National Navajo Code Talkers Day, on Saturday, August 14, 2027, honors the Navajo Marines whose language became an unbroken code in World War II. It also recognizes all Native Americans who served.
August 14 and the 1982 Proclamation
President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 4954 on July 28, 1982. It named August 14 of that year National Navaho Code Talkers Day, in the spelling used then.
He dedicated it to all Native Americans “who gave of their special talents and their lives so that others might live.”
Arizona lawmakers later passed a 2021 bill creating a state observance on August 14.
How the Code Was Built
The idea came from Philip Johnston, a World War I veteran who grew up on the Navajo reservation as a missionary’s son. Early in 1942, he read about Native American signalmen in Army maneuvers and pitched the Marines.
Four Navajo men gave a demonstration at Camp Elliott near San Diego that February. Gen. Clayton Vogel then recommended recruiting 200.
San Diego received the first 29 recruits on May 5, 1942. They built a code of 211 terms that later grew to 411.
Birds stood for aircraft. A dive bomber was gini, the chicken hawk, and a fighter was da-he-tih-hi, the hummingbird, the National Archives notes.
Places got nicknames too. Germany was “iron hat,” and the Philippines were “floating land.”
Words not in the code were spelled out with Navajo words for animals and objects, such as wol-la-chee, ant, for A.
A cryptographer warned that too many repeated letters could give the code away. So the alphabet grew from 26 terms to 44, with extra options for common letters such as E and T.
Speed made it valuable. In a test, code talkers handled a message from start to finish in two and a half minutes. Other methods could take hours, the CIA says.
At war in the Pacific
Somewhere between 375 and 420 Navajos served as code talkers, the National Archives estimates.
Guam, Palau and Okinawa all saw their work, and they took part in every major Marine operation in the Pacific. At Iwo Jima, six code talkers sent more than 800 messages without error.
Their signal officer there, Major Howard Connor, said: “Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.”
Another officer’s Iwo Jima report called the code “the simplest, fastest, and most reliable means” of sending secret orders by radio and telephone.
Recognition That Came Late
Secrecy lasted until 1968. Recognition followed slowly.
Congress awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the original 29 in a law signed on December 21, 2000. Later code talkers received the Congressional Silver Medal.
On July 26, 2001, President Bush presented the medals at the Capitol. Four of the five original code talkers still living attended. Chester Nez was one of them.
How to Observe the Day
- Read Reagan’s 1982 proclamation and the National Archives’ history of the program.
- Learn a few code terms, like gini for dive bomber, and the Navajo words behind them.
- Thank Navajo veterans and their families in your community.
- Share the Iwo Jima record: more than 800 messages, none in error.
- Honor the original 29 by learning their names and stories.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did other tribes serve as code talkers?
Yes. Choctaw speakers sent secret messages in World War I, the CIA notes.
Why was Navajo so hard to crack?
It was unwritten and rarely spoken outside the tribe. General Vogel noted that hardly any non-Navajos knew it beyond a superficial level.
Were code talkers sent to Europe?
No. They served only in the Pacific.
Who sponsored the medal law?
Senator Jeff Bingaman, who introduced the Honoring the Code Talkers Act.