In honor of Samuel Sandoval, this Musings from Main celebrates Navajo (Diné) Code Talkers. Sandoval was a Navajo Code Talker who served in the US Marines during WWII. With his passing on July 29, 2022, at the age of 98, only three Navajo Code Talkers remain.

Navajo Code Talkers Day
August 14, 2022

The Warriors

In 1941 and 1942, during World War II, the U.S. Marine Corps recruited members of the Navajo (Diné) community to help the military secretly communicate their operational plans. Initially, the Marine Corps recruited twenty-nine Navajos and told them to create a code.  In two weeks they had done it, developed what would be an unbreakable code within their language.  About 420 Navajos served as Code Talkers—the most from any Native group.

The Code

There were two parts to the unbreakable Native Navajo code, Type One Codes and Type Two Codes.  In developing the Type One Code, the original twenty-nine Navajo Code Talkers first came up with English words for each letter of the alphabet. Since they had to memorize all the words, they used things that were familiar to them. Then, they translated those words into Navajo.

This was later expanded upon so that there were three different words for each letter.  This greatly increased the number of word combinations the enemy would hear thus making the code harder to break.

The Irony

In the late 1800s, many American Indian children attended government- or church-operated boarding schools. Families were often forced to send their children to these schools, where they were forbidden to speak their Native languages. Many of the Code Talkers attended these schools and have memories of being punished for speaking their languages. As adults, they must have seen the irony that the same government that had tried to take away their languages in schools now gave them the critical role of speaking their languages in military service.
"They tell us not to speak in the Navajo language because you’re going to school. You’re supposed to only speak English. And that was true. They did practice that and we got punished if you was caught speaking Navajo."
- John Brown Jr., Navajo Code Talker

“When we got out, discharged, they told us this thing that you guys did is going to be a secret. When you get home you don’t talk what you did; don’t tell your people, your parents, family, don’t tell them what your job was. This is going to be a secret; don’t talk about it. Just tell them that you been in the service, defend your country and stuff like that. But, the code, never, never, don’t mention; don’t talk about it. Don’t let other people try to get that out of you what you guys did. And that was our secret for about twenty-five or twenty-six years. Until August 16, 1968. That’s when it was declassified; then it was open. I told my sister, my aunt, all my family what I really did."
-Chester Nez, Navajo Code Talker

 The Secrecy

“When we got out, discharged, they told us this thing that you guys did is going to be a secret. When you get home you don’t talk what you did; don’t tell your people, your parents, family, don’t tell them what your job was. This is going to be a secret; don’t talk about it. Just tell them that you been in the service, defend your country and stuff like that. But, the code, never, never, don’t mention; don’t talk about it. Don’t let other people try to get that out of you what you guys did. And that was our secret for about twenty-five or twenty-six years. Until August 16, 1968. That’s when it was declassified; then it was open. I told my sister, my aunt, all my family what I really did."
-Chester Nez, Navajo Code Talker

From left to right: Albert Smith, Teddy Draper, Sr., Samuel Sandoval, Albert (Jesse) Smith,
Keith Little and Samuel Tso. On Day One of their return visit to the battlefields of the Pacific,
the six Code Talkers paused for a photograph
Many Code Talkers earned medals, during and after the war, but recognition for the special and essential job they did code talking would not come for more than forty years.

One reason that Navajo Code Talkers were not recognized sooner, is the codes that they developed were never broken, and the military wanted to keep them secret in case they were needed again. It wasn’t until 1968 that the program was declassified and the men could talk about the monumental and vital service that they had provided during the war.