ONEIDA (NBC 26) — The Oneida Nation will celebrate Oneida Nation Code Talkers this week.
The day is known as Oneida Nation Code Talkers Day: a tradition every year on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend.
The Oneida Nation Public Relations Director Bobbi Webster said the code talkers used the Oneida language during World War II to pass top secret information to the United States and help win the war.
“They could speak on the radios their Oneida, or their respective language, and the enemies were not able to crack that code," Webster said.
Webster said in previous years before the COVID-19 pandemic, they had ceremonies with dancing and the code talkers themselves in attendance, however all of the code talkers have passed on.
She said even without a ceremony, this Friday will still be about honoring them and saluting their sacrifices.
The code talkers being celebrated are Lloyd M. Schuyler, Rupert S. Adams, Rimton L. Doxtator and Hudson R. Doxtator.
Webster said they were all very involved and committed to their communities, and there may even be more code talkers that went unknown.
“They were told to keep this a secret, to never speak about it, so some of those soldiers took that secret to the grave with them," Webster said.
