Posted on 09/06/2007 1:49:49 PM PDT by Racehorse
CAMP MABRY, Texas (Sept. 6, 2007) – The Texas Military Forces will honor the Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I during events here at the Brig. Gen. John C.L. Scribner Texas Military Forces Museum Sept. 16 beginning at 2 p.m.
Less well known than the Navajo Code Talkers in the Pacific theater of operations in World War II, the Choctaws pioneered the U.S. military’s use of a Native American language to baffle enemy code-breakers.
Lt. Gen. Charles G. Rodriguez, Adjutant General of Texas, will present 18 Lone Star Medals of Valor to the families of the Choctaw Code Talkers. In addition to family members, the chief, assistant chief and other delegates from the Choctaw Nation, headquartered in Durant, Okla., are expected to attend. Following the presentation, the Choctaw Nation’s chaplain will bless the museum’s Code Talkers exhibit.
During World War I, 16 Choctaw Soldiers were members of the 143rd Infantry Regiment and two were members of the 141st Infantry Regiment, both part of the Texas National Guard’s 36th Infantry Division. While on the Western Front in France, an officer overheard two Choctaw Soldiers talking to each other in their own language. Since American units had suffered losses because the Germans were able to listen to their radio and telephone conversations, the thought struck him that none of the Germans would understand the Choctaws’ language.
Eighteen Choctaws were quickly trained to become communicators. They developed a code that used Choctaw words for certain military terms and were assigned to different headquarters. During the German’s major 1918 offensive in the Meuse-Argonne region, their communications resulted in a successful counterattack against the Germans, whose offensive – their last – ultimately failed.
The Lone Star Medal of Valor, the second highest decoration awarded by Texas Military Forces, will be the first U.S. military medal to recognize the service of the Choctaw Code Talkers.
Also on Sept. 16, beginning at 10 a.m., the Texas Army National Guard will have a change of command ceremony. Space will be reserved on the reviewing stand for the Choctaw delegation.
Code-talker alert...:)
Oh my, just saw this is referring to World War I, oh my...
Got choctaw points?
” During World War I, 16 Choctaw Soldiers “
This is really news to me and I suspect most people. This is a great honor and more Americans should be aware of this.
Interesting. All I’ve heard of were the Navajos.
Wow.....I have never heard of the Choctaw code talkers.
And in WWI no less.
Very interesting Dita & thanks for the ping!
This is mostly unknown and unheard of in our American history. I thought Indian code was a WW2 tactic—not WW1.
Recently the last WW2 code talker from this area (Iowa) died. I was not aware that tribes other than Navajo had been used.
And I thought I knew American history.
Well done!
My old hometown newspaper, The Ponca City News (of Ponca City, OK)
did carry an article on some of the Native American “code-talkers”
that were outside the Navaho group.
This was a couple of years ago...and I can’t remember the exact tribal
association of the code-talkers profiled.
Wasn’t a movie made about this? And if so, does anyone remember the name of it? I would like to see it, if one exists.
As World War I drew to a close, the United States had a continuing problem of phone calls being intercepted by German forces. One could be fairly certain that a German spy would hear any telephone call made. Unfortunately, voice-scrambling technology wouldn’t be invented for decades. The United States came up with several inventive solutions to the problem, but unfortunately none of them worked for any length of time.
First, the Army tried trench codes. They worked for a time, but after they had been in use for a while, the Germans readily cracked them. Another solution, sending messengers between camps, failed because Germans captured about one in four.
So, what was the Army to do? One smart commander, Captain Lewis, realized that the languages used by American Indians are extremely complex and difficult to learn. He capitalized on the complexity as a code, employing eight Choctaw Indians during the Mousse-Argonne campaign, which turned out as the final German push of the war.
The Indians:
* Solomon Lewis
* Mitchell Bobb
* Ben Carterby
* Robert Taylor
* Jeff Nelson
* Pete Maytubby
* James Edwards
* Calvin Wilson
Simply put, the Indians were stationed at command posts, and spoke all important telephone calls in their native language, translating from and into English for their commanders. German intelligence wasn’t able to figure out what the new American code was or to even think about breaking it.
Within 24 hours of the United States starting to use Choctow Indians language as a form of encryption, the tides of war changed in favor of the United States. Within 72 hours, the Germans were in retreat.
The Choctow weren’t used again in an unclassified military effort (other data may still be classified). However, the Navajo tribe was utilized in World War II, where they had equal effectiveness at stumping German cryptographers.
Since Choctaws didn’t receive U.S. citizenship until 1924 they could not be drafted. Everyone of them was a volunteer.
