Honoring Native American Code Talkers

What better way to protect information than by communicating in a complex, unwritten, little known language? That was the simple idea behind the Native American “code talkers.” During WWI, the US Army deployed Cherokee, Hopi Choctaw, Lakota, Meskwaki, and Comanche soldiers to transmit messages. In WWII, the Marines recruited bilingual Navajo for the Pacific Theater. From 1942 to 1945, Navajo code talkers participated in every Marine assault in the Pacific.

Explore the rich history of our nation’s Native American code talkers in the International Spy Museum’s Making Sense of Secrets Gallery.