Blog Hop

I've been tagged by a writer friend and fellow member of Bayou Writers Group to answer some questions on a blog hop, so here goes.

1. What are you working on?
I just completed a crime/revenge novel that came in at 90,400 words, 340 pages, titled Wild Justice. My tag line for the book: Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. But sometimes He could use a little help. I'm going to let it sit awhile before I start the revision process. While I'm waiting for it to percolate I'm starting back on my short stories and poems. I have thirty haikus I completed during National Poetry Month in April that I want to see if I can find a home for. Also, I have several ideas for short stories I want to get written. Looks like a busy summer.

2. How does your work differ from others in its genre?
This is a hard one to answer, and I'm not quite sure how to do it. There are so many mystery writers out there that I'm sure there are lots of books like mine. A story popped in my head one day and I wrote until I had it on paper. I guess it's different from others in my genre in that it's in my voice. I hope it's different enough that a lot of people will want to read it.

3. Why do you write what you do?
Like I said, my book is a crime novel, and the conventional wisdom is to write what you like to read. At this point in my life my favorites seem to be mystery/suspense/thriller. The stories I've been writing lately seem to have a bit of mayhem, if not murder. My poems, however, are mostly little slices of life. I guess the main thing is I just enjoy seeing words taking shape on the page.

4. How does your writing process work?
My writing process is somewhat different from most folks, but it works for me. First draft is always in longhand on legal pads with roller ball pen. I skip lines for easier reading and revision as I go along. Next I type it on this neat little gadget called an Alphasmart. It's very easy to type on and doesn't do all that crazy stuff a computer does sometimes. You know, cursor jumping all over the place, words running together, etc. Then I format a document in Word on the computer and plug Alphie into it and voila--it jumps from Alphie to the computer and all I have to do is proofread for typos. I can think and create better if I have a pen in hand and a tablet on the desk. Like I said--works for me.

Now I'm sending you over to Chris Baldauf, a fellow member of Bayou Writers Group and the Thursday morning critique bunch that meets at Stellar Beans . She is Past President of BWG. A good friend and excellent critiquer. See her answers on her blog, Some Assimilation Required, at http://chrisbaldauf.blogspot.com.

Confessions of an Erstwhile Book Pusher

I retired in 2006 after pushing books for twenty-eight years. I'm back at work again, two days a week for four hours a day. I get paid a whopping zero dollars and zero cents per hour. I have gone from Book Pusher to Book Peddler.

Let me explain. I worked for the public library back in the day. Hence, Book Pusher. Now that I'm retired I sell used and discarded books for Friends of the Library--Book Peddler. The money collected is used for buying extras for our branch. In return I get four hours of free, quiet time to work on my novel, Wild Justice.

Many libraries have book sales, so check them out and support your local ones. Everybody wins,

Networking

It's been nearly three months since my last post. I've really got to get myself organized. A lot happened over the summer. There. I'll blame it on the heat. It's September (still hot), but in September aren't we supposed to write about "What I Did During My Summer Vacation." The highlight of mine was the writer's retreat I attended at Alpine, Texas. Merrilyn Williams and I took a two-day road trip to get there. It's in the Big Bend area of Texas. We stayed in the dorm at Sul Ross University.

Merrilyn took a class on novel writing and I took one on revision. We were in class five hours a day for five days. With that much togetherness we bonded quickly and since we had to read our work out loud, we became acquainted with everyone else's work.

One of my classmates has a movie/television production company and works with a group in Hollywood. Long story short, they're in the process of reading my manuscript, Wild Justice, for a possible movie or television. Networking definitely pays off.

Mini Retreat

Have you ever dreamed of hibernating in a cabin in the woods or a beach house on the ocean or a lakeside getaway with nothing to do but write? No telephones or internet or any other time waster like Solitaire or Pyramid. I wrote in a previous post about a week-long retreat I'll be attending in Alpine, Texas. I am so looking forward to it, but it's a month away.

However, it occurred to me I could go on a mini-retreat any weekday right here in my hometown. Monday through Friday. Nine a.m until six p.m. It's cool. It's quiet, most of the time. It has spacious tables to spread out all the usual writer paraphernalia we tend to carry around.

I pull my little box on wheels full of my stuff and sit myself down in the farthest corner I can find and get to work. Then when I reach my daily word count or time allotment I load everything up and get on with other things. Also, if I feel the need to work on the weekends, the larger branches in the parish are open.