I also have some choctaw blood in me, but not sure how much.
bump
re: movie
Yes, there was a movie a few years ago with Nicholas Cage called “Windtalkers” (2002) about the WWII version of using Navajo “code talkers” in the Pacific:
Here’s the official US Navy page on the code talkers:
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-2.htm
Here’s some info on the movie:
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1805535156/details
On December 8, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan. For the next several years, U.S. forces were fully engaged in battle throughout the Pacific, taking over islands one by one in a slow progression towards mainland Japan. During this brutal campaign, the Japanese were continually able to break coded military transmissions, dramatically slowing U.S. progress. In 1942, several hundred Navajo Americans were recruited as Marines and trained to use their language as code. Marine Joe Enders is assigned to protect Ben Yahzee - a Navajo code talker, the Marines’ new secret weapon. Enders’ orders are to protect his code talker, but if Yahzee should fall into enemy hands, he’s to “protect the code at all costs.” Against the backdrop of the horrific Battle of Saipan, when capture is imminent, Enders is forced to make a decision: if he can’t protect his fellow Marine, can he bring himself to kill him to protect the code?
Production Status: Released
Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama and War
Running Time: 2 hrs. 14 min.
Release Date: June 14, 2002 Nationwide
MPAA Rating: R for pervasive graphic war violence, and for language.
Distributors:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM)
Production Co.:
Saturn Films, Lion Rock Productions
Studios:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), United Artists Films
Financiers:
Lender: Boy Wonder Visual Effects, Mainichi Broadcasting
U.S. Box Office: $40,911,830
Filming Locations:
Hawaii, USA
Los Angeles, California, USA
Produced in: United States
Thanks so much for posting about the movie! I never would have found that. I definitely want to see it.
Thanks txflake. I can’t believe there hasn’t been an email put out about this to us.
I just thought about something. One of my people is 1/4 Choctaw Indian.
can he bring himself to kill him to protect the code?
Movie furthers myth that they were expendable to protect code. According to an interview, the Code Talker thought
that the myth was born from battlefield expediant of escorting CTs by other Marines to prevent mistaken
identity and attendant shoot or capture by
other Marines.
Greetings, Dubya;
Can you give me the source for the picture you posted?
I’m preparing a Schedule of Events page for the museum and think I might want to use it, if I can get permission.
Regards and thanks,
R.
The picture is on the website of the Choctaw Nation. You should probably approach them for permissions.
Thanks.
Got a url?
I’m not lazy, just lazy-eyed, apparently. I’ve looked for both images in this thread on their website and have not stumbled onto them.
Maybe in the morning I’ll see Oklahoma without my UT blinders. :-)
Best,
R.
It would have beenb harder during WWII. Command of the language faded away rather quickly after the whites dissolved the nations.
Funny thing....I grew up the town of Choctaw & never heard of these code talkers. Go figure!
Some may have been Chickasaw, because both nations spoke the same language. Notice only two have non-Anglo names. By 1940, I guess that it would have been harder to round up speakers of the language. Knowledge of it quickly faded.
No publicity. Almost a hundred years have passed and just now the recognition. Probably some indian leaders dug it up.
Who knows. I might not be here if it were not for these Choctaw. My grandfather was a Captain in the 143rd, 36th Division, and served in France during WWI.
bump
I've been reading a lot of Tony Hillerman books, picking up a few Navajo words, and it occurs to me that the Japanese must have been thoroughly confused when hearing the Navajo code talkers for the first time. When Navajo is being spoken, it can sound a bit like Japanese.
BTTT
There were Choctaw Code Talkers in WW2. My mother’s first language was Choctaw. By 1940, I imagine most were still speaking Choctaw, as most of my older relatives grew up speaking it. It was probably my generation where it started to fade, but the Choctaw Nation is actively trying to teach it to the younger ones so that it doesn’t die out.
In WW2, there were Hopi, Choctaw, Comanche, Kiowa, Winnebago, Seminole along with the Navajo. History as pertains to Indians is often overlooked, just as too many get their sole information from movies and television.
My mother is Chickasaw, and although she was born early in ther last century, she grew up without the language. The Chickasaw nation is smaller and in any case she went to board school with youngsters of other nations. Soi the common language was English. The Chickasaws are also trying to save the language —ours, since we are cousins—but it is hard to plow that field, since so few still speak the lnaguage fluently. Still the effort should be made. The death of any language is a subtraction of human culture.
“My old hometown newspaper, The Ponca City News (of Ponca City, OK)”
I delivered that paper as a kid in grade school, when my family lived there for a few years (1954-1960). My father was an X-ray crystallographer who did some work on pipe line corrosion for Continental Oil. At that time, Continental and Cities Service had refineries there. I alway wondered how the town and Kay County in general fared in the Oil Patch downturn in the 1980’s, but never went back to check. Apparently both of the oil companies have been absorbed and reconfigured several times:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citgo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conoco
I recalled we learned a bit about the native tribes under the rubric “Five Civilized Tribes” because their relocation to the Oklahoma Territory was an important ingredient in the state’s history. The other thing I remember about the school system is that it had a great music program one that we learned to appreciate only by the contrast with the mediocre resources committed to musical instruction in other states we moved to afterwards.
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