During World War I and World War II, American Indians made a unique contribution to the U.S. Armed Forces by using their tribal languages in secret battle communications.

Join us via zoom as author and anthropologist/historian William C. Meadows of Missouri State University reveals how these Native American “code talkers” played a key role in important battles and campaigns—and helped save many American and allied lives.

Following Meadows’s talk, Alexandra Harris, senior editor at the museum and co-author of Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces, will host a Q&A with attendees.

Image: Diné [Navajo] code talkers Corporal Henry Bahe Jr. and Private First Class George H. Kirk. Bougainville, South Pacific, December 1943. National Archives photo no. 127-MN69889-B