If you haven't guessed, my retreat site is the public library. Calcasieu Parish has twelve branches. I usually go to the one in my town, but I'm not too far from any of the larger ones that are open on Saturday and Sunday.

Only one problem. I worked at my hometown library for 28 years, so I know almost everyone who comes in. Sometimes they like to stop by my table and chat, but that's okay since I always like seeing everyone again. If I want anonymity I'll go to one of the other branches.

So if you're ever frustrated by all the chaos you might be living in, consider the library for your mini-retreat.

A Writer's Retreat: Scratch One Off My Bucket List

It's finally going to happen. I've been dreaming about a writer's retreat forever, and now I get to scratch it off my bucket list. Every year the Writers' League of Texas offers a week-long retreat in Alpine, Texas, at Sul Ross State University. This year it will run from July 21 through July 26 and offers five classes. I have registered for Shaping Your Book to Sell, an intensive workshop on revision with Carol Dawson. Since I'm involved with revising my novel, Wild Justice, it sounds like exactly what I need: five days of classes from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. working with a professional.

There seems to be something for every writer, no matter the genre. Long Form Journalism in a Short-Form World is offered for those wanting to break into newspaper or magazine writing. For fiction writers Writing the Novel: The Basics with historical novelist Karleen Koen is available. If you're a poet you've got One-Week Exercise Program: Forms, Formulas, and More with Poet and Editor Scott Wiggerman. And, finally, The Art of Memoir: Discovering and Deepening Your Story with award-winning memoirists Donna M. Johnson and Christine Wicker, for those who want to get their own story written for whatever reason.

I just wish there was more time. I'd like to take at least two more of the classes. Maybe next year. If you're interested go to www.writersleague.org/37/Summer-Writing-Retreat and read all about it.

One last note. I'll be going on a mini-retreat in September after Labor Day. My four daughters and I are renting a beach house in Crystal Beach near Galveston for two nights. They can walk on the beach and romp in the Gulf. I'll be ensconced on the porch writing. It's going to be a fun summer.

Poem a Day Challenge

April is National Poetry Month. My writer friend, Beverly, and I just finished a month long poem writing marathon. Every morning Robert Lee Brewer, on his Poetic Asides blog, sent a poetry prompt our way and we were to see what we could come up with. We both finished the month with thirty or more poems, but it wasn't as easy as you would think.

On the first day he told us to write a new arrival poem. I racked my brains trying to come up with something. I ended up writing about the new boy in school. The next day was Tuesday, and he always had a Two-for-Tuesday prompt. April 2 prompts were write a bright poem or write a dark poem or write both. I ended up doing both, since I didn't have too much trouble coming up with ideas for them.

Some of the prompts were quite challenging. The tentative poem, the post poem, an infested poem (interesting). The infested poem turned out to be one of my favorites. We had to write a sonnet, a sevenling, a senryu, and a shadorma. These are all form poems and I had fun with them. April 30 was a Tuesday, so we got a two-for: a finished poem or a never finished poem. I wrote about my high school graduation.

The one that stumped me the most was day five. Write a plus poem. I couldn't think of anything so I took out my trusty thesaurus and looked up "plus." One of the synonyms was "lagniappe." Voila! I researched "lagniappe" and found the original meaning: a cheap present, such as parsley or shallots, given to good customers of street criers selling produce. Here's my attempt at a plus poem.

Lagniappe

Black-berrieeees! he sings
I got blackberries
I got greens and cabbages
Come and see
Buy my potat-ohs, lady
Dime a bucket, lady

She comes to the door
Turban on her head
Basket on her arm
He fills it with his wares
On top, a sprig of parsley and a shallot---
For free

If we want to we can send five of our favorites to him for a contest he'll be judging. I got mine off on Friday. Fingers crossed.

The Importance of Research

I'm back after a two and a half month hiatus caused mostly by some health issues, but also just some of life getting in the way. I've been to a writing conference in Houma where I won third place in the Novel Excerpt contest for my first chapter of Wild Justice. It motivated me to get on the revisions in earnest, and gave me a kick in the pants to resurrect my blog. Also, I got off Facebook. It takes up too much of my time. Most of the posts are political rants, the majority of which I don't agree with. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I'm entitled not to have to sit through them. So now I have more time to spend on my blog.

