Thomas Daschle: “Americans are united today in concern for the safety and well-being of our men and women in uniform--especially those…”

“Americans are united today in concern for the safety and well-being of our men and women in uniform--especially those who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, risking their lives to advance human freedom. This morning, I would like to speak about the extraordinary service of a group of soldiers from two earlier wars. We know these men today as ``the code talkers.'' They were Native American soldiers who used the languages of their tribes to send strategic military communications during World Wars I and II. Their impenetrable codes saved the lives of countless American troops in Europe and throughout the Pacific. The Navajo code talkers are the best-known of these men. Three years ago, they were honored, rightly, with congressional medals. But the Navajo were not the only code talkers. Soldiers from at least 15 other Indian Nations--including the Cherokee, Choctaw, Comanche, Pawnee, Seminole, Osage, Kiowa, Hopi and other nations--also served as code talkers. And 11 code talkers came from the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota nations, known to many as the Great Sioux Nation. Of those 11, nine--John Bear King of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe; Simon Broken Leg and Iver Crow Eagle, Sr., of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe; Eddie Eagle Boy and Phillip LaBlanc, of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe; Bap-TEEST Pumpkinseed of the Oglala Sioux Tribe; Edmund St. John of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe; and Walter C. John of the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska--have all passed on.”