Without WWII Indigenous code talkers, 'we would be speaking German'
Candace Maracle | CBC News | Posted: November 8, 2024 11:00 AM | Last Updated: November 8
Sworn to secrecy, most Mohawk code talkers went unrecognized during their lives
Code talkers and their missions were so vital during the Second World War, that some believe without them, there was no way of winning of the war.
"Let's put it this way, we would be speaking German or some other language if it weren't for the Native code talkers," said Mike Cook.
Cook is from the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe and is the commander of the American Legion in Akwesasne, a Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) community that straddles the Ontario, Quebec and New York state borders.
Despite their importance, it was not until 2008, when the Code Talkers Recognition Act in the U.S. was passed, that their contributions to the war effort were officially acknowledged.
Cook, who has been retired from the Army reserve for 22 years, has worked with Veterans Affairs for years hosting clinics about benefits and health care, off and on-reserve and on both sides of the border.
Code talkers were often used as scouts — even though many were just teenagers, he said.
Usually in pairs, the scouts served on the forward lines. They would go out into the field being as inconspicuous as possible to get information.
"You tell them just how many people, what kind of insignia is on the shirt. Let them know what kind of outfit they're up against … how large a group, what kind of weapons they're using," Cook said.
Mohawk code talkers would transmit coded Kanien'kéha (Mohawk language) messages with these details to another Mohawk code talker via radio, who would then share that information with his division. The soldiers created their own code — the Kanien'kéha word for eagle (á:kweks) could represent the word for gun (káhonre), for example.
He said this intelligence would be used to determine the rank and experience of the enemy to help strategize.
Code talkers monument
Cook was on the committee to establish a monument dedicated to all of Akwesasne's code talkers in 2018.
"We really have nothing for the veterans like this with all the names," he said, adding that the veterans cemetery is the only exception.
His efforts to research and honour his community's Mohawk code talkers was not an easy task. Many of the men who served were sworn to secrecy by the American government, he said, and they never spoke about their clandestine missions overseas due to fears of repercussions.
WATCH | Code talkers' legacy:
"The code talkers we never knew we had …You're told you're under oath. You don't tell nobody," Cook said.
It wasn't until the Veterans' Oral History Project Act was passed in the U.S. in 2000, that veterans from his community seemed to feel secure enough to share the details of their missions, he said.
The last Mohawk code talker, Louis Levi Oakes, was 94 when died in 2019. He was one of 17 known code talkers from Akwesasne Mohawk Territory who served in the Second World War.
Oakes is the only Mohawk code talker to be recognized while he was alive. His service in the war was also well-documented.
"Levi, you know, he was just a fisherman, a hunter and he was up there in age. He never said nothing to anybody," Cook said.
"We honoured [Oakes] at a conference in Washington, and we took him to the airport, which was three hours from here and that guy talked like he was 20 years old. He told me where he enlisted, where he went."
Oakes' daughter, Dora, accompanied him to many ceremonies honouring his accomplishments in the Second World War.
She said her father never spoke about his military career.
The first time her father received recognition for his service was in 2016, when he was awarded a silver star "for gallantry in action against the enemy, the U.S. Armed Forces' third-highest award.
"They should have did it 20 years earlier when a lot of these veterans could walk, get around and get honoured," Dora said.
Charles and Alex Wilson Lazore, Mohawk code talkers
Gerald Lazore served in the 82nd Airborne Division, Army at Fort Bragg, N.C. He was a paratrooper and artillery repairman.
"With the outfit I was in, I didn't know if I was going to go overseas or anywhere. You're always on alert, so that was the life when you were a paratrooper," he said.
Despite having a difficult time readjusting to civilian life after his two years of service, he said he was one of the lucky ones.
"I never went overseas. I got lucky. I didn't go to Vietnam like my brother did."
Lazore's older brother Kenneth did two tours of duty in Vietnam in 1967-68.
He said his memories of those tours are his alone and he's buried them. When he reflects on it, Kenneth says it forced him to grow old before his time — like many of the men he served with.
During the war, people saw "too much," he said.
"[In] '68 I brought a cousin home. Shittiest friggin' duty that I ever had…You go to a funeral, you stand by the casket, parents look at you," Kenneth said, his voice cracking. "Why him?"
"Indian life is cheap," he said.
Gerald said many of the men from Akwesasne enlisted with the U.S. Army because many who did so on the Canadian side were enfranchised and lost their Indian status upon returning home from war.
Kenneth and Gerald's uncle, Charles Lazore and father, Alex Wilson Lazore, were both Mohawk code talkers. Their father served in France in the Second World War. He died in his mid-70s before ever being recognized for his service. His sons only learned he was a war hero after he died.
He enlisted, they said, because "money was tight back then."
When he returned home, he went to work as a farmer and ironworker. Little else is known about his time in the military.
Gerald echoed Dora's sentiments about the lack of recognition his father received for his service as a war hero.
"They should have did this when all of them were still here, right?"
The brothers still have their father's 42nd Division handbook, which has been carefully preserved.
The handbook is the only known copy in their community, containing maps, Alex Wilson's 42nd Division patch, the most recent updates regarding enemy stations in the war and notes on Allied military stations.
Much of the information is difficult to decipher by those who didn't use the handbook themselves, Cook said while leafing through its contents and unfolding the maps.
After they die, the brothers said they plan to donate the book to the legion for its collection of memorabilia "so the whole community could come see what the men did here during World War Two as code talkers."
"They created their own words," said Kenneth.
"When they passed away, they took them," Gerald added.