Atsá means “eagle” to a Navajo. Paaki is the Hopi word for “houses on water.” To a specially trained Navajo or Hopi soldier during World War II, however, the words indicated “transport plane” and “ships.” During both World Wars, hundreds of Native American soldiers served the United States by using their Native languages to send and receive secret messages. These messages proved undecipherable to the enemy and helped the U.S. achieve victory. Native Words, Native Warriors, developed by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and SITES, tells the remarkable story of these American heroes and highlights the cultural backgrounds that made possible their unique and valuable contribution to the war effort. The U.S. military first enlisted American Indians to relay messages during World War I. Two fundamental components of Native culture—warrior traditions and spoken languages of extreme complexity—were combined to great effect. Although the U.S. government did not consider American Indians to be citizens until 1924, soldiers from a number of Indian nations served the military during the war. Soldiers from the Navajo, Hopi, Comanche, Choctaw, Chippewa/Oneida, Menominee, Sac and Fox, Sioux, Crow, Mississauga, and Cree Nations took part in similar efforts during World War II. The best known of these projects is now the formerly classified Navajo Code Talker Program, established by the U.S. Marine Corps in September 1942. The program started with 29 Navajo volunteers who created a system of code words and were trained in radio communications. In all, more than 380 Navajo code talkers were sent to Marine units in the Pacific, where they relayed information about troop movements and battle plans. Native Words, Native Warriors provides an ideal opportunity to celebrate this important but little-reported aspect of American history. >>National Museum of the American Indian's Code Talkers website

Contents	15 Large-scale, freestanding color banners with accompanying labels and text
Supplemental	Educational resource list, speaker list, bibliography, film guide, promotional resources, 10- and 60-minute DVDs
Participation Fee	$1,700 for 10-week booking period
Size	150 running feet (45 running meters), est.
Crates	4
Weight	455 lbs.
Category	History & Culture
Security	Limited
Shipping	Outgoing; host museum arranges shipping and pays carrier directly
SITES Contacts	Minnie Micu, 202.633.3160 (Scheduling) Katherine Krile, 202.633.3108 (Content)
Tour Through	July 2011

Dates		Host Institution	Status
10/28/06	1/07/07	Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum, Arkansas City, KS	Booked
1/27/07	4/08/07	The Air Zoo, Portage, MI	Booked
4/28/07	7/08/07	Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, MO	Booked
7/28/07	10/7/07	The Barrington Area Historical Society, Barrington, IL	Booked
10/27/07	1/6/08	Pueblo Grande Museum & Archaeological Park, Phoenix, AZ	Booked
1/26/08	4/6/08	Museum of Western Art, Kerrville, TX	Booked
4/26/08	7/6/08	The Air Museum Planes of Fame, Chino, CA	Booked
7/26/08	10/5/08	Salmon Ruins Museum and Research Library, Bloomfield, NM	Booked
10/25/08	1/4/09	Frontiers of Flight Museum, Dallas, TX	Booked
4/25/09	7/5/09	Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, Clewiston, FL	Booked
7/25/09	10/4/09	Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, Kennesaw, GA	Booked
10/24/09	1/3/10	Spartanburg County Public Library, Spartanburg, SC	Booked
1/23/10	4/4/10		Call for Availability
4/24/10	7/4/10	In Their Own Words...A Veterans Museum, Perham, MN	Booked
7/24/10	10/3/10	Kingsport Public Library, Kingsport, TN	Booked
10/23/10	01/02/11	Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Mashantucket, CT	Booked
1/22/11	7/4/11	National Museum of the Marine Corps, Triangle, VA	Booked

None listed at this time. Please check back later.

6.20.06 Media only: Stephanie Montgomery (202) 633-3122 Public only: (202) 633-1000 Stories of American Indian Code Talkers Revealed in New Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition “My language was my weapon.” —David Patterson (Navajo), 4th Div., U.S. Marine Corps. When the United States issued the call to arms in World Wars I and II, American Indians answered as warriors. Some men discovered that words—in their Native languages—would be their most valued weapons. These American heroes will share their stories of strength and courage in a new Smithsonian traveling exhibition. Native Words, Native Warriors, developed by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), will tell the remarkable story of soldiers from more than a dozen tribes who used their Native languages while in service in the U.S. military. This inspiring exhibition is made possible thanks to the generous support of donor Elizabeth Hunter Solomon. Additional support has been provided by the Smithsonian Women’s Committee and the AMB Foundation. Native Words, will premiere at the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum in Arkansas City, Kan., on Oct. 28 and will continue on a national tour through 2011. A second copy of the exhibition, organized for travel by the National Museum of the American Indian, will open at the Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City on Nov. 6 and will remain on tour through 2008. The launch of the exhibition in Oklahoma and Kansas will coincide with the November celebrations of American Indian Heritage Month and Veterans Day. The U.S. military first enlisted American Indians to relay messages in their Native languages during World War I, even though the United States did not consider American Indians citizens until 1924. These encoded messages proved undecipherable by the enemy and helped the United States achieve victory. The involvement of the code talkers expanded during World War II. Soldiers from the Comanche, Meskwaki, Sioux, Crow, Hopi and Cree nations, among others, took part in the effort. The best known of these projects is the formerly classified Navajo Code Talker Program, established by the U.S. Marine Corps in September 1942. The encoded messages proved to be a fast, accurate and indecipherable-to-the-enemy alternative, which suited the demands of the battlefield better than the painfully slow military devices that had been standard. Twenty-three years after the end of World War II, the U.S. government declassified the Navajo and Comanche code talker programs and revealed America’s unsung heroes. In 1999 the U.S. Army presented the last surviving Comanche code talker with a the Knowlton award for outstanding intelligence work, and in 2001 President George W. Bush presented the Congressional Gold Medal to four of the five living veterans of the original 29 Navajo code talkers. Through oral histories taken from the veterans themselves, “ Native Words” celebrates and honors this important but little-reported aspect of American history. In addition to 15 large-scale banners, the exhibition will include videos examining the development of the code, battlefield experiences and the sharp turnaround many of them experienced as they transitioned from Indian boarding schools where they were punished for speaking their Native language to using it as their call to duty for their country. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian is an institution of living cultures dedicated to advancing knowledge and understanding of the life, languages, literature, history and arts of the Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere. SITES has been sharing the wealth of Smithsonian collections and research programs with millions of people outside Washington, D.C. for more than 50 years. SITES connects Americans to their shared cultural heritage through a wide range of exhibitions about art, science and history, which are shown wherever people live, work and play. Exhibition descriptions and tour schedules are available at www.sites.si.edu.