Six Lines

Last Lakota Code Talker Dies

Posted by Aaron Massey on 24 Jun 2010.

Last week, Clarence Wolf Guts died at 86 years old. Clarence was a code talker during World War Two. Here’s what the Rapid City Journal said:

Wolf Guts, 86, the last surviving Oglala Lakota code talker, died Wednesday afternoon at the South Dakota State Veterans Home in Hot Springs.

A Native American code talker from World War II, Wolf Guts helped defeat Axis forces by transmitting strategic military messages in his native language, which the Japanese and Germans couldn’t translate.

“He’s the last surviving code talker from the whole (Lakota) nation. It’s going to be a little like the passing of an era,” Doyle said.

If you’re interested in cryptography, then code talking is a fascinating example of hiding information. It truly is the end of an era.