Which gets me to the title of this blog. One night I was wasting time channel-surfing and came across the movie "Double Jeopardy" starring Ashley Judd and Tommie Lee Jones, one of my favorite actors. I had seen it before, but I decided to watch it again. Ashley has been framed by her husband for his murder and is in prison for the crime. While there, one of her fellow convicts tells her if she ever finds him she can kill him and they can't do anything to her since she's already paying for his murder. She gets out on parole and escapes from Tommie Lee, who's her parole officer. She tracks her husband to New Orleans where he's living under an assumed name with their son. All she wants is her son back. She finally has the jerk where she wants him--staring down the barrel of a gun. He tells her she'd better think twice because Louisiana doesn't hesitate to use the gas chamber for murderers.

 Bzzzzt! Red flag. Why didn't I catch that the first time around? This was a big-time movie when it was in the theaters. Someone didn't do their homework. Everyone who's spent any time down here knows Louisiana has never used the gas chamber to kill their citizens. We had a neat little contraption called the electric chair. A traveling one, at that. We aim to make the death penalty convenient.

My point in all this is DON'T TAKE ANYTHING FOR GRANTED. Do your research and get the facts straight. You never know when an expert might be reading. 

Keep On Learning

Scientists have discovered our brains are highly plastic, according to Barbara Baig, author of the current "how-to" book I'm reading right now, titled HOW TO BE A WRITER. This means they are capable of lifelong learning and change, that new ideas and insights are on our horizon, no matter our age.

So, guess what? I'm going to have a busy February and March in my pursuit of more knowledge. Beginning February 19 I'll be taking a four-week Leisure Learning class at McNeese with instructor Connie McDonald entitled "Where I'm From: A Workshop Approach to Writing from Life." We'll be mining our memories and life experiences to produce poems, stories, or memoirs.

Beginning February 21 Rachel Rinehart, MFA student at McNeese, will conduct a four-week class on "Writing About Place," in which we'll explore setting as another character in our stories. We will learn craft techniques, do writing exercises, and write our own stories or memoirs about place.

To finish things off Dr. Gabriel Morley, Director of Calcasieu Parish Public Library, will be leading a six-week class beginning March 5 on memoir writing. This will be held at the Central Library on Tuesday nights.

On top of these things I have two contests with a March 1 deadline. Writers League of Texas has a contest for a novel competition with a critique to go along with it. Southern Writers magazine is sponsoring a short story contest. I'd better get busy and quit playing Solitaire on the computer. Also, there's a little matter of revisions on my novel, WILD JUSTICE, to get ready for the Houma conference in April.

To all you wannabe writers out there: Don't wait around for inspiration to strike. Sign up for a class and inspire yourself.

Confession of a Bookaholic

I hope everyone enjoyed reading about the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II. I enjoyed sharing it with you, but it's time to get back to my other writing pursuits. I couldn't believe it when I saw I hadn't posted to the blog since October 13. Our writing group, the Bayou Writers, was in the process of putting on our ninth annual writer's conference on November 10, and then Thanksgiving dropped in on us, so time got away from me. I realize Christmas is only two weeks away, but I'm pretty much caught up on that.

Everyone who knows me knows I'm a bookaholic. I never met a how-to-write book I didn't love. I found a real gem just put out by Writer's Digest Books a few weeks ago. It's entitled
Where Do You Get Your Ideas? A Writer's Guide to Transforming Notions into Narratives by Fred White. I've only made it to Chapter 4 and already I have enough inspiration to keep my pen moving all year.

For example, there's a section in Chapter 2 on finding ideas in reference works. Encyclopedias, almanacs, handbooks, dictionaries--all kinds of dictionaries--to name a few. Mr. White recommended Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words by Josefa Heifetz Byrne. It sounded interesting so, of course, I had to have it. I just found the word "doxy." We all know a doxy is a "prostitute," but it also has an alternate meaning--a creed or doctrine, especially a religious one. I'll take myself out to the McNeese library and research the word in the OED. There's bound to be a story there somewhere.

Frank Warren put together a compedium of anonymous confessional letters titled Post Secret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives. Some examples:
     
     < I waste office supplies because I hate my boss.
      <When I get angry I write bad words on my toaster strudel.

I bought that one, too, as well as another he recommended. Dear Old Love, compiled by Andy Selsberg, has hundreds of anonymous messages addressed to former loves. It's on my Kindle.

