Code Talker

Strong words outlast the paper they are written upon.

Never think that war is a good thing, grandchildren. Though it may be necessary at times to defend our people, war is a sickness that must be cured. War is a time out of balance. When it is truly over, we must work to restore peace and sacred harmony once again.

Another of the hard things about being in a war, grandchildren, is that although there are times of quiet when the fighting has stopped, you know you will soon be fighting again. Those quiet times give you the chance to think about what has happened. Some of it you would rather not think about, as you remember the pain and the sorrow. You also have time to worry about what will happen when you go into battle again.

I wish you had been there with me in that picture,” he used to say to Wilsie and me. “It is so lonely being there forever without another Indian.

Kill every enemy twice, Wilky said. Better than gettin' shot by a soldier pretending to be dead.

He placed his left hand on my chest and I did the same. We stood there like that for a while feeling each other’s hearts beat with love for our sacred homelands. It was one of the best conversations I ever had.

I leaned way back to gaze at the blanket of blue sky where a few small clouds hung, white as the fleece of a new lamb. “Even out on the ocean,” Bill said, “Father Sky will be above us. We will never be forgotten by the sky.

As the battle for Iwo Jima raged all around us, our voices held it together.

Let me have clear thoughts, clear speech, and a good path to walk this day,” I prayed as I watched the rising sun.

All of those cases were clearly marked on the side in English: U.S.A. FOOD RELIEF It was indeed the very same food donated by Americans to Japan before the war. The Japanese military government had stolen it from their own hungry people.

Our ancestors saw what war does to human beings. When we must fight other humans, injure and kill them, we also injure a part of ourselves. Our spirits become sick from contact with the enemy.

It was easier for me to run now because all us code talkers had the new lighter portable radio units. But it was not just because the new unit on my back was lighter that I ran so much faster. I no longer had forty pounds of TBX radio to hide behind and I needed to get to cover as fast as I could.

Never forget, grandchildren, that we must always see all other people as human beings, worthy of respect.

Why did we make up nicknames? Maybe they were easier to remember. Maybe, too, they just made frightening things more familiar, even a little funny in the midst of the seriousness of war.

During World War One, our country had used other Indians, Cherokees and Chickasaws, to send messages in their own language to confuse the enemy.

However, despite our lack of facial hair, every Navajo recruit was still expected to put soap on his face each morning and scrape away his imaginary beard. What you did in boot camp did not have to make sense. You just had to do it.

So, when all of our people did not stop raiding, the Americans made war on all of the Navajos. They burned our crops, killed our livestock, and cut down our peach trees. They drove our people into exile. They sent us on the Long Walk.