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| The Code Talker Alphabet |
Code Talker, a classified group with a little over 400 Native American recruits, developed an indecipherable code that allowed for fast communication over open radio and telephone waves. It was originally proposed by Philip Johnston, an Indian who grew up on a Navajo reservation. Like nearly all over Native American languages, the Navajo language had no alphabet, furthering the difficulty of breaking the code. Because there were no Navajo words for military terms, a list of over 400 hybrid terms such as besh-lo (literal meaning: "iron fish", code meaning: "submarine") and debeh-li-zine (literal meaning: "black street", code meaning: "squad") were created and carefully memorized by the Code Talkers.
For the basics of the code, the Americans would use Navajo terms in which when translated into English, would spell out one of the twenty-six letters in the alphabet. For example, for the letter "C", they would use maosi, which translates to "Cat", which also starts with the letter "C".
Can you decipher this code?
No-da-ih dibeh lin wol-la-chee bi-sodih tkin dibeh ma-e no-da-ih nesh-chee.
The 29 original recruits created these code rules using visuals they were given, making sure to maintain a balance between absolute security and ease in translation for the Code Talkers. Efficiency was key, but so was keeping the code's secret, which would be essential to the United States' victory.
Because the Code Talker program was classified, the Code Talkers were not praised or welcomed home with parades celebrating their role after the war. Even when the program was declassified in 1968, the Code Talkers' roles were not widely shared. In 1982, President Reagan declared August 14 as National Code Talkers Day to honor over 400 Code Talkers who risked their language and their lives for the sake of the war.
"This language was given to us by the Holy People. I don’t know how many thousand years ago. We use it for they, to help win for the United States.”—John Brown Jr., Navajo Code Talker.
Sources:
https://americanindian.si.edu/education/codetalkers/html/chapter4.html
https://americanindian.si.edu/education/codetalkers/html/chapter7.html
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2018/07/11/navajo-code-talker-facts-unbreakable-code/460262002/
I found this post regarding the general usage and summary of the Code Talkers very interesting and a surprising way of using native language during the war effort. Something I looked into was the original idea and environment that led to the creation of such Code Talkers. During WWII, almost every western code was being cracked and deciphered by Japanese forces. In response, in 1942 a Native American WWI veteran named Philip Johnson proposed the new system of code after reading a news article regarding native American hand signalling being used in the war. Even after being approved, the process to become and maintain the status of a Code Talker was difficult. Initial trials and tests for Navajo soldiers occurred at Camp Elliot, where only four soldiers were admitted. Even after they were admitted, the soldiers would go through regular qualifications and go through 7-week long training courses.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2018/07/11/navajo-code-talker-facts-unbreakable-code/460262002/
It is somewhat ironic to think that the US used Native American languages as code when they have been oppressing Natives ever since the colonists arrived on the continent. Nonetheless, it is a genius tactic that was better than making a code for English (which could be easily deciphered) because of the fact that the Native languages only existed in the US.
ReplyDeletehttps://americanindian.si.edu/education/codetalkers/html/chapter4.html