Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz made a historic campaign stop in Window Rock on the Navajo Nation over the weekend.
An Army National Guard veteran, Walz honored the recent passing of one the last-remaining Navajo Code Talkers, while railing against former President Donald Trump’s alleged praise of the very forces they were up against in World War II.
Walz, who dedicated himself to a 24-year military career, thanked Navajo Code Talker John Kinsel Sr. for his service and called him “a true treasure” lost by the U.S. and Navajo Nation alike.
Born in 1917, Kinsel died this month at the age of 107. Originally from Cove, Arizona, he then relocated to the community of Lukachukai — northeast of Chinle — and attended a boarding school in Fort Defiance before enlisting in the U.S. Marines.
Twenty-nine Navajo men were recruited in 1942 to turn their traditional language into an unbreakable code; Kinsel was a member of the second cohort to be trained as Navajo Code Talkers.
Assigned to the 9th Marine Regiment and the 3rd Marine Division in the Pacific, he saw combat during the battles of Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima. Kinsel and his brothers in arms used their Diné language to transmit covert messages by telephone and radio, using hundreds of Navajo words that were actually coded terms.
To this day, the Japanese are unable to decipher it.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren ordered all flags across Navajoland to be lowered to half-staff for an entire week to remember Kinsel and “honor this distinguished man’s life, bravery and steadfast dedication to his family” following his death on Oct. 19.
His passing also became part of Walz’s pitch to a crowd of nearly 1,000 Diné voters, while stumping for Vice President Kamala Harris at the Navajo Nation Veterans’ Memorial Park in Window Rock.
There isn’t an official count of Navajo Code Talkers who served in the Marines, but that number has been estimated between 350 and 420 service men. Either way, they were sent overseas to fight against the tyranny of Axis Powers.
“Young men left the Navajo Nation and were sent around the world to protect people they will never know or never see,” Walz said on Saturday. “That’s what happened, and here’s what Donald Trump said, ‘I need the kind of generals that Adolf Hitler had.’ … That makes me sick as hell to hear this guy saying that.”
Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly made that claim and 13 ex-Trump aides – all of whom identify as “lifelong Republicans” – have backed him in an open letter, writing that Trump’s admiration for dictators like Hitler is “rooted in his desire for absolute, unchecked power.”
“For the good of our country, our democracy and our Constitution, we are asking you to listen closely and carefully to General Kelly’s warning,” they ended. “We unfortunately know all too well how serious and dire it is.”
Walz added that his rumored remarks “disgraces every single person who wore the uniform, and he disgraces every single warrior that risked their lives to defend this nation against Nazism.”
Especially for the Navajo Code Talkers.
In fact, Trump even invited them to the White House seven years ago. Three out of the then 13 living Navajo Code Talkers showed up, including Peter MacDonald Sr., a former Navajo Nation chairman. The 95-year-old described that trip as an “exciting way to tell America what the Navajo Code Talkers did.”
But Walz didn’t see it that way, believing that Trump “wanted a photo op,” because the Navajo Code Talkers embody the epitome of American heroism.
“So what did he do? He took them to the White House and made them stand in front of a portrait of Andrew Jackson,” Walz explained. “I don’t know if he knows his history well enough to know what he was doing, but I damn sure guarantee you the people around him knew the insult they were throwing to Indian Country by making those heroes stand in front of that portrait.”
President Jackson signed the 1830 Indian Removal Act into law.
Trump, who has a history of draft deferments amid the Vietnam-era, was in such awe after MacDonald and his two fellow Navajo Code Talkers Fleming Begaye and Thomas Begay spoke that the then-president shared he couldn’t even deliver “the most beautiful speech” during their official White House visit in 2017.
“You were here long before any of us were here, although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago,” said Trump, mocking Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren. “They call her Pocahontas, but you know what, I like you because you are special. You are special people. You are really incredible people.”
Trump then urged Kelly, the retired four-star Marine general, to weigh in, too.
“What they did, very small number of men, sir, made the difference,” said Kelly, citing how 6,000 lives were lost amid the 36-day battle for Iwo Jima. “It would have been a lot worse had we not had the Navajo Code Talkers, and I thank you, Semper Fidelis.”
When asked whether Trump is a threat to democracy, MacDonald answered that America “deserves an individual who can actually preserve what we had for so many years,” including freedom, liberty and peace.
“I feel that this very important election of our time deserves very, very careful thinking about who we should elect,” MacDonald told KJZZ News. “We all need to think not so much about our own self. Think about our country. How can we preserve what we cherish so much. So it’s going to take all Americans to think real hard about who will best fit the job that needs to be done to preserve this great nation.”
He and the 98-year-old Thomas Begay are the only living Navajo Code Talkers left.
“When they pass on, it hurts,” MacDonald added. “My good friend, who is with the Lord this very hour, John Kinsel, [was] a great man. He survived, but over a dozen Navajo Code Talkers never made it home. I’m sure that the family is grieving too, even though they spent 107 years with him.”
