their own, a place where their story can be told in full and their contributions can be recognised for generations to come.
[1] Source: Navajo Nation Code Talker Museum Project [3] Source: Navajo Nation Museum, Tuba City, Arizona
Read also:
- Weekly happenings in the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag)
- Southwest region's most popular posts, accompanied by an inquiry:
- Discussion between Putin and Trump in Alaska could potentially overshadow Ukraine's concerns
- Massive 8.8 earthquake hits off the coast of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, prompting Japan to issue a tsunami alert.
