Native US Americans in WW2

Witness History - The Navajo Code Talkers in World War 2 - BBC Sounds

In World War 2, US Marines fighting in the Pacific needed to be able to communicate securely on the battlefield. Early in the war, the Japanese had been able to decode some of their encrypted messages. So the Marines turned to members of the Navajo tribe. An unbreakable code based on the Navajo language was quickly developed. And the Navajo Code Talkers went on to participate in all the major Marine operations in the Pacific, helping the Allies to victory. Rob Walker has been listening back to the story of one of the Code Talkers, Samuel Tso, and also speaking to Laura Tohe who is the daughter of a Code Talker and who has written a book about them, ‘Code Talker Stories’. The interview with Samuel Tso was reproduced with the kind permission of George Colburn. Details of his documentary about the Code Talkers can be found here: Navajo Code Talkers documentary - Native American World War 2 Heroes The full interview with Samuel Tso is available on C-SPAN, along with interviews with other Code Talkers: Navajo Code Talker Samuel Tso Oral History Interview | C-SPAN.org

 

I watched the ceremony at the White House when surviving Code Talkers were being honored. I'll say no more about how I felt when I watched.

 

Many of the original members of the 45th Infantry Division were Native Americans drawn from the states of New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma and Arizona.

Lt. Ernest Childers, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th ID, was the first Native American recipient of the MOH in WW II.


Dave

 

I noticed nearly all responders have missed answering your question of the views towards them today. I live in Canada that has a large indigenous population. There is still a lot of prejudice towards them as seen in certain news stories over the the years. We recently had a woman die in hospital, recording her own death while hospital staff looked on as she cried out in pain. Many native communities still don't have clean running water, with one that comes to mind that has had a boil water advisory for two to three years while the government twiddled its thumbs. Last year, we had reports of several hundred unmarked graves being found across Canada (searches still ongoing) at "residential" schools run by the churches and governments. Children were removed from their homes and families and sent to the schools. Had their hair and braids cut, forced to dress in white man's clothes, and punished for speaking their native tongue. They were abused, and many died. Canada also forced relocation of Inuit in our North for sovereignty purposes after the Second World War, and this saga too has it's own horror stories of winter survival. It is these stories that they want to teach as part of our "history", and I agree. I'm sure a very large percentage of the world has no idea of these events. I can only assume similar events occurred to other native populations of Australia and New Zealand too. Although many served, fought and died for their countries, there is still a lot of injustice out there, even today. This is a pretty big and touchy topic, and I cannot serve it any justice, but hopefully if I can help educate some of our European members, then I have made a start.