Tribal Holiday Celebrates Navajo Code Talkers
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) -- Navajo Nation government employees will have the day off Friday in celebration of the Navajo Code Talkers.
The actual tribal holiday is Saturday. The Tribal Council designated the day a holiday in 2006, more than two decades after President Ronald Reagan recognized the Code Talkers and named a day in honor of them.
The Code Talkers were an elite group of Navajo Marines who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Some of the surviving members plan to gather in Gallup, N.M., to celebrate.
Several hundred Navajos served as Code Talkers during the war, but a group of 29 developed the code based on their native language. Their role in the war wasn't declassified until 1968.