MESKWAKI CODE TALKERS

In France during World War I, a communications company of Native Americans was assigned to the 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Division. With a staff of 18 Choctaw, soldiers from the Cheyenne, Comanche, Cherokee, Osage and Yankton Sioux spoke 26 languages and dialects. Prior to their arrival in France, the Germans had broken every code the Americans used. They never broke the Indian “code,” and these soldiers became known as “code talkers.”

Prior to WWII, 27 Meskwaki men, ages 18-22, enlisted in the Iowa National Guard in January 1941. Those 27 represented 16% of Iowa's Meskwaki population. Eight were selected for special instruction in the use of the walkie-talkies, communications radios, and machine guns. This training, an experiment using a code derived from Native American languages for secret communications, predated America’s entry into the war.

The challenge during this experimental phase was to take the Native language and cross-reference Native words with military terms that were not in the Native language. A “Colonel” was a “silver eagle,” a “fighter plane” became “hummingbird,” “minesweeper” became “beaver,” “half-track” became “race track,” a “tank” was a ‘turtle, ‘and “pyrotechnic” became “fancy fire.”

The 8 Meskwaki men were Frank and Willard Sanache (brothers), Dewey Roberts, Edward Benson, Melvin Twin, Dewey Youngbear, and brothers Judy Wayne Wabaunasee and Mike Wayne Wabaunasee. They joined Company H, the heavy weapons company of the 168th Infantry, 34th Red Bull Division. The unit was mobilized three weeks later. Their initial training was at Marshalltown and Camp Dodge, Iowa, but they were soon sent to Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, for more intensive jungle warfare training. After jungle training in Louisiana and code talker training in Scotland and England, they were sent to the desert in Algiers North Africa to meet up with Rommel’s Afrika Corps near Tunisia. Frank Sanache said, "It was the worst place this side of hell," referring to the African desert!

“The 34th Division got chewed up,” recalled Dewey Roberts. “From Salerno to the Naples area we lost a lot of men. They were killed, wounded, and captured.” Naples and mighty German defenses, but the Allies finally liberated Rome on June 4, 1944.

Frank Sanache was captured by Italian soldiers in Tunisia in 1943 and held at a POW camp in Poland. Dewey Youngbear and Judy Wayne Wabaunasee were captured by the Germans.

Besides suffering harsh treatment, American Indians, rarely seen in Europe, faced racial prejudice in Italian and German POW camps. The desperate feelings of these men lead to numerous escape attempts. Dewey Youngbear, who no doubt paid a heavy price each time he was recaptured. On his third attempt, he managed to find an Italian soldier’s uniform to wear as a disguise but was identified because he didn’t know the language. Judy Wayne Wabaunasee also escaped his captors in Italy but later, when he arrived at the same prison camp in Germany, guards noticed that Youngbear and Wabaunasee knew each other. They both received “rough treatment” for refusing to give information about the other.

Like many POWs, they required hospitalization after their release, and they suffered life-long problems. Youngbear died in 1948 of tuberculosis he contracted as a POW. Other Meskwaki veterans also had war-related health problems.

Rather than live on a government reservation, the Meskwaki had purchased their Settlement land, about 320 acres, in the late 1800s . Though economically poor, the tribe retained its heritage by preserving their language, customs and ceremonies. More than 50 Meskwaki had served during World War II, and the returning veterans established their own American Legion post, The Robert Morgan Post, as tribute to the first Meskwaki casualty of the war.

For many years, the code talkers’ work remained classified and their achievements were unnoticed until 1968. On June 18, 2002, Congress passed the Code Talkers Recognition Act to recognize the important part that these Soldiers played in “performing highly successful communications operations of a unique type that greatly assisted in saving countless lives and in hastening the end of World War I and World War II.” The act states that at “… a time when Indians were discouraged from practicing their native culture, a few brave men used their cultural heritage, their language, to help change the course of history.” The codes were never cracked by enemy forces.

Eighteen tribes were involved; the Comanche and the Meskwaki were among the first to be trained as code talkers. The Navajo, who sent up to 420 men, are perhaps the best known. Soldiers from other tribes, including the Kiowa, Winnebago, Chippewa, Creek, Seminole, Hopi, Lakota, Dakota, Menominee, Oneida, Pawnee, Sac, Fox and Choctaw served during the war. Many of the code talkers continued in their military careers, serving during the Korean and Vietnam wars.

These men were the first generation of Meskwaki to enjoy the full rights as US citizens. Citizenship was not granted to Native Americans until 1924. They honorably defended this country, fighting as warriors for both their homeland and adopted nation.

Alex Walker, Meskwaki Tribal Council Chairman, grew up hearing tribal tales of the code talkers. He said the veterans were revered and would tell their stories at the tribal ceremonies. Walker said, "They were treated like the old time warriors."

Frank Sanache, the recipient of 3 Bronze Stars, was the last of the Meskwaki code talkers. He was interviewed in 2002, just months before his passing. Sanache died in August 2002 at the age of 86.