Great Warriors: the Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I

Everyone is familiar with the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II, but the use of Native languages as military code has an even earlier foundation, with a group of Oklahoma-born Choctaw and an American officer open-minded enough to see the possibilities.

World War I was winding down in 1918, though it didn't seem like it to the men who were fighting.  Their problem all along had been the ease with which German cryptographers cracked their coded messages.  Many educated Germans could speak English, French and other European-based languages.  Thus, any code based on these languages was easy pickings.  One day in 1918, Col. A. W. Bloor of the 142nd Infantry Division overheard two of his men, Choctaws from Oklahoma, speaking to each other in their Native language.  Unable to understand them himself, he realized that the Germans would probably not understand them either.  Choctaw is a Muskogean-based language with which no one but other Muskogean-speaking Natives would be familiar.  Bloor approached the two men and recruited other Choctaws he or they could find.  Together, they developed a code matching military terms to Choctaw words.  Choctaw has no words to express artillery, so artillery was "big guns", and machine guns were "little guns shooting fast".

Bloor faced skepticism from higher-ups, as innovators often due.  Native American servicemen often served as runners and messengers between units, personally delivering sensitive information.  Bloor got the go ahead to try out his idea in October 26, 1918, when he ordered what he termed a "delicate" withdrawal of two of his companies from Chufilly to Chardenny.  Choctaw Code Talkers transmitted the orders and the total surprise of the Germans proved Bloor and his men right.  German cryptographers had not been able to decode the instructions needed for this maneuver.  Choctaw service members were soon placed on both sending and receiving ends of radio and telephone communication.  Even if the wires were tapped, the Germans wouldn't know where to begin deciphering the messages. 

Bloor couldn't praise his men enough in his post-war memoirs but recognition was slow in coming from other quarters.  The achievements of the Choctaw in World War I were overshadowed by the larger Navajo program in World War II.  It was not until World War II that the term Code Talker was used to describe this service.  The 19 original Choctaw Code Talkers were reticent to discuss their service with even family or friends, saying merely that they had talked on the radio or telephone, without providing more details.  They received a small mention in an Oklahoma City newspaper in 1928, but it hasn't been until recent decades, when Hollywood caught the Code Talker bug that any attention has been paid to Code Talkers in general, focusing again on the Navajo.  The Choctaw Nation awarded posthumous medals to each Code Talker in 1986.  France awarded them the National Order of Merit in 1989.  In 1995, the Choctaw War Memorial was unveiled at the Choctaw Capitol Building in Tuskahoma, OK.  It includes a section dedicated to the Code Talkers.  Finally, in 2008, President Bush signed into law the Code Talkers Recognition Act, which recognizes all Native American Code Talkers who served in World Wars I and II, with a Congressional Gold Medal for each tribe, on display at the Smithsonian, and a silver medal to each service member or service family of those who participated in the program.  A picture of some of the earlier Choctaw Code Talkers is below.