Coconino Community College hosts Navajo Code Talker Day event Aug. 15

Code Talker Memorial Park is located in Window Rock, Arizona. (Photo/OPVP)

Code Talker Memorial Park is located in Window Rock, Arizona. (Photo/OPVP)

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. --Last year, former Arizona Sen. Jamescita Peshlakai sponsored a bill to recognize National Navajo Code Talkers Day, Aug. 14, as a state holiday. Gov. Doug Ducey signed the bill into law.

This year, on Monday, Peshlakai, an alum of Coconino Community College and NAU and currently with the U.S. Department of the Interior, will offer a presentation on the Importance of Navajo Code Talkers Day during an event held at CCC’s Lone Tree Campus, 4 to 5:30 p.m., 2800 S. Lone Tree Road, in Flagstaff.

Derik Yellowhair, Student Life Coordinator at CCC, said that the event is meant to honor veterans, specifically Navajo Code Talkers.

“Former President Dr. Colleen Smith wanted CCC to give Navajo Code Talkers Day recognition,” Yellowhair said, adding that one in five of CCC’s students is Native American, many of whom are Navajo.

The three living Navajo Code Talkers – Tomas H. Begay, John Kinsel Jr., and former Chairman of the Navajo Nation Peter McDonald – will not be present, but they will be recognized during the event. According to the Navajo Code Talkers Day website, 400 young Navajo men served in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, and it was their use of their sacred language to create a code the Japanese forces couldn’t break that became critical to the Allied war effort.

During Monday’s event, there will be an opening prayer before a presentation on the Cultural History of the Navajo Language. The Standing Horse Singers will be dedicating a Flag Song and a Victory Song on behalf of all Navajo Code Talkers. Peshlakai will then make her presentation on the Importance of the Navajo Code Talker, followed by recognition of the living Code Talkers. Acknowledgements and a closing prayer will follow.

National Navajo Code Talkers Day was created in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan. For more information about National Navajo Code Talkers Day, visit www.nationalnavajocodetalkersday.com.

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