Choctaw Indian Code Talkers of World War I

By SSG John Etheridge

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I and also to recognize Native American Heritage month, I thought it would be fitting to highlight a story I found while researching my own Choctaw Indian ancestry.

Although I had previously learned of the Navajo code talkers and their contributions to the United States military during World War II, I had never heard about the original code talkers from the Choctaw tribe during the First World War.

Photo courtesy of texasmilitaryforces.org

Here is an abridged version of the story found on the Choctaw Nation website (choctawnation.com) written by Phillip Allen:

In 1917, Choctaw Indians were not citizens of the United States and the language they spoke was considered obsolete.

According to tribal documents there were 19 Choctaw code talkers belonging to the 142^nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Inf. Division.

Toward the end of the war, the Germans had tapped radio and telephone communications. Messengers, called runners, were sent out from one company to another. One out of four runners was captured by German troops. The Germans had decoded all transmitted messages up to this point in the war.

The situation can better be told in the words of Colonel A. W. Bloor, the commander of the 142nd Inf. Reg. to his higher headquarters at the 36^th Inf. Div.:

In the first action of the 142nd Infantry at St. Etienne, it was recognized that of all the various methods of liaison the telephone presented the greatest possibilities.

It was well understood however, that the German was a past master of “listening in’. There was every reason to believe every decipherable message or word going over our wires also went to the enemy.

It was remembered that the regiment possessed a company of Indians. They spoke twenty-six different language or dialects, only four or five of which were ever written. There was hardly one chance in a million that Fritz would be able to translate these dialects and the plan to have these Indians transmit telephone messages was adopted.

The first use of the Indians was made in ordering a delicate withdrawal of two companies of the 2nd En. from Chufilly to Chardonnay on the night of October 26th. The Indians were used repeatedly on the 27th in preparation for the assault on Forest Farm. The enemy’s complete surprise is evidence that he could not decipher the messages.

After the withdrawal of the regiment to Louppy-le-Petit, a number of Indians were detailed for training in transmitting messages over the telephone. It had been found that the Indian’s vocabulary of military terms was insufficient. The Indian word for “Big Gun” was used to indicate artillery. “Little gun shoot fast”, was substituted for machine gun and the battalions were indicated by one, two and three grains of corn. It was found that the indian tongues do not permit verbatim translation, but at the end of the short training period, the results were very gratifying and it is believed, had the regiment gone back into the line, fine results would have been obtained.

Photo courtesy of Choctaw Nation Code Talkers Assoc.

The history book, “World War I: The Thirty Sixth Division” reports that on October 6, 1918 the Thirty Sixth was advanced to the front line and within two days were part of a fresh attack on the Germans’ strongholds. During the fight, they noticed something peculiar. An unusual number of German communications lines were uncovered.

The ease in locating these telephone lines made Colonel Bloor suspicious enough to believe they had been left behind deliberately. Bloor felt the Germans wanted the Americans to use their lines so they could tap into them and monitor conversations, learning of plans and strategies the Allied forces planned to use. By using the Choctaw members of Company E to transmit messages in their native tongue, the tactic was immediately turned to the American’s favor.

When the Choctaw tongue was spoken over the field telephones, the Germans stopped attacking the supply dumps and counter attacking the American troops. This is because they had no idea what the Choctaws were saying and couldn’t effectively spy on the message transmissions. A captured German officer confessed that his intelligence personnel “were completely confused by the Indian language and gained no benefit whatsoever from their wiretaps”

Within 24 hours after the Choctaw language was pressed into service, the tide of the battle had turned and in less than 72 hours the Allies were on full attack.

Photo courtesy of
 coinupdate.com

 
The Choctaw Nation today is very proud of the story of the original code talkers, and even has a granite monument at the entrance to their capitol grounds that bears the engraved names of all 18 men who used their language to help win World War I.