DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and friend, this one deserves every word. Somewhere in Tarrant County, there's a marker about the Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I, and I'm gonna do my best to honor it. Now, the 36th Infantry Division was a big outfit — soldiers from Oklahoma, soldiers from Texas, training together at Fort Bowie.
Among them were men of the Choctaw Nation. They fought bravely. That part the marker says plainly, and you believe it before you even get to the rest.
When that division deployed to France, October 1918 rolled in like a freight train on the Western Front. The Central Powers — the other side — had gotten good at intercepting Allied artillery orders. Good enough to decipher them.
And when your enemy knows what you're about to do before you do it, well, the losses get difficult real fast. The marker says the 36th's regiments faced difficult losses that October, and you can feel the weight of that word — difficult. But Allied officers were paying attention.
And somewhere in that desperate stretch of France, somebody realized something. These Choctaw soldiers — they carried something the Germans almost certainly did not have. A language.
The Choctaw language. A code, as it turned out, that no enemy had cracked and no enemy was going to crack. So they put Choctaw soldiers on the lines, transmitting messages between headquarters and the front.
And here's the thing — the Germans were never able to decipher a single Choctaw message. Not one. Within twenty-four hours of putting the Choctaw language to work, Allied forces managed to turn the tide.
Twenty-four hours. That's not a figure I'm reaching for — that's what the marker says, and it lands like a hammer. Now, the Choctaw language didn't have every technical military expression an army needs, so a code was developed right alongside it.
Artillery became tanampo chito — big gun. Made sense. A machine gun became tanamposhi hussatpalhki — little gun shoot fast.
You hear that and you think, yeah, that tracks. First battalion was tanchi nihi achvffa — one grain of corn. And a soldier?
A soldier was tvshka. Warrior. That one needs no translation at all.
By November 1918, the 36th Division had something else to show for their time together. They developed the insignia still in use today — a blue arrowhead representing the soldiers from Oklahoma, and a T representing the soldiers from Texas. Two peoples, one division, one mark.
The Choctaw code talkers didn't disappear into history quietly. The success of the Choctaw and other native codes in World War I inspired the United States to turn to Native American code again in World War II. That's a legacy with reach.
And the honors came, eventually. In 1986, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma recognized the code talkers with the Choctaw Medal of Valor. In 1989, the French government awarded them the Knight of the National Order of Merit.
In 2007, the State of Texas gave them the Lone Star Medal of Valor. In 2008, the U.S. Government passed the Code Talker Recognition Act.
And in 2010, the Code Talker Star was placed on the Texas Trail of Fame. Decades of recognition, building one honor at a time — for men who, in twenty-four hours on the Western Front in France, changed the course of a war by speakin' the language they were born to. Tvshka.
Warriors. Every one of them.
What the marker says
During World War I, the 36th nfantry division included Choctaw Nation soldiers training at Fort Bowie. These men fought bravely. When they deployed, their regiments faced difficult losses in October 1918 on the Western Front in France as Central Powers forces intercepted and deciphered Allied artillery orders. Allied officers realized their soldiers had a secret code likely unknown to the Germans–the Choctaw language. Choctaw soldiers transmitted messages in the Choctaw language between headquarters and the front lines. The Germans were never able to decipher Choctaw messages. Within 24 hours of utilizing the Choctaw language, Allied forces managed to turn the tide of the war by keeping communications confidential. Because the Choctaw language did not have many of the technical military expressions necessary, a code was developed. Examples included tanampo chito (“big gun”) for artillery, tanamposhi hussatpalhki (“little gun shoot fast”) for machine gun, tanchi nihi achvffa (“one grain of corn”) for first battalion and tvshka (“warrior”) for soldier. In November 1918, the 36th division developed the currently used insignia with a blue arrowhead representing the soldiers from Oklahoma, and a “T” representing the soldiers from Texas. The success of the Choctaw and other native codes during WWI inspired the U.S. to utilize Native American code once again during WWII. The Choctaw code talkers were recognized by the Choctaw Medal of Valor by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (1986), the Knight of the National Order of Merit by the French government (1989), the Lone Star Medal of Valor by the State of Texas (2007), and the Code Talker Recognition Act by the U.S. Government (2008). In 2010, the Code Talker Star was placed on the Texas Trail of Fame. (2011)