Many who love military history are aware of the Navajo Code Talkers who made a huge impact for the Allies in World War II. Members of the Navajo Nation, called Code Talkers, helped coordinate the American military efforts using a code based on the Navajo language. A language with no alphabet or symbols that proved unbreakable in WWII. Japanese code breakers never got close. Deployed mostly in the Pacific theater, many Marine commanders came to trust their Code Talkers so much that they refused to share sensitive information with anybody else. Many believe that the Navajo contribution helped turn the tide and allowed for a more efficient victory for Allied Forces. But did you know, they were not the first Native Americans to contribute a code in a world war?
Choctaw/American History
The Choctaw Nation had been settled in the Mississippi River Valley for about 1800 years before European contact. They are known as a matriarchal society and placed a great emphasis on gender equality. Other tribal features were their penchant for building large mounds for communication, ceremonies, festivals, and worship (some reaching 50 feet in height), their practice of head-flattening (having a child strap a board, or occasionally a bag of sand, to their head so that as the skull grew it would become flatter), and their Green Corn Festival (held at harvest time each summer or fall when the maize became ripe).
The Choctaw are listed as one of the “Five Civilized Tribes” of the southeastern United States. Although they allied with the US during the War of 1812, they were not exempt from the fate faced by other North American tribes and were eventually pressured to cede 5,000,000 acres of land to the American government.
After the passing of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, it was a Choctaw Chief who coined the phrase “Trail of Tears” to describe the forced relocation to present-day Oklahoma. Although nearly 20,000 Choctaw were removed from their original lands, only about 7,000 lived through the trip to see the new Indian Territory. Then, during the Civil War, the Choctaw sided with the Confederates. As punishment, the victorious Union allowed white settlers to live on Choctaw lands. Eventually, they were forced to give up another 15,000,000 acres.
Native Americans from numerous tribes have served alongside and within the American military, with distinction, since before the US was even the US. However, most scholars consider the Choctaw to be the first “code talkers”.
Code Talking in World War I
The practice of using Native American languages as military code began in WWI. Previous codes proved ineffective once intercepted because the Germans were able to speak excellent English. This was a problem in need of solving and one American officer, Colonel Alfred Wainwright Bloor, was up to the task.
While serving in the 142nd Infantry in France alongside a number of American Indians, Colonel Bloor overheard a conversation between two members of the Choctaw Nation. Realizing that he could not understand them, he reasoned that Germans would not understand them either.
After enlisting the Choctaw soldiers to his cause, Colonel Bloor tested his theory by using the native language in place of regular military code on October 26, 1918 to order the withdrawal of two companies of the 2nd Battalion from Chufilly to Chardeny. After the successful movement, Bloor commented, "The enemy's complete surprise is evidence that he could not decipher the messages". A captured German officer confirmed they were "completely confused by the Indian language and gained no benefit whatsoever" from their wiretaps.
The Choctaw Code Talkers were very clever. As with many native languages, there were often not direct translations to specific military terminology. So, the Choctaws improvised! Ther code included the use of the native word for "big gun" to describe "artillery" and "little gun shoot fast" for "machine gun."
Codetalkers
The 19 known men (listed after this article) who served as the country’s first codetalkers were either full-blooded or mixed blood Choctaw and had been born in what is now southeastern Oklahoma. Although they received little recognition after the war, there was a mention of their contribution in a newspaper article in 1919 about soldiers returning from France:
"New York, May 31.-When the steamship Louisville arrived here today from Brest [France] with 1,897 troops on board, considerable attention was attracted by a detail of 50 Indian soldiers under the command of Captain [Elijah W.] Horner of Mena, Ark. These Indians have to their credit a unique achievement in frustrating German wire tappers. Under the command of Chief George Baconrid, an Indian from the Osage reservation, they transmitted orders in Choctaw, a language not included in German war studies."
— Arkansas Gazette, Sunday, June 1, 1919
The Choctaw themselves did not call themselves “codetalkers”, that phrase not originating until WWII. In describing their wartime activities to family members, at least one member of the group, Tobias W. Frazier always used the phrase, "talking on the radio".
Their contribution faded to history in light of the more popular Navajo codetalkers of WWII but these original men have been posthumously recognized. In 1986, the men were awarded Choctaw Medals of Valor at a special ceremony hosted by the Choctaw government followed in 1989 by the Fifth Republic's Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Merite (Knight of the National Order of Merit) in France. In 1995, a section of granite of the Choctaw War Memorial, erected at the Choctaw Capitol Building in Tuskahoma, Oklahoma, was dedicated to the Choctaw Code Talkers.
On November 15, 2008, President George W. Bush signed The Code Talkers Recognition Act of 2008, recognizing every Native American code talker who served in the United States military during World War I or World War II, with the exception of the already-awarded Navajo. Each representing tribe received a Congressional Gold Medal, to be retained by the Smithsonian Institution, and each codetalker received a silver medal duplicate.
Known Choctaw Codetalkers
Albert Billy (October 8, 1885– May 29, 1959)
Mitchell Bobb (January 7, 1895-December 1921)
Victor Brown (1896–1966)
Ben Carterby (December 11, 1891 – February 6, 1953)
Benjamin Franklin Colbert (September 15, 1900-January 1964)
George Edwin Davenport (April 28, 1887 - April 17, 1950)
Joseph Harvey Davenport ( February 22, 1892-April 23, 1923)
James (Jimpson) Morrison Edwards (October 6, 1898 – October 13, 1962)
Tobias William Frazier (August 7, 1892– November 22, 1975)
Benjamin Wilburn Hampton (May 31, 1892-?)
Noel Johnson (August 25, 1894-?)
Otis Wilson Leader (March 6, 1882-?)
Solomon Bond Louis (April 22, 1898 – February 15, 1972)
Pete Maytubby (September 26, 1892-1964)
Jeff Nelson (unknown)
Joseph Oklahombi (May 1, 1895 – April 13, 1960)
Robert Taylor (January 13, 1894-?)
Charles Walter Veach (May 18, 1884 – October 13, 1966)
Calvin Wilson (June 25, 1894-?)
Learn more about the Choctaw Codetalkers at these sites:
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