Code talker United States historyCode talker, any of more than 400 Native American soldiers—including Assiniboin, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Choctaw, Comanche, Cree, Crow, Fox, Hopi, Kiowa, Menominee, Navajo, Ojibwa, Oneida, Osage, Pawnee, Sauk, Seminole, and Sioux men—who transmitted sensitive wartime messages by speaking their native languages, in effect using them as codes. In both World War I and World War II, but especially the latter, the code talkers provided U.S. forces with fast communications over open radio waves, knowing that the enemy was unable to break the code. By all accounts the service of the code talkers was crucial to winning World War II in the Pacific theatre.