That's three and a half chapters down and twelve more to go. I need to win the lottery. How many of you can't resist?

The Unbreakable Code: After the War

The Code Talkers had not been nationally recognized until 1969, when the 4th Marine Division Association held its reunion in Chicago. At that time a group of Code Talkers was invited to the reunion and presented with a medallion specially minted in commemoration of their services. In 1971 President Nixon presented them with a certificate of appreciation on behalf of the nation. He thanked them for their patriotism, resourcefulness, and courage. August 14, 1982 was declared National Code Talkers Day by President Reagan, who issued a proclamation of tribute to all members of the Navajo Nation who gave their special talents and their lives so that others might live.

Dan Rather interviewed the oldest Code Talker, Carl Gorman, at his home in 1997, and after the interview said the American way of life might not have survived if it were not for their service. Ninety-year-old Gorman's closing statement reflected the true heart of a Marine when he said, "Old Marines never die. They just go to hell and regroup."

The Navajos today:
Edward S. Curtis was a photographer whose pictures of Native Americans are in museums and private collections across the country. One of the most famous of these, "The  Vanishing Race," was taken in 1904 and is supposed to show the Indians passing into the darkness of an unknown future, stripped of their tribal strength and culture.

The Navajos did not vanish into the darkness, however. Today they are the largest Native American tribe in the United States with a population of over 200,000, and their rich culture is alive and well. They lived through the Spaniards, the Mexicans, the Utes, white settlers, slave traders, the U.S. Army, Kit Carson, GeneralCarleton, the Long Walk, Bosque Redondo, livestock reduction, and boarding school. Many native nations have disappeared, swallowed up into the Anglo world. The Dineh, however, remain distinctly themselves. They have survived.

From the Night Chant

In Beauty (happily) I walk.
With Beauty before me I walk.
With Beauty behind me I walk.
With Beauty above me I walk.
With Beauty all around me I walk.
It is finished in Beauty.

The Unbreakable Code: A Valuable Weapon

Because the Navajos, with their straight black hair, dark eyes, small stature, and somewhat Asian features, resembled the Japanese, each had a bodyguard assigned to him. After one Code Talker was nearly shot by a U.S. Marine, these bodyguards went everywhere the Navajos went. The Code Talkers were a valuable weapon and their safety was first and foremost, one of the bodyguards reported being told by his superiors. However, the Code as well as the Talker was to be protected. If a Code Talker had the misfortune to be captured by the Japanese his bodyguard was under orders to shoot him to protect the Code. Fortunately, this was not necessary since none were captured.

One night in August 1945 the news came over the division radio net that the emperor of Japan had asked for peace terms. The Navajos, naturally, were the first to learn this good news. The elated Navajos decided a celebration was in order. Since tom-toms were not items of issue, they set off au natural for the bandsmen's tents. They grabbed the drums and Indian-danced their way toward the officer's tents with the bandsmen, also au natural, in hot pursuit trying to retrieve their drums. The war ended in the Pacific on September 2, 1945, with the formal surrender of Japan. The men from a nation within a nation were an integral part of that victory.

The Navajo Code did not end with the war's end. The Code remained classified since no one knew if it would be needed again, and it remained so until 1969 when it was finally declassified by the United States government. The Navajos had been told to remain silent about their role in the war and the existence of the code. They kept the secret until it was no longer a secret.

Next: After the War

The Unbreakable Code: The Battle for the Pacific

After the shock of Pearl Harbor and the capitulation of Hong Kong, the Phillipines, Singapore, and Corregidor, the United States forces recovered enough to start the advance, island by island, toward Japan. As each island was secured it was used for storing supplies and equipment and, sometimes, an airstrip was built for bombers and fighter planes. Soon the war in the South Pacific became an exercise in island hopping. Communication between them was vital. Headquarters needed to know exactly what opposition they were meeting and when reinforcements would be needed.

The dark-skinned, black haired Navajos soon became a familiar sight at Marine command posts throughout the Pacific combat zone as they huddled over radio sets sending and translating messages into a conglomeration of the Navajo language, American slang, and military terminology. From the twenty-nine Code Talkers at the beginning of the war the number had increased to 420 by the end. The Japanese never broke the code as the Navajos relayed operational orders with a secrecy that enabled the United States to advance from the Solomons to Okinawa.

