An Honor Long Overdue
The 2013 Congressional Gold and Silver Medal Ceremonies in Honor of Native American Code Talkers
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 18979008 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William C Meadows (0009-0003-0801-2655, Missouri State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 91-121 |
| Publication date | 2016-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Indian Culture and Research Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0161-6463 • E-ISSN: 0161-6463 |
| Publisher | California Digital Library (CDL) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.17953/aicrj.40.2.meadows |
| OpenAlex | W2563909385 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 2 |
military efforts in both world wars. Code talking used Native American languages to transmit military intelligence which an enemy could monitor, but not understand. After it was discovered during the First World War that Germans were able to monitor American telephone transmissions, small numbers of Eastern Band Cherokee, Choctaw, Comanche, and others were placed on field telephones to speak messages in their Native languages as a way to stymie German interception. Developed in combat late in the war, this was an impromptu experiment with no preexisting basis in Army signals intelligence. It was a great success. Native languages provided secure and accurate transmissions that were faster than existing encryption technology, giving the United States a vital military resource. Two forms of code talking emerged for military transmissions: Type 1 used specially encoded vocabularies inserted into Native American languages, while Type 2 used simply the everyday vernacular of a language that was unknown to the enemy. 1 The success of Native language communicators in World War I set an important precedent in signals intelligence that was expanded during World War II. In 1940 and 1941, prior to Pearl Harbor, the Army recruited small groups of Chippewa-Oneida (seventeen men), Comanche (seventeen men), and Meskwaki (eight men) who were trained as code talkers. The formation of eight Hopi as code talkers in the 81st Infantry Division occurred in mid-1943. The Marines' recruitment of Navajo began in
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| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,25 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2021 (4) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |