Frank Sanache, 86, WWII Meskwaki Indian ‘Code Talker’
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Frank Sanache, the last of the “code talkers” from the Meskwaki Indian tribe, died Saturday in Tama, Iowa. He was 86.
Sanache was among the “elite eight,” a group of Meskwakis trained to use their language as a secret code during World War II.
During World War II, American military planners used code languages derived from a variety of American Indian languages to communicate enemy troop movements, direct artillery fire and other secret information by radio. The codes were never cracked by Axis forces.
The Meskwaki, based in Iowa, were among 18 tribes that contributed code talkers during the war. Their achievements went largely unnoticed because the episode was classified until 1968.
The Navajo code talkers are perhaps the best known. The Navajo tribe contributed more than 350 code talkers to the war effort, some of whom inspired the 2002 Hollywood movie “Windtalkers.” Un like Navajo code talkers, no Meskwakis ever received congressional recognition.
Sanache had little opportunity to use his language skills after being shipped to North Africa because of the limited numbers of the Meskwakis and the short range of walkie-talkies. Sanache was captured just five months after he arrived in North Africa and spent 28 months as a prisoner of war.
He told The Associated Press in 2002 that fighting in the desert “was the worst place this side of hell.”