Code Talkers museum could become reality

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Years of talking about building a first-rate museum to honor the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II in Gallup could soon be turning into action.

An official request for proposals from architecture firms interested in designing the museum could go out as soon as the middle of next month, according to Assistant City Manager Larry Binkley.

The project picked up steam last spring when the New Mexico Legislature approved a $90,000 grant with the requirementthat Gallup and the Southwest Indian Foundation, the city's partner in the project, put in $90,000 each of their own money and use the pot to bring the museum to life.

For Kent Hodges, who runs the Gallup Cultural Center for the foundation, there's another motive for getting on with the project.

Hodges wants the Code Talkers who are still alive to witness the progress they're making in preserving their legacy. Many of the Code Talkers who are still alive are in or past their late 70s.

"It's very important for them to see that something is being done now," he said.

Searching for a code the Japanese could not break, the U.S. government found it among the Navajo. The government recruited from their ranks to develop and implement a military code based on their language in the South Pacific. The Japanese never managed to break it.

"The Navajo Code Talkers were instrumental ... in a lot of our success, our rapid success, in the South Pacific, and some people will even say they were essential," Hodges said.

But he's concerned that many people aren't aware of that history.

"I think there's a lot of people that don't know that story," he said, Navajo and non-Navajo alike.

Navajo youth especially, he said, "need to be aware of that story and be proud of that heritage."

"We feel it's a real plus for tourism and a real plus to pay respect to the Code Talkers," agreed Binkley.

To create the museum, they'll have the upper floor of the Cultural Center and, come January, the large open space downstairs at the eastern end of the building currently occupied by Greyhound. The city wants the space for the museum and has decided not to renew the bus line's latest lease, which expires the end of this year.

The city and foundation say they're not sure how much of the space they want the museum to take up. That, said Binkley and Hodges, is something the architects they hire will help them decide.

Whatever they decide, Hodges says they'll start out with a museum that focuses on just a few parts of the Code Talker story. The Code Talkers understandably want to tell the whole story, but Hodges says the city and foundation just don't have the resources to do it all at once. For now, he'd rather tell part of the story well than the whole story poorly.

Hodges' personal idea is to take one topic, like communication, and present the roles it played for the Code Talkers during the war, its importance today, and its potential for the future.

Whatever the particulars, the city and foundation are sure they want something interactive, something, said Hodges, "where people are not just walking around looking at artifacts, something they can sink their teeth into."

That's especially important for the younger visitors, because, he said, "any time you can engage a child in a sensory way, the longer it's going to live with them."

The city and foundation don't know if the $270,000 they have will be enough. Whether it is, Hodges considers this part of the project merely a "springboard" for bigger and better things. He envisions the project eventually growing into a Smithsonian-caliber museum replete with its own archive of Code Talker documents and artifacts. But that, he said, will take more time, money, and people; a top-notch archive alone would require another two-story facility.

Hodges said the foundation hopes to continue working closely with the Smithsonian with which it's already opened a dialogue for future support and funding. For now, he said, the city and foundation will have to show some progress on their own.