Navajo tribal officials say the Trump administration has rescinded its removal of the online legacy of the highly decorated Code Talkers.
The White House blamed an erroneous artificial intelligence process that was triggered by the term Navajo in the name Navajo Code Talkers. That led to the removal of any mention of the vaunted war heroes from the Department of Defense’s websites.
Navajo President Buu Nygren says the White House reached out to inform him of the error.
Meanwhile, Pentagon press secretary John Ulyot said the military has continued to remove any reference to diversity, equity or inclusion (DEI), which he referred to as "Discriminatory Equity Ideology."
“Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others – we salute them for their strong and in many cases heroic service to our country, full stop. We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity or sex. We do so only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like ever other American who has worn the uniform," Ulyot wrote in an emailed response to various news organizations.
"DEI, Discriminatory Equity Ideology does the opposite. It is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services’ core warfighting mission.
We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms," Ulyot added.
"In the rare cases that content is removed -- either deliberately or by mistake -- that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period," he wrote.
