Philip Johnston, a World War I veteran, who was the son of a missionary and was raised on the Navajo reservation, came up with the idea of using the Navajo language as a code.  Navajo was a highly complex, unwritten language, little-known outside the Navajo Nation.  Johnston was one of very few non-Navajo who spoke it fluently.  The Marine Corps adopted Johnston's suggestion and put out a call to the Navajo.

Twenty-nine Navajo responded to the initial call and enlisted as radio operators in the Marine Corps in early 1942.  Their efforts, and those of several hundred additional Navajo who enlisted subsequently, are credited with making possible the famous U.S. victory at Iwo Jima and many other achievements.   The Code Talkers transmitted information on such things as tactics and troop movements over radio and telephones.  As described on Senator Jeff Bingaman's web site (see below), "the Navajo Code Talkers created messages by first translating Navajo words into English, then using the first letter of each English word to decipher the meaning. Because different Navajo words might be translated into different English words for the same letter, the code was especially difficult to decipher."

Since there were no Navajo words for many of things contained in the messages, the Code Talkers enriched the code by using existing Navajo words.  For example, "submarine" became "besh-lo," which means "iron fish" and a dive bomber became "gini," (chicken hawk).  The Japanese never cracked the code. 

One of the reasons that the code is not well known is that it was classified by the Defense Department until 1968.  Since that time, the Code Talkers have been given long-overdue recognition.  The Pentagon opened an exhibit honoring their role in 1992.  (See a virtual tour on RealVideo.)  A ceremony was held late last month in Window Rock, Arizona, to honor more than 300 surviving Navajo Code Talkers with Congressional Silver Medals.  The original 29 had been honored with Congressional Gold Medals at a ceremony in Washington during the summer.

Links:
= highly recommended

U.S. Navy, Naval Historical Center, "Navajo Code Talkers:  World War II Fact Sheet."  Another excellent site.  Includes the complete Code Talkers Dictionary, as well as a bibliography.

Navajo Code Talkers, from the U.S. Marine Corps History site.

Philip Johnston's letter to the Marine Corps Commandant, requesting enlistment in the Marines to train the Code Talkers, from the U.S. National Archives.

Senator Jeff Bingaman's (D-N.M) "Navajo Code Talkers" site.  Sen. Bingaman introduced the legislation to honor the Code Talkers with congressional medals.

Harrison Lapahie, Jr.'s Navajo Code Talker page.  Dedicated to his father, Harrison Lapahie, one of the code talkers, this page has a great deal of information, not just about the code talkers but about the Navajo Nation.

Native American Code Talkers Exhibit in the U.S. National Cryptologic Museum.  This museum is operated by the National Security Agency.  NSA, dubbed "The Puzzle Palace" in a recent book, is the U.S. government agency most involved in cryptography. 

"Code Talkers:  America's Secret Weapon," on John Shepler's Writing in a Positive Light.  Nicely written short piece on the code talkers, with links and a short bibliography.

"The Navajo Code Talkers:  A Brief History," on The People's Path, a Native American site.

"Warriors:  Navajo Code Talkers," by Elizabeth Manning, review of a book by Japanese photographer, Kenji Kawano, in High Country News (October 30, 1995).  Kawano, whose father was a survivor of the Japanese program of training men to be human torpedoes during the war in the South Pacific, first heard of code talkers while hitchhiking on the Navajo reservation in 1974, later spent seven years photographing them.

NavajoCentral.org, an unofficial Navajo nation web site.  Not much on the code talkers, but lots of other interesting material.

"Navajo Code Talkers," description of a 55 minute film by Brendan Tully.