Jennifer Bohnhoff
  • Home
  • Upcoming Events, Presentations, and Classroom Visits
  • In the Shadow of Sunrise
  • Summer of the Bombers
  • Rebels Along the Rio Grande Series
  • A Blaze of Poppies
  • On Fledgling Wings
  • The Bent Reed
  • Code: Elephants on the Moon
  • The Anderson Chronicles
  • The Last Song of the Swan
  • Raven Quest
  • Thin Air: My Blog About Writing and My Books
  • Store

Code Talkers: Heroes of the Spoken Word

10/31/2024

0 Comments

 
As we enter November, it is fitting that we remember the American soldiers who fought for our freedom. Some of them fought not with guns and grenades, but with words. Our code talkers helped the Army keep its secrets, so that more of our soldiers came home to be Veterans, recognized on Veterans Day, November 11.

What we call Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, the day that World War I officially ended in 1918.

At the time that the United States entered World War I in 1917, one-third of the Native population was not recognized by the U.S. government as American citizens. Despite this fact, 12,000 Native Americans volunteered for military service. Some Native Soldiers joined to gain respect as warriors. Others joined because they believed it would prove their patriotism and help them receive citizenship, or to seek a better life for themselves and their families. Few knew that their Native languages would play an important role in the Great War.
Code talking began in World War I, after the U.S. Army realized that the Germans were able to quickly intercept and translate messages sent in plain English. In September 1918, during the Second Battle of the Somme, the 105th Field Artillery Battalion, 30th Infantry Division used a group of Eastern Band Cherokees, to send messages between Allied troops in their Native language. The Germans were not able to translate these messages, keeping the Allied force’s locations and intentions secret. Although this is the earliest documented use of Native Code Talkers by the U.S. Army, anecdotal evidence suggests the Ho-Chunk used their Native language in code in early 1918.

​The Cherokee Code Talkers continued their work until the end of the war. Soldiers from the Assiniboine, Comanche, Crow, Hopi, Lakota, Meskwaki (also known as Fox Indians), Mohawk, Choctaw, Seminole, Creek and Tlingit nations were also used. Col. Alfred Wainwright Bloor, commander of the 142nd Infantry, 36th Infantry Division, later stated that his regiment, possessed a company of Indians who spoke twenty-six different languages or dialects, only four or five of which were ever written. This made it almost impossible for Germans to translate.
Picture
Choctaw code talkers in training during World War I (Photo: Oklahoma Historical Society)
The best documented group of World War I Code Talkers are the 16 Choctaw Soldiers from the 142nd and the two from the 143rd Infantries. During an attack that ran from October 26 to 28, 1918, Colonel Bloor had these coordinate attacks, including an artillery attack that took the Germans by surprise and resulted in a much-needed victory for the 36th Infantry Division.

The most famous of the World War I Native Code Talkers was Pvt. Joseph Oklahombi a Choctaw Code Talker with Company D, 1st Battalion, 141st Regiment. During October 1918, Oklahombi and the 23 fellow soldiers in his company came across a German machine gun nest while they were cut off behind enemy lines. Oklahombi and his company rushed to the enemy’s position, captured it, and used the captured machine gun to pin down the enemy. Four days later, the 171 German soldiers surrendered. Oklahombi was awarded the World War I Victory Medal and a Silver Citation Star for his bravery, and France awarded him the Croix de Guerre.
Picture
Joseph Oklahombi in uniform, sitting with John Golombie and Czarina Colbert Conlan at Oklahombi’s home near Wright City, Oklahoma, May 12, 1921. Photographer: Hopkins | Oklahoma Historical Society
The use of Native Americans as Code Talkers did not end when World War I ended. Several hundred Navajo served as Code Talkers in World War II, many in the Pacific Their language proved unintelligible and unbreakable for Japanese cryptographers, and their radio transmissions were much faster than standard machine-aided shackle encryption. Bill H. Toledo was just 18 years old when he enlisted in the Marine Corps. The Torreon, New Mexico native joined with his uncle Frank Toledo and his cousin Preston Toledo in October 1942. All three would become Code Talkers.
Picture
Navajo code talkers Preston and Frank Toledo (Photo: National Archives) Photographer: Ashman.
Toledo first showed how valuable the Navajo Code was on Bougainville. He also sent messages on Guam and Iwo Jima before he earned enough points to return to the states. Serving was not easy. Some of his fellow Marines made racist comments about Native Americans. After the Battle of Bougainville, when a Marine mistook him for a Japanese soldier wearing a captured American uniform and nearly killed him, Toledo was also assigned a bodyguard.  

