Evening star., 1941-03-02
80 Comanche Indians
iveArmyCodet 10
Battle Decipherers
Men Will Merely Talk
In Their Own Tongues
As Lioison Operatives
BY THOMAS n. HENRY.

A unique military company now
Is being drilled at Fort Benning,
Ga.-30 Comanche Indians, several
of whom are college graduates, who
will be assigned to different divi-
sions as Liaison operatives and
whose job will be to talk their own
language.
The men were chosen by the
Army with the advice of the Office
of Indian Affairs from the big CO.
manche reservation near Anadarko,
Okla, after they had been put
through rigid examinations by elders
of the tribe in their pronunciation
of the extremely difficult tongue of
their ancestors. When volunteers
were asked, more than 100 re-
sponded.
During the World War, there was
q report, the source of which Army
intelligence officers now are trying
TO trace, that an artillery regiment
found its wires were being tapped
and its messages decoded by Ger
mans. The commander recalled
that there were two Indians in one
of his batteries. They were made
liaison agents with instructions to
talk naturally over the field tele-
phone in their own tongue-with
the result that the iStenerS-in were
completely baffled.
Trick Was Tried and Worked.
Whether this actually happened
IS doubtful, but the story led to the
use of the same device in mimic war
fare in Virginia this summer. Here
It worked to perfection and two
months ago an appeal was made to
the Indian Bureau. There are scores
of extant American Indian Ian
guages, some spoken by only few
survivors of dying tribes and some,
like the Navajo, spoken by more
than 100000 people, with written
and printed alphabet and grammar.
Some Indian tongues, like the
Siouan, can be learned by COM
petent linguist in a few weeks while
others are practically impossible to
master unless one has been born to
them.
The Job of the Indian Bureau eX-
perts was to find tongue which was
difficult and little studied, but which
was spoken by enough men of mill
tary age so that extensive communi-
cation nets could be maintained If
necessary, and with a large Reservoir
for requirements.
The choice fell to Comanche only
after considerable debate. 1t is
spoken by about 1000 people in Okla
homa. So far as known it has not
been studied outside the United
States and never has been reduced to
writing. Missionaries who have tried
to master it complain bitterly OF its
difficulties. Although in It's day one
of the fiercest enemies the United
States has known, the Comanche
tribe now is extremely patriotic and
there is no question of fifth column
work on its reservation, such as has
been uncovered by Indian offlce
agents among several Indian tribes.
Only One Related Language.
The drawback, it was pointed out
today BY an expert in Indian Ian
suaees. is that Comanche Is closely
related-about as closely as English
TO Russian-to the Shoshone Ian
Suage, which is spoken by about
10000 persons in Idaho and Utah,
and which used to be well known to
missionaries and traders. The boys
at Fort Benning, however, will be
expected to work out for themselves
q Comanche code. They will talk
Comanche, but with the words so
jumbled that even their own fathers
would not have the slightest idea OF
what they were talking about.
All the men selected, it was ex-
planned at the Indian Office, speak
excellent English. They will re-
ceive instructions in code building,
so that the language actually to be
spoken will be something new under
the sun. For this reason no effort
is made to conceal the fact that their
mother tongue is Comanche. Sc
lected groups from other tribes may
be formed into similar units a little
later.
The Comanches, Indian Oflce his
torianS point out, have declined in
century to their present estate from
a tribe Of approximately $4,000.
constantly at war with other Indian
tribes and Mexican and United
States soldiers. Their downfall
started about a century ago, when
smallpox killed more than 1000 of
them. The bulk agreed to go on a
reservation in 1868, but one band
refused and continued murderous
forays on the settlers. They last
appear in American history at the
Battle of McClellan's Creek in 1872,
where they were decisively defeated.