Phoenix – The Pentagon restored some web pages that highlight crucial contributions in war times of the Navajo Code and other American native veterans on Wednesday, days after the tribes condemned the action.
The initial elimination was part of a sweep of any military content that promoted diversity, equity and inclusion, or commonly known as DEI. After the broader executive order of President Donald Trump that ended the Federal Government’s programs, the Department of Defense eliminated thousands of pages in honor of the contributions of women and minority groups. Department officials say that the material of the Navajo Code conversationalist was erased erroneously.
“In the rare cases that the content is eliminated, either deliberately or by mistake, which is beyond the clearly described scope of the directive, we instruct the components and correct the content to recognize our heroes for their service dedicated together with their fellow citizens, the period,” said Pentagon’s press secretary, John Ullyot, in a statement.
Several web pages in the code conversators landed in a message “404 – page not found” on Tuesday. Some retreated on Wednesday, although anyone also mentioned the month of the assets of the Native Americans remains depressed. Thousands of other pages eliminated in the Dei purge are still offline.
White House officials informed the Navajo nation that an automated artificial intelligence review process that sought content with initiatives led to the elimination of anything mentioned “Navajo”, according to a statement from the president of the Navajo nation, Buu Nygren.
Nygren, who sent a letter to the Department of Defense requesting clarity on the subject, said the resolution pleases.
“I want to assure the people of Navajo that we remain in close communication with federal officials to ensure that the legacy of our appreciated navajo code is never erased from the history of American and Navajo,” said Nygren.
He also noted that the 574 tribes recognized by the federal government in the United States are sovereign nations and not defined by the Dei classifications, a position widely backed by other Native American leaders who also sent letters to the Trump administration.
The US Marines. UU. Initially recruited 29 Navajo men to develop a code based on the Navajo language not written in World War II. Using Navajo words for red earth, chief of war, clan, braided hair, accounts, ants and hummingbirds, for example, they came up with a glossary of more than 200 terms, then expanded and an alphabet. To transmit the word “send”, the code conversators would say the words of Navajo for “sheep, eyes, nose and deer”.
Hundreds of Navajos followed their steps, sending thousands of messages without error on the movements of Japanese troops, battlefield tactics and other crucial communications for the final result of the war. The perplexed code to Japanese military cryptologists.
The code conversators participated in all the assaults that the Marines led in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945 and are attributed to help the United States to win the war. Hundreds of American natives of more than 20 tribes also served as code speakers during World War I and World War II, according to the National Museum of the American Indian of Smithsonian. Among them were the speakers, Cherokee, Osage, Chippewa and Hopi.
Among the alarm of listening to the websites of the foul navajo code talker were Peter Macdonald, 96. He and Thomas H. Begay are the only two navajo code conversators who still live today.
“That code became a very valuable weapon and not only saved hundreds of thousands of soldiers, but also helped win the war in the Pacific,” Macdonald said by phone from his home in Tuba City in the part of Arizona of the Navajo nation. “And it has absolutely nothing to do with Dei.”
Macdonald, a Republican who voted for Trump, said he believes that the current administration needs to walk the line better between getting rid of Dei and ignoring the story.
“That is why I am very worried that communication from the Pentagon to the various military units should be taught or learn that this information is history, and does not want to hide the story,” Macdonald said.
The Department of Defense has had to issue guarantees that it is not omitting the historical achievements of military and women of color. In addition to the code conversators, the agency also restored on Wednesday a website that describes the military service of the baseball icon and the civil rights of Jackie Robinson after missing earlier in the day. Last week, the pages in honor of a winner of the Medal of Black Honor and members of the American Japanese service were also restored.
“Everyone in the Department of Defense Aman to Jackie Robinson, as well as the speakers of the Navajo Code, the aviators of Tuskegee, the Marines of Iwo Jima and many others, we greet them for their strong service and in many cases heroic to our country, complete stop,” said Ulyyot. “We do not see them or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnic origin or sex.”
Michael Smith, whose father, Samuel “Jesse” Smith Mr., was a talkative of a navajo code, questioned why these pages were removed.
“I do not know how to take the website of the Navajo Code of the website of the Department of Defense is saving money to the United States because that is not consistent with the president’s order,” said Smith, who helps organize annual celebrations of code speakers.
Governor Stephen Roe Lewis of the Indian community of the Gila River in Arizona also expressed its disappointment, claiming that there was a lack of content related to all American native veterans, including Ira Hayes. Hayes was a registered member of the tribe and one of the six Marines appeared in an iconic photograph of Associated Press of 1945 of the US forces who raised an American flag during the battle of Iwo Jima.
Even with some repossessed, it is still concerned with the elimination of web content is “the tip of the iceberg”.
“The way it is seen in the order (executive), this language is biased and is done to sound how diversity programs are those that are not ethical,” said Smith.