As they had in World War I, other tribes continued to serve as Code Talkers in World War II. 
Picture
Comanche code talkers during World War II (Photo: U.S. Army)
Not all soldiers fight with guns and grenades.Words, too, can be a powerful tool in war. But words were not enough for the Native Soldiers who joined to gain the respect of their fellow Americans in the hope that they would receive citizenship. They would have to wait for legal actions. The Snyder Act, also known as the Indian Citizenship Act, which conferred citizenship on Native American people, didn't pass until June 2, 1924, and Native American's right to vote in U.S. elections wasn't recognized until 1948, in the landmark case of Trujillo v. Garley, when an Isleta Puebloan from New Mexico sued for the right to vote. Utah became the last state to remove formal barriers, when they did so in 1962. Still, some states have voter ID laws which require an ID with a physical address. Many people living on reservations do not have physical addresses, only post office boxes. 

This Veteran's Day, let's remember those soldiers who did not fight with guns, but with words, and all the others who fought to protect freedoms that they did not share in.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is a retired educator who now writes historical fiction for middle grade through adult readers. You can read about her and her books here, on her website. 
0 Comments
    Picture

    ABout Jennifer Bohnhoff

    I am a former middle school teacher who loves travel and history, so it should come as no surprise that many of my books are middle grade historical novels set in beautiful or interesting places.  But not all of them.  I hope there's one title here that will speak to you personally and deeply.

    What I love most: that "ah hah" moment when a reader suddenly understands the connections between himself, the past, and the world around him.  Those moments are rarified, mountain-top experiences.



    Can't get enough of Jennifer Bohnhoff's blogs?  She's also on Mad About MG History.  

    ​
    Looking for more books for middle grade readers? Greg Pattridge hosts MMGM, where you can find loads of recommendations.

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    A Blaze Of Poppies
    Ambrose Bierce
    Animal Stories
    Baking
    Baking Mixes
    Baltimore
    Baseball
    Beowulf
    Biography
    Bobbed Hair
    Cemeteries
    Chocolate
    Christmas
    Civil War
    Classic Western Writer
    Code Talkers
    Cookies
    Cowgirls
    D Day
    Dickens
    Drummer Boy
    Educators
    Exclusion
    Famous Americans
    Famous Women
    Fathers Day
    Feisty Women
    Fiction
    Folsom
    Fort Craig
    France
    Gabriel Rene Paul
    George McJunkin
    Gettysburg
    Ghost Story
    Glorieta
    Graphic Novels
    Great Depression
    Hampton Sides
    Hiking
    Historical Fiction
    Historical Novels
    History
    Horses
    Howitzer
    Isle Royale
    Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
    Juvenile Novels
    Karen Cushman
    Kit Carson
    Lewis And Clark
    Lindenmeier
    Middle Ages
    Middle Grade
    Middle Grade Fiction
    Middle Grade Novels
    Mother's Day
    Muffins
    Mules
    Museums
    Nanowrimo
    Native Americans
    Nazi
    Neanderthal
    New Mexico
    New Mexico History
    Normandy
    Paddy Graydon
    Pancho Villa
    Poetry
    Poets Corner
    Pony Express
    Poppies
    Prejudice
    Presidents
    Pumpkin Bread
    Punitive Expedition
    Race
    Rebels Along The Rio Grande
    Religious Persecution
    Sacajawea
    Scottish Americans
    Sleepy Hollow
    Song Writers
    Southwest
    Sports
    Spur Award
    St. Bernard Pass
    Swiss Alps
    The Last Song Of The Swan
    The Worst Enemy
    Travel
    Valentines Day
    Valverde
    Vichy Regime
    Western Writers Of America
    Where Duty Calls
    Wildfires
    World War 1
    World War Ii
    World War Two
    Writing
    Ya
    YA Fiction

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014


Web Hosting by iPage