Here’s a story you’ll want to read in full. It’s by Holly Meyer of the Rapid City, S.D., Journal:

When the towers of the World Trade Center fell on Sept. 11, 2001, Clarence Wolf Guts asked his son to call the U.S. Department of Defense to see if the country needed his code talking abilities to find Osama Bin Laden.

Wolf Guts was in his late 70s at the time, so his son, Don Doyle, did not make the call, but said the request personified his father’s love of country.

“He still wanted to help. He was trying to still be patriotic,” Doyle said.

Wolf Guts, 86, the last surviving Oglala Lakota code talker, died Wednesday afternoon at the South Dakota State Veterans Home in Hot Springs.

A Native American code talker from World War II, Wolf Guts helped defeat Axis forces by transmitting strategic military messages in his native language, which the Japanese and Germans couldn’t translate.

“He’s the last surviving code talker from the whole (Lakota) nation. It’s going to be a little like the passing of an era,” Doyle said.

The 450 Navajo code talkers were the most famous group of Native American soldiers to radio messages from the battlefields, but 15 other tribes used their languages to aid the Allied efforts in World War II.

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Tags: buffalo post, Clarence Wolf Guts, Code Talkers, Code Talkers Recognition Act of 2008, Gwen Florio, Native American veterans, Oglala Lakota, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Sen. John Thune, Sen. Tim Johnson, South Dakota State Veterans Home, Wanblee, World War II

The Navajo Nation is commemorating two members of the military this week, one whose long life was richly lived, the other whose life was cut far too short in Afghanistan, a tragedy compounded by the death in Iraq of his brother.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth W. Westbrook, 41, died Oct. 7 at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., of wounds suffered last month when insurgents attacked his unit in the Ganjgal Valley of Afghanistan, the Navajo Times reports here. It’s the second loss for the Westbrook family – Kenneth’s brother, Army Sgt. Marshall A. Westbrook, 43, of Farmington, was killed Oct. 1, 2005, in Iraq.

“When his brother enlisted, there was definitely nothing stopping Ken from enlisting as well,” says a friend, Brian Victor. “If not for his brother and his dad then it was because he was instilled with the belief of patriotism

As their brother, David, says, “When Navajos are called to war, they go as warriors.”

That was certainly the case for Willard Varnell Oliver, 88, of Lukachukai, Ariz., esteemed as one of the famous Code Talkers during World War II. Oliver died Wednesday and will be buried tomorrow.
On Nov. 24, 2001, Willard Oliver was awarded the Congressional Silver Medal in Window Rock, says this Navajo Times account of his passing.

“I did not realize that until the code talkers were recognized that all the victories back during the war came about because of our Diné language,” he said.

“Sometimes I think about it,” he said. “Why did the government want to use our language when throughout BIA school we would get our mouth washed out with soap when they caught us speaking Navajo?

“I am proud to be a code talker,” he said. “And I know we counted for something great, and that we fought to maintain our freedom and for our sacred land.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: Afghanistan war, buffalo post, Code Talkers, Dine, Iraq war, Native American news, Navajo Nation

Seems like everyone has heard of the Navajo Code Talkers during World War II.

But this story out of Canada about Choctaw code talkers during World War I reminds us the military already had a tradition of turning to its Native soldiers to safely transmit messages.

The Ontario Inland Bulletin tells about Louis Gooding, a Choctaw Indian from Oklahoma – it was still known as Indian Territory when he was born – who wound up living in Ontario. But before that, Gooding was a member of the U.S. Army’s Signal Corps during World War I.

Several dozen Choctaws were put to work transmitting messages and are credited for helping to turn the tide in several battles, the story says.

The messages sent in Choctaw helped the Allies make strategic moves in the battles at St. Etienne and Forest Ferme in the last months of the war, wrote William C. Meadows in a 2002 book on Indians in modern warfare..

“After twenty-four hours after the Choctaw language was essentially pressed into service. . . ., the Germans’ advances were stopped,” wrote Meadows. “In seventy-two hours, the Germans had been forced into a full retreat.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Choctaw, Code Talkers, Native American news, World War I

[caption id="attachment_2199" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Navajo Code Talker Rev. Ray Hawthorne salutes during the ceremony. (AP)"][/caption]

There’s a sense of urgency these days whenever one hears the words “Code Talkers.”

That’s because most of the Navajo Marines whose military messages in their own language stumped the Japanese during World War II are now in their 90s. Four recently died in the span of five weeks, according to this AP story.

That same story, though, is full of good news; namely that Chevron Mining Inc. has donated 208 acres of land to the Navajo Code Talkers Association for a museum and veterans center.

“These are some of America’s heroes,” said Chevron Mining President Fred Nelson as he signed over the land at a ceremony near the Navajo Nation capital of Window Rock, Ariz., yesterday.

The group plans to raise money for the museum, estimated to cost between $20 million and $30 million, through public and private donations. Find out how to support the effort at its Web site, here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Chevron Corp., Code Talkers, Native American news, Navajo