WASHINGTON — The Pentagon called the removal of Navajo Code Talker content a “mistake,” vowing Tuesday to restore material taken offline during a scrub of DEI content.

The explanation didn’t sit well with Peter MacDonald, 96, one of just two surviving Code Talkers and a former Navajo Nation chairman. He objected to any implication that celebrating heroes who helped to win World War II equates with “diversity, equity and inclusion.”

“Some of these people who are taking the pictures or stories off their shelves are either racist or they have absolutely no understanding of what DEI stands for,” MacDonald told Cronkite News by phone. “You’re not only erasing Navajo culture but you’re also eliminating Navajo code.”

Defense Department officials said the mistake occurred as part of the effort to comply with President Donald Trump’s order to end DEI policies and delete all references to DEI.

Axios first reported the deletions on Monday, prompting an uproar.

Axios said it found at least 10 articles that mentioned Code Talkers that had disappeared from Army and Defense Department websites, based on a search of those sites and the Internet Archive.

“This is shameful,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona, a Marine combat veteran, posted on X. “Trump can’t erase history just because he feels like it.”

Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot defended the deletions on Monday, telling Axios that as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had said, “DEI is dead at the Defense Department. … We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms.”

Department of Defense cancels National Native American Heritage Month

American Indians and Alaska Natives serve in the military at the highest rates per capita of any group but celebrations of their contributions are being erased by the Trump administration.

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A day later, the press office called the deletions a “mistake” that would soon be rectified. Through the afternoon, some pages were restored but others remained offline. Server errors showed up in place of stories about the Marines who helped win World War II by using an unbreakable code in the Diné language to pass messages at Iwo Jima and other battles.

An Army article about their contributions remained offline. So did a Defense Department story about the role Code Talkers played in the U.S. victories in both world wars.

A November 5 story about an Air Force flight instructor whose grandfather served as a Code Talker went back online Tuesday afternoon after returning a “404” error.

“Recognizing the work of the Navajo Code Talkers is profoundly significant to the Navajo Nation,” Navajo President Buu Nygren wrote Tuesday in a letter to Pentagon officials demanding clarification on the removals.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, a former Navy fighter pilot, accused Trump on X of “trying to wash away the accomplishments of the Navajo Code Talkers.”

National Congress of American Indians ‘deeply concerned’ about removal of Native content from U.S. military sites

“The Navajo Code Talkers’ legacy is not just a story of Native American resilience but a defining chapter in American history,” said NCAI Executive Director Larry Wright, Jr.

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More than 400 Navajos served as Code Talkers during World War II. The program remained classified until 1968, according to the National Museum of the American Indian.

In 2000, Congress approved Congressional Gold Medals for the original 29 Navajos who developed the code – the nation’s highest civilian award – and silver medals for others who served in the program.

“With the Navajo language they defeated the enemy” is inscribed on the back in the Navajo language.

Records from the Navajo Nation list three surviving Code Talkers, though one of them, John Kinsel, died in October at age 107. The others are MacDonald and Thomas Begay.

Begay was about 16 when he signed up. He saw combat at Iwo Jima. He joined the Army after World War II, serving in Korea, as well, according to the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress.

MacDonald, who lives in Tuba City, enlisted in the Marines at age 15 and also deployed in the South Pacific. He served as chairman of the Navajo Nation from 1971 to 1983 and from 1987 to 1991, according to his biography.

“This has nothing to do with DEI. Code is a weapon, and that weapon helped us win the war,” he said.

Crystalyne Curley, speaker of the Navajo Nation Council, called the Code Talkers’ legacy “a cornerstone of American history.”

“Erasing their extraordinary contributions from formal military history is not only disrespectful, it is dishonorable,” she said in a statement before the Pentagon said it would restore the material.

“Dishonorable”: The Navajo Nation Council is criticizing the removal of U.S. military web pages that highlighted the service of the Navajo Code Talkers, who used the Navajo language to help the United States win World War II. pic.twitter.com/29NXSbKFwZ

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At the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix, Amanda Tom, whose grandfather was a Code Talker, called the deletions “total disrespect” toward Indigenous people.

“They went to war for our country. They put their lives on the line. If these Navajo Code Talkers never helped us win World War II, we would be speaking Japanese,” she said.

She recalled her grandfather’s stories about “living in the jungle, eating bugs, getting bitten up by leeches to fight for this country.”

“This is just another example of how the government treats Indigenous people,” she said. “It’s not OK. It’s not OK with me. It’s not OK for anybody.”

Cronkite News reporter Emily Fox-Million in Phoenix contributed material.