Navajo Code Talkers

There was a battle, in World War One, where many Choctaw Indians were communicating by radio in their native language in hopes of fooling the Germans. Their schemes worked, they were losing the battle and because of the code the tide was turned and the Americans won. A victory that Philip Johnston a World War One veteran didn't forget. 

When World War Two broke out Johnston was reminded again of the Choctaw code used to fool the Germans and Johnston decided to take his knowledge to the Marines. They choose twenty-nine Navajo Indians fluent in both Navajo and English, their job was to create an unbreakable code; they succeeded. By the end of the war there was over 400 code talkers, it is said that without them we would have lost the war. Japan has cracked every code except our Navajo code. 

http://library.thinkquest.org/J002073F/thinkquest/Code_talkers.htm 

  

*The Original 29 Navajo Code Talkers*

In the Classroom

Together as a class we will learn about the Navajo Code Talkers, our lessons would include the information stated above but go into more detail to fit the age and learning level of the students. I want the students to see that there are many different aspects of war, there is more than just what you see on the front lines, and a big part of that is the Code Talkers. 

For an activity each student will write a short paragraph including; first name, what month they were born, and an interesting fact. They will use http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-4.htm to write their information in the Navajo Code. Once everyone has written their coded message we will mix up the codes and hand them out to a different student to be decoded. 

  Example: 
      *Jenna
      *March
      *I, love, horses.

      *Tkele-Cho-G  Ah-Jah  Tsah  A-Chin Wol-la-chee
      *Tah-Chill
      *Tkin,  Dibeh-Yazzie   A-Kha    A-Keh-Di-Glini   Ah-Jah,   Tse-Gah   A-Kha   Gah   Dibeh
            Ah-Jah  Kilesh.  

-We will use only the alphabet and the months for this project