Chief Seeks Code Talker Recognition (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Chief Seeks Code Talker Recognition

By Alison Vekshin
Stephens Washington Bureau avekshin at stephensmedia.com
http://www.swtimes.com/archive/2004/September/23/news/chief.html

WASHINGTON — During World War I, 18 soldiers from the Choctaw Nation of
Oklahoma stumped the Germans by using their native language as a code
for relaying U.S. combat information.

The Choctaws made history by being the first American Indian “code
talkers,” a group later expanded to include members of about 20 tribes
who served in World War I and World War II.

But because their work was an official military secret, the now-deceased
Choctaw code talkers were never properly recognized for their efforts,
an oversight that Indian leaders are looking to correct.

Choctaw Chief Gregory Pyle and representatives of other tribes sought
federal recognition for the code talkers at a hearing Wednesday before
the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

“During the darkest hours of our nation’s history, they had tricked the
country’s enemies through the use of their most basic tool, the
language of their forefathers,” Pyle said.

“Their actions were an official military secret, and their service went
unacknowledged,” Pyle told the panel.

The 18 Choctaw men volunteered for the U.S. Army years before American
Indians were recognized as U.S. citizens in 1924. They belonged to 36th
Division and served in France.

When one of their officers overheard them speaking in their native
language, he got the idea to set them up as a separate unit in the
front lines to convey messages over telephone lines in Choctaw.

The Germans, who often tapped the phone lines, had cracked all the codes
used by the Allied forces. But the Choctaw language confounded the
Germans, who failed to recognize and translate it.

“The experiment worked so well that a regimental commander attributed
the success of a delicate, nighttime tactical withdrawal — and again a
major assault on the following day — to the complete surprise achieved
by using the Choctaw language to coordinate operations,” said retired
Brig. Gen. John Brown, U.S. Army chief of military history.

“The idea caught on,” Brown said. “By the end of World War I, Cherokee,
Cheyenne, Comanche, Osage and Yankton soldiers were also serving as
code talkers.”

After the war ended, the U.S. military asked the code talkers to keep
their work a secret so the technique could be used in future military
operations. The Defense Department declassified the use of American
Indian code talkers in 1968.

Congressional medals have been awarded to the Navajo code talkers and
their families, Pyle said. Hundreds of Navajos serving in the Marine
Corps worked as code talkers in World War II and were spotlighted in
the movie, “Windtalkers.”

Pyle said he would like to see the Choctaw recognition come in the form
of a medal to the code talkers’ descendants and a permanent plaque in a
prominent location in Washington.

“We’re going to proceed on all fronts,” said Sen. Ben Nighthorse
Campbell, R-Colo., the committee’s chairman.

He said the panel would work to gain approval for plaques and medals
before Congress adjourns in a couple of weeks.

“We’ve been concerned about this for a long time,” said Sen. James
Inhofe, R-Okla. “This gathering is long overdue.”

Inhofe has introduced a bill that authorizes the presentation of a
congressional gold medal to code talkers from the Choctaw, Comanche,
Sioux and other tribes.

The bill has 24 co-sponsors but needs 67 to be considered by the Senate
Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

The Rev. Bertram Bobb of the Christian Indian Ministries in Antlers,
Okla., a relative of three Choctaw code talkers, also attended the
hearing.

“They were there and did their service and came back and never
advertised (their work),” Bobb said. “A lot of people don’t know they
had a great part in World War I.”

While some family members knew, Bobb said he was never told directly
about his family’s contribution to World War I.

The French government recognized the Choctaw code talkers in 1989 with
the Knight of the National Order of Merit, the country’s second-highest
honor.

The Choctaw Nation has placed a memorial bearing the code talkers’ names
at the entrance to its tribal complex in Durant, Okla.