The last surviving Mohawk code talker, one of the men who transmitted messages in their Indigenous languages during the Second World War to baffle enemy code-breakers, has died.
Born in the Quebec part of the Akwesasne Mohawk reserve on Jan. 23, 1925, Louis Levi Oakes registered in the U.S. army at age 18, and served as a code talker in New Guinea and the Philippines until the end of the war. But he kept his work secret for decades afterward, even from his family, only speaking openly about it in recent years after he and other code talkers began to receive national recognition on both sides of the border for their service.
Oakes received a Congressional Silver Medal in 2016. He was recognized at the Assembly of First Nations and in the House of Commons last year
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