Control of Iwo Jima was vital to both the United States and Japan. The Japanese leadership knew that the loss of Iwo Jima would be followed by Okinawa's fall and the invasion of the mainland. Their orders were to defend the island at all costs. The first Code Talkers came ashore in the second wave, and six Navajo nets worked around the clock for 48 hours. Their commander reported that in that period alone they sent and received 800 messages without an error. Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific. Six-thousand eight-hundred Americans lost their lives during the 36-day battle. Three of these were Code Talkers. One officer reported the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima were it not for the Code Talkers.

Next: A Valuable Weapon

The Unbreakable Code: Testing the Code

The Code Talker could switch from using the code words to spelling the word from the alphabet, which had at least three terms for the most frequently used letters of the English alphabet. To do this the Talker would use A, B, C to let his counterpart know he was going to spell the word out instead of using the word itself. Example: the word "abandon" is ye-tsan (run away from), but spelled out it would be Apple (be-la-sana) Badger (na-hash-chid) Ant (wol-la-chee) Nose (a-chin) Deer (be) Owl (ne-ahs-jah) Needle (tsah). Note the use of two different words for A and N so as not to establish a pattern for the Japanese code-breakers to study. One of the Anglo marines who worked with the Code Talkers said the Navajo code was American double-talk mixed with a sound like water from a jug being poured into a bathtub.

After the alphabet and code words were complete, the memory work began. This was the easiest part of the requirements since in Navajo everything is in memory. The songs and prayers and everything else was in the oral tradition.

They tested and retested their coding and decoding skills in the classroom, sending such messages as "Landing wave on beach but loss is high." They started out with messages of a few words and rapidly worked their way up to longer ones. During field trials they were amazed at how well it worked. The messages came out word for word on the other end, including semi-colons, commas, periods, and question marks. When the field trials had ended the received message matched the sent message to the letter.

The code proved to be fast and accurate, but unbreakable? United States Intelligence put it to the test. During the field trials the code was transmitted over radio and picked up by them. They worked on it for three weeks, but could discern no repetition or sequences or pattern. U.S. Intelligence could not break it.

While at Camp Elliot the Navajos received training for general Signal Corps: Morse code, panel codes, signal flags, field telephones and radio (operation and mechanics). They also received combat training. The pilot program was an unqualified success, leading to a recommendation that another 200 Navajos with the proper qualifications be recruited to continue the program. These twenty-nine members of the first class, however, were assigned to various units of the 1st Marine Amphibious Corps and 2nd Marine Division Communications Personnel and shipped out to the Pacific Theater as soon as possible.

Next: The Battle for the Pacific

The Unbreakable Code: Developing the Code

By the end of the first day they had devised the alphabet. They repeated it until it was committed to memory, and fell asleep repeating it to themselves. They had to come up with words in English that had Navajo counterparts. Most letters had two or three words, such as ant, apple, and axe for A, badger, bear, and barrel for B, and so on. Only V, W, X, and Z had one word only. The word for W is weasel and the Navajo word for weasel is gloe-ih.

After the alphabet they created 211 Navajo words to substitute for military terms that were nonexistent in Navajo.
Commanding General=War Chief
Major General=2 Star

Organizations were more difficult, so they substituted Navajo clan names for many of them.
Division=Salt
Battalion=Red Soil

Substitute words for aircraft were much easier. Birds seen on the reservation prvovided easy to remember substitutes.
Dive Bomber=chicken hawk
Fighter Plane=humming bird

Navajo names of fish and water mammals were chosen for ships.
Battleship=whale
Mine sweeper=beaver

Terms frequently used in battle needed Navajo synonyms.
Confidential=kept secret
Conquered=won

Some substitutes were chosen for shape or resemblance.
Bombs=eggs
Grenades=potatoes

Countries took on names with special meanings to the Navajos.
America=Our Mother (loved this one)
Japan=Slant Eye

Because the Navajo did not measure time as the Americans and Europeans did, their language had no terms for months of the year. They chose words that described the season or the events that took place at that time of year.
March=Squeaky Voice
April=Small Plant
May=Big Plant

The Navajo words cannot be pronounced as they are written. The English alphabet alone cannot produce the pronunciation or the true meaning. Many accent and phonetic marks are needed to represent the tone and pitch of each syllable and the gutteral sounds so unfamiliar to the non-Navajo. Even a Navajo would need to know which dialect was being used. 

