Out of respect to all our warriors who have passed, we include them on our Naitonal Wall of  Warriors. If you would like  to add someone onto our virtual wall please e-mail culture@nimi.us or call us at (918) 298-2300.

 To nurture, shelter, defend, and protect home and family lies deep in the human heart.
 And so, still, after millions of their own were lost to conquest and disease,
 After culture, language, religion and land were taken,
 Year after year, war after war, unable to save their own,
 Our warriors have left home to serve, to protect, and to defend
 Our Code Talkers wrought victory with the very words taken from them,
To defend what, you ask—defend those who destroyed in the name of their God?
 To defend our land they answer
 Our home for thousands of years before your “civilizations” arose
 Our home that fed us, sheltered us, gave us life
 Defend the sacred places where our ancestors lived and died
 We defend the land of our life and breath
 We give honor to those who have honored us.

~ Dr. Ann Dapice / www.tkwolf.com

Charles Chibitty, Comanche Code Talker

CHARLES CHIBITTY(November 20, 1921 – July 20, 2005) was a Comanche code talker who used his native language to relay messages for the Allies during World War II. Chibitty, and 15 other Comanches had been recruited by the U.S. military for this purpose since Comanche was a language that was entirely unknown to the Germans, who were unable to decipher it. (The Navajos performed a similar duty in the Pacific War.)

Chibitty was born on November 20, 1921, in a tent 16 miles west of Lawton, Oklahoma. He attended high school at the Haskell Indian School in Lawrence, Kansas and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941. He served in the Army's Fourth Signal Company in the 4th Infantry Division. He earned the World War II Victory Medal, the European Theater of Operations Victory Medal with five bronze stars, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and the Good Conduct Medal.

In 1989, Chibitty and the other two surviving code talkers - Roderick Red Elk and Forrest Kassanavoid - were presented with the Chevalier of the Ordre National du Mérite by the French government. Chibitty's work — and that of the other Comanches who served in Europe — was not recognized by the U.S. government until 1999, when he received the Knowlton Award from The Pentagon, which recognizes outstanding intelligence work. By the time this recognition came around, Chibitty was the only surviving Comanche code talker.

In interviews with the media he would name all of his Comanche colleagues, so that they would not be forgotten. They were Larry Saupitty, Willie Yackeschi, Morris Sunrise, Perry Noyobad, Haddon Codynah, Robert Holder, Clifford Ototivo, Forrest Kassanavoid, Roderick Red Elk, Simmons Parker, Melvin Permansu, Ellington Mihecoby and Elgin Red Elk.
He died on July 20, 2005 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Lori Piestewa

SPC LORI ANN PIESTEWA(December 14, 1973–March 23, 2003) was a U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps soldier killed during the same Iraqi Army attack in which her friend Jessica Lynch was injured. A member of the Hopi tribe, Piestewa was the first woman in the U.S. armed forces killed in the 2003 Iraq war and is the first Native American woman to die in combat while serving with the U.S. military. Piestewa was awarded the Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal. The army posthumously promoted her from Private First Class to Specialist.

Josiah Perryman

PERRYMAN, JOSIAH CHOUTEAU (1840-1889) - The outbreak of the Civil War splintered the Creek Nation, and Perryman and his brothers enlisted in the Confederate Army. On August 9, 1861, he mustered into Company H of the First Creek Mounted Volunteers. On December 9, 1861, his company saw action at Bird Creek in the Chusto-Talasah engagement, fighting against other Creeks loyal to the Union. Later in the war the Perryman brothers reconsidered their alliance with the Confederacy and on December 7, 1862, enlisted with the Union army. Josiah Perryman served the rest of the war in Company I, First Regiment, Indian Home Guards, Kansas Infantry. He fought at the Battle of Webbers Falls on April 24, 1863, and at Honey Springs on July 17, 1863.

Freeland E. Douglas

FREELAND DOUGLAS, Hodulgee Muscogee code talker (1922-2007) - Entered U.S. Army from Chilocco Indian school with Co. C, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry (Thunderbird) Division of the Oklahoma National Guard on September 16, 1940. Served until wounded at Monte Cassino, Italy; air evacuation in January 1944 to North Africa and stateside with the hospital ship, “Seminole”. Awarded Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, Purple Heart Medal, Good Conduct Medal (clasp with six loops), American Defense Service Medal, American Campaign with Arrowhead (initial assault landings) and two Bronze Service Stars, World War II Victory Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Expert Badge for Rifle and Su-Machine Gun.