Navajo Code Talker Chester Nez waits backstage for a speaking engagement at the Henderson Fine Arts Center at San Juan College in Farmington N.M. on Nov. 1, 2012.Jon Austria—AP
Chester Nez, the last surviving member of the original band of Navajo Native Americans whose code helped the Allies win World War II, died Wednesday. He was 93 and suffered from kidney failure, Reuters reports.
Nez was one of the original 29 Navajo recruited by the Marine Corps to develop a secret code based on their native language for use in wartime communication. Because the language is unwritten, spoken only in the American Southwest and known to less than 30 non-Navajo people, Reuters reports, American forces accurately predicted that Japan would be unable to crack the code.
“It saddens me to hear the last of the original code talkers has died,” Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly told Reuters. “We are proud of these young men.”
“I was very proud to say that the Japanese did everything in their power to break that code but they never did,” Nez said before receiving the Audie Murphy Award for distinguished service by the American Veterans Center last November.
Navajo code talkers served in all six Marine divisions and six were killed during the war.
Native American Life, 90 Years After 'Official Citizenship'
An Oglala Lakota man horseback rides on family land on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in S.D., Nov. 5, 2012.Aaron Huey—National Geographic Society/CorbisTourists in specially designed vehicles enjoy the view on a tour of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in southeastern Utah, May 16, 2014. Robert Alexander—Getty ImagesThe ruins of a once-popular stop on historic Route 66, the Santo Domingo Indian Trading Post, awaits restoration, Santo Domingo Pueblo, N.M., Aug. 2012.Robert Alexander—Getty ImagesA painting of a Native American chief wearing a Plains Indian headdress adorns the abandoned Big Chief gas station on the Zia Pueblo in northern New Mexico, Dec. 2012. Robert Alexander—Getty ImagesSharon Brokeshoulder and her daughter Audrey Brokeshoulder, contestants in the Native American Clothing Contest at Santa Fe Indian Market, pose for photos in Santa Fe, N.M. on August 22, 2011.Robert Alexander—Getty ImagesKaylon Wood, 15, waits for a tribal ceremony to begin as he was taking part in a Pow Wow at the Sac and Fox Nation annual event in Stroud, Okla. on July 30, 2012.Michael S. Williamson—The Washington Post/Getty ImagesThe Rosebud Reservation has casinos as a source of income for the tribe, it does not benefit from the Keystone Pipeline because the pipeline company found it too difficult to reach an agreement with the tribe, Rosebud, S.D., July 30, 2012. Michael S. Williamson—The Washington Post/Getty ImagesTribal police officer Jacob Gadowaltz leads a drug search of a vehicle on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in New Town, N.D., Aug. 2, 2013.Alexandra Hootnick—Zuma PressOfficer Jesse Hernandez talks to a prisoner in the Pascua Yaqui tribal jail in the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation, Ariz. on March 18, 2014.Jahi Chikwendiu—The Washington Post/Getty ImagesThis eagle had been euthanized and the body will not be sent out with an order. All useable parts of the eagle bodies from wherever they fall are kept so Native American religious practitioners have the requisite eagle feathers, talons, etc. for their ceremonies in Colo., Aug. 21, 2009.Joe Amon—Denver Post/Getty ImagesThe grounds of the Casino Del Sol Hotel, hinting of an oasis, overlooks the poverty stricken residential part of the tribal land on the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation, Ariz., March 18, 2014
Jahi Chikwendiu—The Washington Post/Getty ImagesOverview of the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation, Ariz., March 20, 2014.
Jahi Chikwendiu—The Washington Post/Getty ImagesKids play in the street on the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation, Ariz. on March 18, 2014. Jahi Chikwendiu—The Washington Post/Getty ImagesKevin True Blood, 35, of Porcupine, S.D., shoots off his pistol in celebration of the Wounded Knee Liberation Anniversary on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Feb. 27, 2014. Chris Huber—APResidents from Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D., in various states of inebriation outside a store located immediately across the border in Whiteclay, Neb., Feb. 17, 2012.Nicole Bengiveno—The New York Times/ReduxJohn Parsons holds a traditional lacrosse stick at the Onondaga Nation. Living uneasily among Americans, many Iroquois still believe they're fighting for their own identity, Onondaga Nation, N.Y., July 19, 2010. Heather Ainsworth—APA Lakota Honoring Ceremony is held for Johnson Holy Rock, foreground, at an annual treaty council meeting held on the Pine Ridge reservation in Pine Ridge, S.D., Feb. 18, 2012. Nicole Bengiveno—The New York Times/ReduxAutumn Two Bulls, who has taken her children to Whiteclay to witness the scene of intoxicated people loitering along the street, and explained to the children that those on the streets were teachers of what not to do, with one of her three children on the Pine Ridge reservation in S.D., Feb. 19, 2012.Nicole Bengiveno—The New York Times/ReduxA young boy plays on a swing set in a park on the Hualapai Indian Reservation in Peach Springs, Ariz., Feb. 28, 2012. Robert Galbraith—ReutersChildren play in the yard of a home on the Hualapai Indian Reservation in Peach Springs, Ariz., Feb. 28, 2012. Robert Galbraith—ReutersStudents eat breakfast at Mahnomen Elementary School in Mahnomen, Minn., Sept. 26, 2013. Dan Koeck—ReutersA member of the Hualapai Tribe listens during a gathering at the Hualapai Tribal Forestry Department on the Hualapai Indian Reservation in Peach Springs, Ariz., Feb. 28, 2012. Robert Galbraith—ReutersA U.S. flag with an image of an American Indian horse rider flies next to a roadside jewellery stand on the Navajo Reservation, by a remote section of the Grand Canyon near Little Colorado River, Ariz., June 23, 2013.
Mike Blake—Reuters
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