Aug. 14 is Navajo Code Talkers Day. Who were they?

Do you remember the movie Windtalkers starring Nicholas Cage? It was about a group of Native Americans who used their language to communicate in World War II's Pacific battles. There were Cherokee, Choctaw, Comanche, Meskwaki, and Navajos.

Page, Arizona is located northwest of the Navajo Reservation in Northern Arizona and we celebrate on August, 14, the bravery, heroism and courage of the Navajo Code Talkers.

Page is at the Northwestern Corner

At the start of WWII, Philip Johnston, a WWI veteran proposed to the U.S. Marine Corps the use of Navajo. He was the son of missionaries and because he was raised in the Navajo Reservation, he was one of a few non-Navajo people who spoke their language fluently.

Navajo has complex grammar and at that time it was an unwritten language. The military was in need of an undecipherable code to outsmart the Japanese.

2012 marks the 70th anniversary of the initial recruitment of the Navajo Code Talkers. 

It is estimated that at the beginning of World War II, less than 30 non-Navajos could understand the language.

Navajo Code Talkers, Saipan, June 1944

In simulated combat tests, Navajos could take a 3-line English message, encode, transmit and decode it in 20 seconds which by far beat the 30 minutes that a machine at that time would take.  With those results, 200 Navajos were recruited, the first 29 entering boot camp in May 1942.

Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima. ~Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer. 

The recruitment and use of the Navajo Code Talkers continued through the Korean War until it was ended early during the Vietnam war.

The Navajo Code Talkers Association founded in 2009 by a group of surviving Navajo Code Talkers, based in Window Rock, AZ, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the eduction of future generations about the history, ideals and heroic accomplishments in World War II by the Navajo Code Talkers.

A Treasured Occasion Gift Shop

629 Elm Street, Page, AZ 86040
928.645.0044

What is a Kachina?

Kachina Dolls at A Treasured Occasion Gift Shop in
Page, AZ

If you've traveled at all in southwest, you've undoubted heard the word "kachina." (Also katchina or katcina pronounced in Hopi, like the latter spelling katsina.)

A kachina is a spirit being representing anything from the natural realm or cosmos. Kachina cults spread from the Hopi in Northern Arizona to also include the Zuni, Acoma, Isleta and Laguna Pueblo Native American tribes in New Mexico.

It can be the spirit of a respected ancestor, a deity, an element, an animal or bird like a buffalo or eagle, a location, a quality, a natural phenomenon or even a concept. The Hopi and Pueblo cultures have over 400 different kachinas.

Kachina was the most widespread religion by the Hopi and Pueblo practiced about 200 years before the Spaniards arrived in the West.

"The central theme of the kachina cult is the presence of life in all objects that fill the universe. Everything has an essence or a life force, and humans must interact with these or fail to survive." ~ Frank Anderson, Anthropolgist

The Hopi believe that the kachinas live on the Humphrey's Peak, the tallest mountain in Arizona. Every year, between the winter solstice and mid-July, the kachinas come down to the villages to dance and sing, bring rain for the harvest and to give gifts to the children.

Kachina Dolls

Hopi Kachina Dolls are made of cottonwood and are made by the men of the village then given to uninitiated girls during various ceremonies. After the ceremony, the dolls are hung on walls and are meant to be treasured and studied not to be idols of worship or children's toys.

Kachina Dancers

As part of ceremonial dances, the dancers dress as the kachinas of the various spirits. This video is of a Hopi Buffalo Dance. Notice the masked dancers dressed as the kachinas of the buffalo.



Click here for more information on the Hopi Kachina Dolls

Stop by our store in Page, AZ and check out our collection of authentic kachina dolls. 

A Treasured Occasion

629 Elm Street, Page, AZ 86040
928.645.0044