Al Jazeera: Paying respects to the last Seminole Code Talker

Late afternoon in early April, and his eyes were closed, short gray hair combed back and hands folded just above his waist. The casket was open, the lower half draped with an American flag. The top revealed a 96-year-old man: dark brown skin, white shirt and black suit tucked into white satin lining, the words “In God’s Care” embroidered on the inside of the lid.

Pews in the funeral home chapel creaked as people sat. A baby bawled. Conversations and murmurs filled the air. Then a dozen deep male voices filled the room with a dirge in the Mvskoke language for Edmond Andrew Harjo, the last Seminole code talker.

The code talkers were elite Native American military units that used their own tribal languages to create and transmit fast, unbreakable coded messages, serving in both World Wars I and II. They’re credited with saving countless lives in theaters around the world.

Edmond Andrew Harjo, Battery A, 195th Field Artillery Battalion, was one of them. He died in Oklahoma on March 31 after receiving a Silver Star for his participation in the Battle of the Bulge and, later, the Congressional Gold Medal. He was one of the last ties to the code talkers.

Exactly how many code talkers served, and how many Native languages, like Mvskoke, were used is still largely unknown because of varying degrees of documentation, the existence of both official and unofficial code talker programs, and a dwindling population of actual participants. An estimated more than 600 code talkers from 33 tribes served in the two world wars, but some people suspect that others have been lost to history.

The legend of the code talkers is one that has, for the most part, been documented since the declassification of the program in 1968. However, there are only a handful of Native veterans who have had their stories chronicled. As part of an ongoing series, Al Jazeera America hopes to document the experiences of Native veterans and how war affects tribes, cultures and lives.