Original Caption: Corporal Henry Bake, Jr., (left) and Private First Class George H. Kirk, Navajo Indians serving with a Marine Signal Unit, operate a portable radio set in a clearing they’ve just hacked in the dense jungle close behind the front lines.
Of the approximately 10,000 Native Americans who volunteered to serve during World War I and the over 40,000 who volunteered during World War II, hundreds were recruited into units of code talkers. In 2001, Navajo Code Talkers were honored with a Congressional Gold Medal for their unbreakable code, and in 2008 numerous other tribal units were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for developing “secret means of communication based on native languages and were critical to winning the war.”
After World War II, Japan’s chief of intelligence admitted they were never able to break the Navajo Code used by U.S. forces.
Navajo Indian Code Talkers photograph is a part of America’s 100 Docs, an initiative of the National Archives Foundation in partnership with More Perfect that invites the American public to vote on 100 notable documents from the holdings of the National Archives. Visit 100docs.vote today.
