Recently there has been a revival in interest in the 2002 movie Windtalkers, the story of Navajo code talkers during World War II. The Navajo code talkers were true heroes and were honored by congress for their role in the Pacific campaign. Overlooked in the recognition of the Navajo were the code talkers of many other Indian nations including the first code talkers, the Choctaw.
An article in the October 30,1919, Army newspaper Stars and Stripes was headlined “Yank Indian Was Heap Big Help In Winning The War.” It told the story of the first code talkers, who were 19 Choctaw Indians. Though some of the article’s references to Indians were inappropriate stereotypes, the intent of the article was clearly to recognize the heroic and important contributions of Indians, especially the Choctaws, serving in World War I. Beneath that headline was a paragraph headed “Choctaw Code Fooled Boche” (Boche is a disparaging term used for German soldiers during WWI).
The Stars and Stripes article described what it called the “Greatest Mystery of War.” It told of the fighting around St. Etienne during October 1918. There the thickets, swamps and woods were filled with the telegraph and telephone lines of American units. American military communications during WWI were usually telephone wires that were laid in the woods between units. The Germans realized this and sent small patrols into the American lines at night to tap into what was an American communications switchboard.
At first it was a great success for German Army intelligence units. U.S. officers knew their commutations were compromised but were unable to find a code the Germans could not break. Then an American officer heard two Choctaws in his unit speaking in Choctaw. He realized that little known language might be a perfect code.
The Stars and Stripes reported: “But the Americans, after some little delay, continued to use their telephone lines, and the discomfited Boche on the other end of a tapped wire listened in vain, scratched his thick, square poll in amazement, and swore … either the ‘verdammter’ Americans were drunker than fiddlers or else the code they were using was a gift from Herr Gott Himself.”
That strange code was described by the Stars and Stripes: “The code was nothing more than Choctaw — plain, simple, old-fashioned, ordinary, catch-as-catch-can, everyday Choctaw.” The paper went on to tell the story of how the Choctaw Code fooled the Germans:
“There was a Choctaw Indian at the P.C. who listened to the order given him by an American officer, and then repeated it, in Choctaw, to a fellow-tribesman at the other end of the wire, at the front; and this Indian translated it for the American officer who stood beside him. Shades of Prince Bismarck! Everything else had the Kaiser taken into consideration when he sprinted into the late unpleasantness, but he had failed to teach his soldiers or officers Choctaw.”
In several newspapers, I have found the following story whose dateline was New York, June 3, 1919, and titled: “Indian heroes come home.”
“Considerable attention was attracted here by a detail of 150 Indian soldiers who arrived on the Transport Pueblo under the command of Captain Horner, of Mena, Arkansas. These Indians have to their credit a unique achievement in frustrating German wire tappers. Under the command of Chief George Baconrind, an Indian from the Osage reservation, they transmitted orders in Choctaw, a language not included in German war studies.”
How effective were the Choctaw Code Talkers? On October 27, 1918, American troops were to attack a strong German defensive position called Forest Farm. Orders for the assault were communicated in Choctaw. Previously Germans were able to break codes and prepare their defense. This time they were caught completely off guard and the assault was a major success with almost the entire German garrison killed or captured.
While the Choctaws were noted for the Choctaw Code, there were more than 9,000 Native Americans from 60 different tribes serving with American forces in Europe. They were among the American troops most feared by the Germans as they were known for their bravery, marksmanship and skill at night patrols. Often wearing moccasins rather than boots, they would slip in and out of German lines unseen, leaving many German soldiers terrified of the nighttime.
The contribution of one of the Choctaws exemplifies the service of all Indians. Otis W. Leader (or Leador in some newspapers), a Choctaw from Oklahoma, was a code talker. In addition, his exploits in combat became almost legendary. During fighting in July 1918, he captured two German machine gun positions and took 18 German soldiers prisoner. Later, he was part of a crew manning an American machine gun and during the fighting all of the other members of the gun’s crew were killed. However, Leader continued to hold the gun’s position for three days. He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre (twice), a Purple Heart and battle stars for nine battles. General Pershing once referred to Leader as one of the “war’s greatest fighting machines.”
Leader was selected by a French artist as the “ideal of a typical American soldier” for a portrait which was painted to hang in the “Federal Building” in Paris.
The importance of the U.S. Army’s Native American soldiers is best shown by the German response. An American captain captured by the Germans in 1918 was surprised that the information the Germans most tried to get from him was the number and locations of American Indian troops. The Germans even deployed an “extra force of snipers” to “cope” with Indians in American units. Though little recognized now, Native Americans serving in Europe, and especially Choctaws, played a significant role in the allied victory over Germany.
While the Navajo Code Talkers were presented a congressional medal in 2001 for their World War II service, WWI and WWII code talkers from the Choctaw and other Indian nations were not honored by congress until 2008. Interestingly the Choctaw of WWI who were the first code talkers had been honored by France in 1989 with the Chevalier de National du Merite or Knight of the National Order of Merit. It is a sad statement that France had honored these American heroes 8 years before their own country did.
While the Choctaw language was playing a major role in defeating Germany during WWI, Choctaw children were being physically disciplined if they spoke Choctaw in a federally run reservation school. And full U.S. citizenship was not granted to all Native Americans until 1924 even though thousands had served the U.S. in Europe during WWI. Sometimes you just have to wonder.
Rufus Ward is a local historian.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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