EDITOR'S PAGE

ONE OF THE MOST popular articles to appear in Arizona Highways in a long time was the February 1989 account by William E. Hafford of the Navajo code talkers of World War II. The story told of the young Marines from a remote Indian reservation who devised and then flawlessly employed a combat communications code that was never fathomed by the Japanese enemy.

Because the code talker program and its effectiveness were classified as a military secret for years after the war, public recognition of the Navajos' singular accomplishment was slow to come. Finally, in 1968, the classification was dropped, and the next year the code talkers were duly honored by the Fourth Marine Division Association.

Numerous acknowledgments have followed over the last two decades, but perhaps none is more likely to assure the permanent remembrance of this select group and its unique achievement than a massive bronze sculpture unveiled last March 2 on a prominent site in central Phoenix.

Created by artist Doug Hyde, a Native American of Nez Perce, Chippewa, and Assiniboine heritage, the seated figure is itself ten feet high and is raised another four feet by its sandstone base. About his work, Hyde wrote the following: "I am grateful to have been given this opportunity to create a sculpture as a tribute to the Navajo Nation. My work salutes the service performed by the Navajo Code Talkers in World War II. They used their native language to communicate military information on the battlefield in a code the enemy never broke. My Tribute to Navajo Code Talkers bronze sculpture depicts a young Native American boy with flute. Among many Native Americans the flute is a symbol of communication and peace."

Hyde has further explained that the boy represents a new generation living in peace, the direct beneficiaries of the wartime contributions made by the code talkers.

A native of Oregon, Hyde studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and at the San Francisco Art Institute. Highly regarded nationally and abroad, he is one of the artists whose work was represented in the May 1986 edition of Arizona Highways, which was devoted entirely to the ever-broadening realm of Native American fine art.

The imposing sculpture dominates the northeast corner of Central Avenue and Thomas Road, one of the busiest intersections in Phoenix. It overlooks the approach to the Phoenix Plaza, a new commercial complex combining mid and highrise buildings in a handsomely landscaped setting.

The dedication of the monument was attended by a sizable complement of surviving members of the Navajo Code Talkers Association, and by dignitaries that included Governor Rose Mofford and General A. M. Gray, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.

The idea of creating and strategically locating such a piece of public art to celebrate the code talkers was proposed by Michael J. Fox, director of the Heard Museum. The sculpture was commissioned by BetaWest Properties and the Koll Company, developers of the Phoenix Plaza. The dedication exercises spanned music by Navajo flutist R. Carlos Nakai and a Marine Corps band, several speeches, and a Navajo blessing ceremony.

But one element of the program was undoubtedly the most unusual public event to take place in Arizona this year: Marine veterans Samuel Billison, Thomas Begay, and Joe Kellwood presented a demonstration of code talker communication. No one in the audience was left wondering why the Japanese failed to crack the code.