The following is an encore presentation of everything everywhere daily.

Secrecy is a huge part of military success.

You want to be able to communicate with your own forces without the enemy finding out what your plans are.

As America entered World War II, they were in need of a method of communication that couldn't be cracked by Germany or Japan.

They found the answer they were looking for

in the languages of Native Americans.

Learn more about Navajo Code Talkers

and other Native American languages used in World War II

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. So, The idea of using Native American languages as a form of military code didn't begin in World War II.

It actually began in the first World War.

The Germans during World War I had no problem understanding English,

and they had managed to break every American code.

An American Army officer named Colonel

Alford Wainwright Bloor of the 142nd Infantry had several members of the

Choctaw Nation in his unit. One day he overheard them talking to each other in the Choctaw language.

He realized he couldn't understand what they were saying, and if he couldn't understand,

then the Germans probably couldn't understand either.

He gathered up all the Choctaw soldiers and told them of his idea and they were on board.

They developed a code based on the Choctaw language and then distributed the Choctaw speakers so there was one in each company.

On October 26 of 1918, just two weeks before the end of the war,

they managed to execute a withdrawal of two companies in the second battalion,

and the Germans didn't suspect a thing.

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