http://www.navajotimes.com/news/2009/0609/061809codetalkers.php

Researchers: Preserve code talker legacy

By Cindy Yurth
Tséyi' Bureau

CHINLE, June 18, 2009

The recent deaths of three Navajo code talkers were a tragic loss for the
Navajo Nation.

But they should also serve as a wake-up call to preserve their legacy, said
two people who have been chronicling the code talkers' lives for decades.

"It's making me kick myself in the butt to get my history degree and start
one of the books I've been thinking about," said Zonnie Gorman, daughter of
the late code talker Carl Nelson Gorman and perhaps the leading expert on
the history of the code talkers.

"I'd really like to see a code talker museum while some of them are still
with us," said Kenji Kawano, who has photographed and interviewed about 100
of the estimated 400 men who were recruited to communicate messages in a
Navajo-language code during World War II.

Keith Little, president of the 40-member Navajo Code Talkers Association,
said he's a bit surprised people are reacting so strongly to the deaths,
within two weeks, of John Brown Jr., Thomas Claw and Willie Kescoli Begay.

"It's to be expected," shrugged Little, 85. "The youngest of us are in their
late seventies now."

Little estimated between 100 and 200 former code talkers are still alive,
although the majority haven't joined the association.

But Gorman said people tend to take the code talkers for granted until one
of them passes on.

"You always kind of think your parents are going to be there forever," she
said. "You hear them tell a story and you think, 'Oh well, I'll hear it
again.' Then all of a sudden they're gone and you think, 'Why didn't I write
that down? Why didn't I get him to identify the people in this photograph?'"

Kawano, who was picked up hitchhiking by Gorman's father in 1975 and has
been photographing code talkers ever since, said it struck him at last
year's Navajo Nation Fair Parade how few code talkers are left.

"When I first came to the Navajo Nation (in 1974) you would see 20 or 30 of
them marching in a parade," he said. "Last year, there were less than 10. In
a few years, you cannot really see them in a public place."

While several books have been written on the code talkers, including
Kawano's pictorial essay "Warriors," none has been written by a professional
historian, and that worries Gorman.

"I'm reading (Navajo historian) Jennifer Denetdale's book 'Reclaiming Navajo
History,' and I was thinking about how she really legitimized Navajo history
in Western historical circles, because she has a Ph.D.," Gorman said. "I
would love for that to be done for the code talkers, because I don't see any
of the books that have been written about them really being taken seriously
by academic historians."

With the paucity of Navajo historians, Gorman said the only way she can
think of to make that happen is to get a Ph.D. herself.

"With a full-time job (as project coordinator for the Circle of Light Navajo
Educational Project), I don't see how I'm going to go back to school, but I
need to make it happen somehow," she said.

She added she has five books on the code talkers "in my head," ranging from
fiction to a very academic history.

The code talker story itself is taking on a legendary quality, Gorman said,
and the lines between fact and fiction are becoming blurred - even by the
code talkers themselves.

"For instance, I was traveling with a code talker to give a lecture, and he
started telling the people about the symbolism of their outfit," she
recalled. "He was saying the black shoes were like obsidian arrowheads, the
khaki pants were the color of the earth, all the way on up to his hat.

"Well, I happened to be at the association meeting where they decided on a
uniform, and I don't remember hearing any talk about symbolism. It was more
like, 'Black shoes and khaki pants look military, and then we should have a
bright-colored shirt to stand out.'

"But I think that's common in Native cultures. We incorporate our heroes
into the fabric of our culture until they become these legendary figures,
and everything about them takes on a symbolic, almost spiritual quality."

Both the myth and the historically verifiable accounts are part of the code
talker legacy, Gorman said, and need to be preserved.

Like Kawano, she sees the need for a code talker museum, though she hasn't
puzzled out exactly what it should be like. As she thought about it,
however, ideas came spilling out.

"It should have a permanent exhibit and rotating exhibits, and a space for
archives and research," she said. "It should put the code talker story in
the context of the times: the assimilation policy, the livestock reduction,
the fact that we were being told we were 'less than' and not being allowed
to speak our language in school."

Kawano would like to see the museum on Navajo land, run by the Navajo Nation
rather than a nonprofit corporation, as is being discussed now.

"The Navajo people need to decide how they want to tell this story, both to
their children and to the outside world," Kawano opined.

Ironically, the former Navajo Nation Museum curator who helped the code
talkers start their association isn't sure he likes the idea of a museum
specifically dedicated to the code talkers. Martin Link thinks the code
talker legacy is already a bit overblown.

"In the first place, singling people out for glory is not the Navajo way,"
Link said. "Even Manuelito is buried in an unmarked grave ...

"Secondly, there seems to be this common misperception that the code talkers
single-handedly won the war. You don't think two atomic bombs had something
to do with it?

"And thirdly, I think it does a disservice to the thousands of other Navajo
veterans. What about the 1,200 Navajo Marines who served in World War II and
weren't code talkers? What about the Navajos who served in the Coast Guard?
There were Navajo women in the WAC and the WAFT who you never hear anything
about.

"If there is to be a museum, I would like to see it done in such away that
it honors all Navajo veterans."

A museum of any kind is still years away, as are Gorman's books, and in the
meantime, Gorman urged Navajos who have code talkers in their families to
start doing a little amateur documenting.

"If your father is willing to talk, ask him, 'Can I record this?'" she
advised. "Get it on a tape recorder, a video camera, even a notepad if
that's all you have. If he has any old photographs, get him to tell you who
the people are and where it was taken."

Battle gear, war souvenirs, medals and other memorabilia of the time should
be stored in a safe place where they're protected from dust and weather,
Gorman suggested, noting that Gallup trader Ellis Tanner is contemplating
building a Navajo archival facility where families can securely store such
items.

Of course, all the documenting in the world won't bring back the code
talkers who have passed on. Kawano, the only Japanese-American to be named
an honorary member of the Code Talkers Association, said he feels a pang
every time he hears of another death.


"I really miss them," he said.