Tribe: Navajo Code Talker dies in New Mexico

Source: Associated Press

Tribe: Navajo Code Talker dies in New Mexico

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Window Rock Navajo Tribal Park and Veterans Memorial in the capitol of Navajo Nation. These were the Native Americans depicted in the movie "Windtalkers."
JIM PIERSON/SUBMITTED

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 9, 2017

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — A Navajo Code Talker who used his native language to outsmart the Japanese in World War II has died in New Mexico, Navajo Nation officials said.

David Patterson Sr. died Sunday in Rio Rancho at age 94 from pneumonia and complications from subdural hematoma. Few Navajo Code Talkers are still alive.

Patterson and hundreds of other Navajos trained in radio communications were prohibited from talking about their work until it was declassified in 1968. Although Patterson couldn't say much, one of his sons said he was proud of being a Code Talker.

. . .

Patterson served in the Marine Corps from 1943 to 1945. He and other Navajos followed in the footsteps of the original 29 who developed the code and received the Congressional Silver Medal in 2001. During the war, they radioed messages using Navajo words for red soil, war chief, braided hair and hummingbird, for example.

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