Next: How the Code Was Used

Permission Granted

The matter was turned over to A.H. Turnage, director of the Division of Plans and Policies. There were several issues that he had concerns about: the possibility of mistakes during translations, possible problems in teaching the Indians to use technical equipment, and the fear that using Indian dialect under combat conditions might slow communications. He was advised by the Bureau of Indian Affairs that the Navajo language would indeed be an ideal medium of communication since the messages would be unintelligible to anyone other than the Navajos themselves. They would also be exceptionally fast since the individuals could translate as they received, thus doing away with coding or transcoding. After studying the reports he granted permission for the Navajo project, although the pilot program was authorized for thirty Navajos of the 200 requested.

Although many applied during the recruitment only 29 Navajo men made it into the pilot program. Fluency in both Navajo and English was the main requirement, but the men also had the rigors of boot camp facing them.It was not much of a problem for them,however, after overcoming a few cultural differences. The commanding officer reported to the Commandant that they had done exceptionally well at the Depot, having at an early date developed a very high esprit de corps. The group of 29 men, he said, was still intact. None had dropped back due to sickness,disciplinary action or lack of ability to keep up with the others, which was highly unusual, the rate of attrition being from five to ten percent. He reported that their progress had been highly satisfactory.

After graduation from boot camp the men were sent to CampElliott for further training. They received their "special assignment" there. The Marine Corps had plans, the officer told them, to develop a combat code based on the Navajo language for use in battle situations.Creating and using this code was their special assignment. As he wrote the instructions on the chalkboard, the Navajos watched in amazement. Construct an alphabet based on the Navajo language, choose Navajo words to substitute for military terms, keep the terms short for rapid transmission, and memorize all terms. That was all. Just do it. And that is what they did, working as a team and starting with the asphabet.

Next: Developing the Code

Unbreakable Code: The Testing Begins

Sorry about the gap between posts. I've been at Killer Nashville since last Wednesday. More about that when I finish up with the Code Talkers.


On February 27, 1942, Johnston arrived at Camp Elliott with four Navajos. He considered fluency in this difficult language impossible for anyone who did not grow up speaking it. His plan,therefore, was to recruit not only those men whose first language was Navajo, but who also possessed a fluency in English as well. On the day of the test, Colonel Jones, who had installed a field telephone in the headquarters building and invited General Vogel and his staff to attend, handed the Navajos six messages similar to those used in military operations and gave them an hour to practice. The men used this time to choose Navajo words to substitute for military terms such as dive-bombing and anti-tank gun.

The testing began. A member of the general's staff would write a message and hand it to one of the Navajos, who translated it into his language and relayed it over the field telephone to a Navajo in another room. This man, in turn, would translate it back into English and prepare a written message. Fifteen minutes later General Vogel inspected the translated messages, and the accuracy convinced him that the Navajo language could be used for code purposes. On March 6 he sent the results of the demonstration and Johnston's proposal to the Marine Commandant in Washington, D.C. "The demonstration was interesting and successful," he wrote in the accompanying letter. "Messages were transmitted and received almost verbatim." He also requested the recruitment of 200 Navajos.

Next: Permission Granted

The Unbreakable Code: The Idea

High-ranking military men in Washington were reluctant to approve the further use of Indian languages for combat communication, being concerned that accuracy might be hampered by static and combat noise. Furthermore, Indian vocabularies did not have military and technical terms. They believed that an unbreakable code was impossible, convinced that creating new codes based on the English language was the best way to go.

The US might have missed an important strategic advantage if not for a World War I veteran named Philip Johnston who convinced some high-ranking marines in San Diego that the use of one certain Indian language could create an unbreakable code. Johnston, the son of missionaries, had grown up on the Navajo reservation with only Navajo children for playmates, and quickly learned the difficult language.

After reading about military maneuvers in Louisiana where Indians from tribes in Wisconsin and Michigan were being used as "code transmitters he came up with a unique idea. In San Diego he contacted the area signal officer, Lt. Col. James E. Jones and asked him how he would like a device that would assure complete secrecy in battlefield messages. The colonel assured Johnston that no code or cipher had ever been completely secure in the history of warfare.

