I realized yesterday that a lot of people in our country don’t know much about the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II. It’s something I don’t remember learning in school, though we may have glanced over it briefly. So, who were these Code Talkers?
During the War, codes used by our troops to share important information were being broken and the enemies were able to find out all of our plans and moves. And that was when the Navajo Code Talkers began. These men used their native language to send confidential messages between troops. No one else was able to break this code, because it wasn’t a code. It was their language, their culture, and their sense of morality. They fought for our country, and for the other wrongs that were happening in the world. They were brave, intelligent men who put themselves in the middle of a war to fight for what is right. This is something every single one of us should know about and celebrate.
There’s so much more to know about this. If you’re interested, look it up. The beauty of our lives now is that most of us have all the information in the world at our fingertips. But for a really quick overview, in a much better way than I can ever explain, as a white woman who was born many years after the War ended, check out this video clip from the other day of Peter MacDonald, President of the Navajo Code Talkers. Be educated, and be proud of our history. All of it.
Amy Smullen 