Languages are so fascinating. They reflect the way different nations view the world, they constantly evolve and provide insights into other cultures. The logic that we use in our thinking is emerged in our language. Part of our work here at USCTS is bridging those linguistic and cultural divides through the art of translation. Fascinating work it is. But there is more. Imagine languages as secret codes used to convey messages in times of war.
The first known utilization of a Native American language was done by the American 30th Infantry Division during World War I. It was a group of Cherokee Indian troops. Regrettably, little is known about them.
Soon afterwards, an American military officer, Colonel Bloor, also tried a non-standard way of communicating messages to troops. Just about every code that the military was using at the time was being broken by the Germans. It was in 1918 that on deployment in France he observed two Choctaw Indians speaking with each other. It was a small group of Choctaw Indians from Oklahoma that was pioneered conveying messages during the final stages of World War I with the help of their native language. It worked. The wiretaps of the enemy were worthless. These and other Native Americans were referred to as the code talkers.
The sad and dark chapter in human history namely World War II provided another opportunity to tap into the language resources of Native Americans. One of those was the Comanche. Fourteen of them participated in the Invasion of Normandy for purposes of conveying messages. As an example the Comanche word for bomber was "pregnant airplane", Adolf Hitler was "crazy white man." In the North African theater of war operations twenty seven Meskwaki men from the state of Iowa used their native language against the Germans.
On the Pacific theater, Japanese intelligence experts broke every code that the US forces developed. Lots of those experts were also fluent in English. They prepared false commands and sabotaged messages of the Allied forces. This time a civilian came to the rescue. Phillip Johnston was a son of a missionary who had grown up on the Navajo reservation and was one of the few non-Natives fluent in this complicated language. He argued that since the language had no alphabet and was extremely difficult to master, it could be utilized as an unbreakable code. Here are just a couple of examples from this code: - tortoise in Navajo is "chay-da-gahi," which became the codename for tank;
"besh-lo" was iron fish which became the codename for submarine. There were some words in English that did not have equivalents in Navajo. Those would be spelled out using Navajo words. Every word represented letters of the alphabet. The selection of a given word was based on the first letter of its English meaning. For example "Be-la-sana" means "apple", hence that would stand for the letter "a". Other words with meanings starting with the same letter would be substituted in order to eliminate too many repetitions.
The elite unit of Navajo Code Talkers was formed in 1942. There were eventually 420 of them and their code proved to be crucial to the success of just about every major engagement in the Pacific region from Guadalcanal to Okinawa. Their contribution to victory cannot be overestimated, nor can the power of languages.
The first known utilization of a Native American language was done by the American 30th Infantry Division during World War I. It was a group of Cherokee Indian troops. Regrettably, little is known about them.
Soon afterwards, an American military officer, Colonel Bloor, also tried a non-standard way of communicating messages to troops. Just about every code that the military was using at the time was being broken by the Germans. It was in 1918 that on deployment in France he observed two Choctaw Indians speaking with each other. It was a small group of Choctaw Indians from Oklahoma that was pioneered conveying messages during the final stages of World War I with the help of their native language. It worked. The wiretaps of the enemy were worthless. These and other Native Americans were referred to as the code talkers.
The sad and dark chapter in human history namely World War II provided another opportunity to tap into the language resources of Native Americans. One of those was the Comanche. Fourteen of them participated in the Invasion of Normandy for purposes of conveying messages. As an example the Comanche word for bomber was "pregnant airplane", Adolf Hitler was "crazy white man." In the North African theater of war operations twenty seven Meskwaki men from the state of Iowa used their native language against the Germans.
On the Pacific theater, Japanese intelligence experts broke every code that the US forces developed. Lots of those experts were also fluent in English. They prepared false commands and sabotaged messages of the Allied forces. This time a civilian came to the rescue. Phillip Johnston was a son of a missionary who had grown up on the Navajo reservation and was one of the few non-Natives fluent in this complicated language. He argued that since the language had no alphabet and was extremely difficult to master, it could be utilized as an unbreakable code. Here are just a couple of examples from this code: - tortoise in Navajo is "chay-da-gahi," which became the codename for tank;
"besh-lo" was iron fish which became the codename for submarine. There were some words in English that did not have equivalents in Navajo. Those would be spelled out using Navajo words. Every word represented letters of the alphabet. The selection of a given word was based on the first letter of its English meaning. For example "Be-la-sana" means "apple", hence that would stand for the letter "a". Other words with meanings starting with the same letter would be substituted in order to eliminate too many repetitions.
The elite unit of Navajo Code Talkers was formed in 1942. There were eventually 420 of them and their code proved to be crucial to the success of just about every major engagement in the Pacific region from Guadalcanal to Okinawa. Their contribution to victory cannot be overestimated, nor can the power of languages.
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| chay-da-gahi |
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| tank |
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