Johnston persisted. Suppose an Indian language was used as the basis for the code, always used orally, by radio or telephone, and never written down. The colonel explained that the idea had been tried and proved to be impractical,but Johnston persevered. His idea, he said, was not to merely transmit messages in an Indian language but to build a code based on Indian words.

He finally had the colonel's full attention after speaking a sentence in Navajo and asking him if he honestly believed that anyone but a Navajo could understand what he had said. He pressed his advantage and invited the colonel to repeat a Navajo word he uttered syllable by syllable. The absolute inability of Jones to comply convinced him of the possibilities of the complex language. He asked Johnston to arrange a meeting. 

Next: The Testing Begins

The Unbreakable Code: Choctaw Precursors

The idea of using Native Americans to relay coded messages during wartime actually started in 1918 in the Argonne forest of northern France. Defeat seemed imminent for the Allies at the hands of the powerful German army. American commanders had been directed to capture a German stronghold at Forest Ferme. A surprise attack offered the only hope for success, but the Germans had managed to intercept and decode every Allied message.

The solution to the problem was discovered quite by accident. An American captain overheard two Choctaw soldiers speaking in their native tongue, and an idea surfaced.The captain inquired as to the number of Choctaws in the battalion. Eight men who spoke fluent Choctaw were discovered. To test his idea the captain had one Choctaw translate a message into his language and relay it to company headquarters using the field telephone. Another Choctaw at headquarters listened to the message and accurately translated it back to English for the battalion commander.

The experiment was successful, and at least one Choctaw was assigned to each field company headquarters to begin at once to handle communications by field telephone. The Allies achieved victory at Forest Ferme, and the Choctaw code talkers played a major role. The Germans failed to decipher one word. The U.S. government cautioned the Native Americans to keep their role in the war a secret in case American forces in future conflicts had need of them.

German officials identified the language and began making their own plans for "future wars." After the war, during the 1920s and 1930s Germans, saying they were tourists and scholars, visited Native reservations ostensibly to study Native American culture. In fact, they had been sent by their government to learn Native languages. By the time the United States had entered World War II in 1941 most American Indian tribes had been visited and had their languages studied thoroughly. But not the Navajo.

Next: An idea is born.

The Unbreakable Code: The Navajo Language

The Navajo language is extremely complex and the pronunciation difficult. A few traders and missionaries had even tried to learn it prior to 1942, but they only learned enough to conduct their business. They never attempted to use Navajo in daily conversations. Indeed, there were only about 28 non-Navajos who understood the language extensively.

An attempt had been made to write the language, but it remained essentially oral. It remained pure since the Navajos did not adopt foreign words as other languages often do. For instance, when the radio and telephone made an appearance on the reservation, they created new Navajo words for them. "Radio" became nil-chi-hal-ne-ih and "telephone" was besh-hal-ne-ih. The words are not pronounced as written since each syllable requires sounds that would need accent marks and phonetic symbols. Even with knowledge of phonetic symbols the unpracticed tongue would find it difficult.

Anthropologist Clyde Kluckholn wrote that the talk of those who learned Navajo as adults always had a flabby quality to the Navajo ear.

Next: The Choctaw Precursors

The Unbreakable Code: The War Begins

President Roosevelt declared war on Japan the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed. Volunteers flocked to military recruitment offices to enlist. Since there were none of these on the reservation, dozens of Navajo men gathered outside the superintendent's office, armed with hunting rifles and ready to fight the enemy. However, they were sent home since no draft call had been sent out and no enlistment procedures were in place on the reservation as yet.

On December 7, 1941, Keith Little was at boarding school in Ganado, Arizona. He and some of his fellow students had been hunting with .22 rifles and had a rabbit simmering over a fire in the woods beyond the school, being thoroughly sick of what they referred to as "cafeteria gruel." While they waited for it to finish cooking one of the boys went back to the dorm for something. When the boy returned, Little recalls this conversation.

"Hey, Pearl Harbor was bombed!"
"Where's Pearl Harbor?"
"In Hawaii."
"Who did it?"
"Japan."
"Why'd they do it?"
"They hate Americans. They want to kill all Americans."
"Us too?"
"Yeah, us too."

Little and his friends promised each other they would use their .22 rifles to go after the Japanese instead of rabbits. I found this in an article by Bruce Watson, "Navajo Code Talkers: A Few Good Men." It can be found in the Smithsonian, August 1993.

Next: The Navajo Language