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Samuel Sandoval, one of the last members of the Navajo Code Talkers who encrypted critical U.S. messages during World War II, has died at 98. Navajo Code Talkers famously used language based on the Navajo Nation’s native tongue to transmit messages regarding Japanese troop placements and movements during U.S. Marine assaults throughout the Pacific. The Navajo language was unwritten at the time and U.S. enemies had virtually no means of deciphering the code. Sandoval was among four remaining code talkers still alive today, from the hundreds who had been recruited during the war. The three others who are living include...

A leader of the Navajo Code Talkers who appeared at a Washington Redskins home football game said Wednesday the team name is a symbol of loyalty and courage — not a slur as asserted by critics who want it changed. Roy Hawthorne, 87, of Lupton, Ariz., was one of four Code Talkers honored for their service in World War II during the Monday night game against the San Francisco 49ers. Hawthorne, vice president of the Navajo Code Talkers Association, said the group's trip was paid for by the Redskins. The four men met briefly with team owner Dan Snyder but...

Alfred K. Newman, one of the last surviving Navajo Code Talkers, died at the age of 94 on Sunday in New Mexico. Newman, who used his native language to outsmart the Japanese in World War II by helping to create an uncrackable code, died at a nursing home in Bloomfield, New Mexico. “Navajo Code Talker Alfred Newman was a hero, and he stood amongst giants,” tribal President Russell Begaye told the Arizona Republic. “We will be forever grateful for his contributions and bravery, as well as that of each and every one of our Navajo Code Talkers. They are national...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ A Navajo man who helped stump the Japanese during World War II using a code based on his native language has died in suburban Salt Lake City. Ernest Yazhe’s daughter Melissa Yazhe tells The Salt Lake Tribune that her 92-year-old father died of renal failure Tuesday. Yazhe joined the U.S. Marines when he was 19 and became one of the hundreds of code talkers who played a vital combat role by transmitting battlefield messages in an unbreakable Navajo-based radio code.

The last of the 29 Navajos who developed a code that stumped the Japanese during World War II has died. Chester Nez, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, died Wednesday morning of kidney failure, said Judy Avila, who helped Nez write his memoirs. He was 93. Before hundreds of men from the Navajo Nation became Code Talkers, 29 Navajos were recruited to develop the code based on the then-unwritten Navajo language. Nez was in 10th grade when he enlisted, keeping his decision a secret from his family and lying about his age, as did many others. "It's one of the greatest parts...

WINDOW ROCK — Another Navajo Code Talker has died. Sgt. Jimmie Begay, of Sawmill, died Wednesday afternoon, the Navajo Nation says. He was 86. --------------------- Services are pending.

With gnarled fingers, Chester Nez reverently opened the small box his son Mike had fetched for him at their West Mesa home. Even at 90 years old, Nez’s face still beams as he proudly opens it. Careful not to touch the gold medal, Nez shares a secret. “On the other side it says, ‘We used our language to defeat the enemy,’ and that’s what we did,” he said. Nez carefully puts the lid back on the box and hands it to his son for safekeeping. Inside is a Congressional Gold Medal — one of only 29 in existence — given...

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) -- Tourists hurry inside a shop here to buy books about the famed Navajo Code Talkers, warriors who used their native language as their primary weapon. Outside, on a walk sheltered from the sun, nine of the Code Talkers sit at a table autographing the books. Each is an old man now. They wear similar caps and shirts, the scarlet and gold of the Marine Corps, and turquoise jewelry. One of these men, who signs his name as Cpl. Chester Nez, is distinguished from the others......

Three rifle volleys echoed through the Hills Tuesday afternoon, bidding farewell to the nation’s last Oglala Lakota code talker. Clarence Wolf Guts, an 86-year-old World War II veteran, was laid to rest in the Black Hills National Cemetery with the Lord’s Prayer and drum beat resonating inside the rock rotunda. A procession of 30 vehicles -- including one white Chevy Impala with the sign “We love you Grandpa Clarence, forever in our heart.” -- followed a white van that carried Wolf Guts from a traditional Lakota ceremony in Wanblee to Sturgis. A crowd of over 60 traveled to pay their...

<p>PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) - Willard Varnell Oliver, a member of the Navajo Code Talkers who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language, died Wednesday. He was 88.</p> <p>Lawrence Oliver said his father died at the Northern Arizona Veterans Administration Health Care System Hospital in Prescott, Ariz. He had been declining health for the past two years.</p>

PRESCOTT, Ariz. – Willard Varnell Oliver, a member of the Navajo Code Talkers who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language, died Wednesday. He was 88. ... Oliver was part of an elite group of Navajo Marines who confused the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in Navajo. The Code Talkers took part in every assault the Marines conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. Their work was declassified in 1968. Oliver, who grew up between Shiprock and Farmington, N.M., served in the South Pacific with the 2nd Marine Division...

The FReeper Canteen Presents….. ~ National Navajo Code Talkers Day! ~ Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Peter Pace (left), US Marine Corps, talks with Navajo Code Talkers after they presented him with a Navajo blanket in the Pentagon on Aug 10, 2007. Code Talkers were Native American Marines who served in World War II and developed a communications code based on their native language. DoD photo by Staff Sgt D Myles Cullen, US Air Force. (Released) Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies’ militaryand family members of the above.Honoring...

Navajo Code Talker dies Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., offers condolences to family WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., today conveyed his condolences to the family of the late Navajo Code Talker and Navajo Tribal Councilman John Brown, Jr., of Crystal, N.M., who died this morning at home. He was 88. “Today, with sadness, we heard of the passing of Mr. John Brown, Jr., one of the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers and one of the Navajo Nation’s great warriors,” President Shirley said. “For so long, these brave men were the true unsung heroes of...

TAMA, Iowa (AP) -- Frank Sanache, one of the last of the "code talkers" from the Meskwaki Indian tribe, died Saturday. He was 86.