{"id":127818,"date":"2025-03-19T09:36:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T14:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=127818"},"modified":"2025-03-20T09:55:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T14:55:19","slug":"cronkite-news-navajo-code-talker-blasts-removal-of-content-from-u-s-military-sites-as-racist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/03\/19\/cronkite-news-navajo-code-talker-blasts-removal-of-content-from-u-s-military-sites-as-racist\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: Navajo Code Talker blasts removal of content from U.S. military sites as ‘racist’"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Navajo<\/a>
Navajo Code Talkers Corporal Henry Bahe Jr., left, and Private First Class George H. Kirk, right, of the U.S. Marine Corps operate a portable radio set in a clearing they\u2019ve just hacked in the dense jungle close behind the front lines of World War II. Photo: National Archives <\/figcaption>\r\n
Pentagon blames \u2018mistake\u2019 for deletion of Navajo Code Talkers pages in DEI scrub, says content will be restored<\/div>\r\n
Wednesday, March 19, 2025<\/div>\r\n
By Madeline Bates<\/div>\r\n
Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n
cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

\r\n
\r\nCorrection from Cronkite News<\/strong>
\r\nA Cronkite News story about the Pentagon removing references to Navajo Code Talkers from websites, a photo caption misspelled the name of one of the Marines. The correct name is Cpl. Henry Bahe Jr.\r\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon called the removal of Navajo Code Talker content a \u201cmistake,\u201d vowing Tuesday to restore material taken offline during a scrub of DEI content.<\/p>\r\n

The explanation didn\u2019t 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 \u201cdiversity, equity and inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \r\n

\u201cSome 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,\u201d MacDonald told Cronkite News by phone. \u201cYou\u2019re not only erasing Navajo culture but you\u2019re also eliminating Navajo code.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \"Navajo<\/a>

A screenshot of one of the Department of Defense pages devoted to content about Navajo Code Talkers that were offline. The Pentagon said on March 18, 2025, that the removal was a \u201cmistake\u201d during a purge of DEI-related material, in keeping with President Donald Trump\u2019s orders to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion references.<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/P>\r\n

Defense Department officials said the mistake occurred as part of the effort to comply with President Donald Trump\u2019s order to end DEI policies and delete all references to DEI.<\/p>\r\n

Axios first reported<\/a> the deletions on Monday, prompting an uproar.<\/p>\r\n

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.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThis is shameful,\u201d Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona, a Marine combat veteran, posted on X. \u201cTrump can\u2019t erase history just because he feels like it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot defended the deletions on Monday, telling Axios that as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had said<\/a>, \u201cDEI is dead at the Defense Department. … We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the department with the directive removing DEI content<\/a> from all platforms.”<\/p>\r\n

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\n\t\t\n\t\t\tDepartment of Defense cancels National Native American Heritage Month\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t
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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.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\"Indianz.Com\"\t\tIndianz.Com\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n

A day later, the press office called the deletions a \u201cmistake\u201d 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 Din\u00e9 language to pass messages at Iwo Jima and other battles.<\/p>\r\n

An Army article about their contributions<\/a> remained offline. So did a Defense Department story<\/a> about the role Code Talkers played in the U.S. victories in both world wars.<\/p>\r\n

A November 5 story about an Air Force flight instructor<\/a> whose grandfather served as a Code Talker went back online Tuesday afternoon after returning a \u201c404\u201d error.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cRecognizing 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.<\/p>\r\n

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, a former Navy fighter pilot, accused Trump on X of \u201ctrying to wash away the accomplishments of the Navajo Code Talkers.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

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\n\t\t\n\t\t\tNational Congress of American Indians \u2018deeply concerned\u2019 about removal of Native content from U.S. military sites\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t
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“The Navajo Code Talkers\u2019 legacy is not just a story of Native American resilience but a defining chapter in American history,\u201d said NCAI Executive Director Larry Wright, Jr.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\"Indianz.Com\"\t\tIndianz.Com\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

In 2000, Congress approved Congressional Gold Medals for the original 29 Navajos who developed the code \u2013 the nation\u2019s highest civilian award \u2013 and silver medals for others who served in the program.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWith the Navajo language they defeated the enemy\u201d is inscribed on the back in the Navajo language.<\/p>\r\n

Records from the Navajo Nation list three surviving Code Talkers<\/a>, though one of them, John Kinsel, died in October at age 107. The others are MacDonald and Thomas Begay.<\/p>\r\n

Begay was about 16 when he signed up<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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\r\n\"Peter<\/a>\r\n<\/div>
Peter MacDonald in seen in military uniform in 1944, when the future Navajo Nation chairman joined the U.S. Marines Corps and later became a Code Talker during World War II. Courtesy photo from Peter MacDonald<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThis has nothing to do with DEI. Code is a weapon, and that weapon helped us win the war,\u201d he said.<\/p>\r\n

Crystalyne Curley, speaker of the Navajo Nation Council, called the Code Talkers\u2019 legacy \u201ca cornerstone of American history.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cErasing their extraordinary contributions from formal military history is not only disrespectful, it is dishonorable,\u201d she said in a statement before the Pentagon said it would restore the material.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDishonorable\u201d: 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<\/a><\/p>— indianz.com (@indianz) March 18, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>