Editing Navajo language (section)

===Navajo Code Talkers===
{{main|Code talker#Navajo}}
[[File:Navajo Indian communication men with the Marines on Saipan landed with the first assault waves to his the beach. - NARA - 532526.tif|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Navajo code talkers]], Saipan, June 1944|alt=Navajo code talkers]]
[[File:Navaho-enlistment-letter-page01.jpg|thumb|right|General [[Clayton Barney Vogel]]'s recommendation letter for Navajo to be used by [[code talker]]s during [[World War II]]]]
During  World Wars I and II, the U.S. government employed speakers of the Navajo language as [[Navajo code talkers]]. These Navajo soldiers and sailors used a code based on the Navajo language to relay secret messages. At the end of the war the code remained unbroken.<ref>{{Cite web |title=1942: Navajo Code Talkers |url=https://www.intelligence.gov/index.php/people/barrier-breakers-in-history/453-navajo-code-talkers |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190416140447/https://www.intelligence.gov/index.php/people/barrier-breakers-in-history/453-navajo-code-talkers |archive-date=April 16, 2019 |website=[[United States Intelligence Community]]}}</ref>

The code used Navajo words for each letter of the English alphabet. Messages could be encoded and decoded by using a [[simple substitution cipher]] where the [[ciphertext]] was the Navajo word. Type two code was informal and directly translated from English into Navajo. If there was no word in Navajo to describe a military word, code talkers used descriptive words. For example, the Navajo did not have a word for ''submarine'', so they translated it as ''iron fish''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://americanindian.si.edu/education/codetalkers/html/chapter4.html|title=Code Talking – Native Words Native Warriors|website=americanindian.si.edu|access-date=2019-01-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190112040555/https://americanindian.si.edu/education/codetalkers/html/chapter4.html|archive-date=January 12, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/american-indian-code-talkers|title=American Indian Code Talkers|website=The National WWII Museum {{!}} New Orleans|language=en|access-date=2019-01-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190127101902/https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/american-indian-code-talkers|archive-date=January 27, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

These Navajo code talkers are widely recognized for their contributions to WWII. Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division Signal Officer stated, "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.avantpage.com/blog/language-spotlight-navajo/|title=Language Spotlight: Navajo|date=25 September 2013 }}</ref>