The Act requires "issuance of medals to recognize the dedication and valor of Native American Code Talkers."
     The bill was passed by both the House and Senate and has been sent to the president for his signature. When it is signed, Congressional gold medals with a design based on tribal emblems will be struck for each recognized tribe to which code talkers belonged.
     Duplicate silver medals will be presented to individual code talkers or their representatives. The government also has the right to strike and sell duplicate bronze medals to cover the cost of the gold medals. All proceeds of the sales will be deposited into the U.S. Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
     The success of the bill is largely due to the efforts of Rob and Diana Roberts of the Meskwaki Settlement in Iowa who have worked for its passage for years. Rob, a veteran, labored long to contact members of other tribes that had code talkers in American wars and to gather lists of their names with biographical information.
     Eight men from Roberts' Meskwaki Tribe will be honored posthumously during the ceremony. They served together in the 168th Infantry, 34th Division, receiving training in Louisiana, Scotland and England before being sent to North Africa in World War II.
     The U.S. military used members of many tribes to communicate vital messages on the front lines in their own languages. Moving ahead of the main body of troops, the code talkers communicated enemy troop movements, directed artillery fire and provided other information through walkie-talkies in both the European and Pacific Theatres.
     When the United States entered World War I, Native Americans were not yet accorded the rights of citizens. In spite of that, members of many tribes enlisted in the armed forces and served valiantly.
     The first experimental code talkers were Choctaws who transmitted messages during World War I. The Choctaw language was not based on any language known to Europeans or any mathematical progression, so the Germans never broke the code.
     The code talkers remained one of America's most valuable secret weapons. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, the army recruited about 50 American Indians to develop codes using Native languages. The Marines recruited several hundred Navajo men for code talker duty in the Pacific.
     Tribes other than Navajo that participated in the code talker mission were: Assiniboine, Chippewa and Oneida, Choctaw, Comanche, Cree, Crow, Hopi, Kiowa, Menominee, Mississauga, Muscogee, Sac and Fox (Meskwaki) and Lakota and Dakota Sioux.
     Congress voted to present gold medals to the Navajo code talkers in 2000, but code talkers from other tribes were not officially recognized until this month.
     If the tribes and tribal members choose to do so, they may present their medals, after receiving them, to the Smithsonian Institution to be preserved with a list of the names of the code talkers. Congress also requested the Smithsonian create a standing exhibit honoring the code talkers.