What the Navajo Code Talkers Taught Us About Healing

Their wartime code saved lives, and their homecomings still teach America how to care for veterans.

National Navajo Code Talkers Day specifically honors the Diné Marines who carried some of America’s most important communications across the Pacific during World War II. Their achievement belongs within a much larger Native military history, since Navajo service members were neither the first nor the only Native Code Talkers. During both World Wars, Native service members from many nations used their languages as secure military tools.

Congressional medal programs have formally recognized 34 tribal nations and communities for this work. Navajo Code Talkers were honored separately in 2001, and 33 additional tribal nations and communities were later recognized under the Code Talkers Recognition Act. Those honored included the Choctaw Nation, Cherokee Nation, Ho-Chunk Nation, Comanche Nation, Hopi Tribe, Meskwaki Nation, Oneida Nation, Osage Nation, Seminole Nation, and Rosebud Sioux Tribe, along with many others.

The Navajo Marine Corps program became the largest, most systematic, and most extensive of the Native Code Talker efforts. A Library of Congress guide prepared by Veterans History Project archivist Nathan Cross estimates that more than 400 Navajo men served as Code Talkers. The first 29 developed the original code, and later teams transmitted messages with remarkable speed and accuracy.

This article centers on Navajo veterans because August 14 is National Navajo Code Talkers Day, and because surviving Diné accounts provide an important record of combat, homecoming, and healing.

The War Followed Them Home

We should be careful when using the term PTSD to describe World War II veterans. PTSD did not become a formal mental health diagnosis until 1980, according to Matthew J. Friedman, MD, PhD, of the Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD. Earlier generations used terms such as shell shock, battle fatigue, and combat stress reaction, while also describing nightmares, anxiety, sleeplessness, and difficulty readjusting.

That distinction does not diminish what the Code Talkers endured. It simply means we should discuss documented experiences rather than assume every Code Talker had the same symptoms or followed the same path toward recovery.

The Code Talkers also came home to circumstances that made reintegration harder. Their program remained classified until 1968, preventing them from publicly explaining much of their wartime work. Many also encountered discrimination, limited employment opportunities, and difficulty accessing veterans’ benefits on the Navajo Nation.

We cannot say that secrecy or discrimination directly caused PTSD in any individual veteran, but we can say they added burdens to an already difficult return from combat.

Traditional Ceremonies Restored Hózhó

For accuracy, the historical record is more specific than the broad phrase “Healing Way ceremony.” The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian explains that a family could sponsor a ceremony after a warrior returned, and its purpose extended well beyond reducing a list of symptoms.

The ceremony helped restore the veteran to hózhó, a Diné understanding of balance, beauty, and right relationship within the world. It addressed the person’s physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being while reconnecting that person with family, community, culture, and place.

Christian faith was also important to some Code Talkers. The Smithsonian notes that Navajo church prayers, songs, and services helped some veterans after their return. Traditional ceremony and Christian faith were not always mutually exclusive, and families could draw strength from both.

Education and Service Helped Rebuild Lives

Many Code Talkers continued serving their communities through education, government, ministry, law enforcement, and other professions. The Library of Congress Code Talker histories document many of these paths.

Education, employment, and public service should not be presented as clinical PTSD treatments. The available histories generally do not say these men chose their professions specifically to manage trauma. They do, however, show meaningful paths back into family responsibility, purpose, identity, and community life.

That distinction matters, because treatment can help a veteran process trauma, but long-term healing also involves rebuilding a life that feels useful, connected, and worth living.

PTSD Care Is Stronger in 2026

Veterans and service members today have treatment options that did not exist when the Code Talkers returned from World War II.

Current VA and Department of War clinical guidance identifies Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged Exposure, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing as the trauma-focused psychotherapies with the strongest evidence for treating PTSD. The guidance generally recommends these therapies over medication, while recognizing that treatment choices should reflect the veteran’s needs and preferences.

Whole-person practices can be incorporated alongside conventional treatment, including spiritual support, family involvement, physical activity, mindfulness, and culturally grounded healing. These complementary approaches can support evidence-based care but should not automatically replace professional evaluation, psychotherapy, or medication when those services are needed.

The VA’s Veterans Wellness Path app demonstrates how these approaches can meet. Created with input from American Indian and Alaska Native veterans, their families, and health professionals, the app supports connection with family, community, culture, and environment. It includes information about trauma treatment, traditional healing practices, and PTSD self-screening. The VA states clearly that the app can supplement professional care but is not intended to replace it.

Mental Health Leadership for the Next Chapter

The VA currently reimburses participating IHS, Tribal Health Program, and Urban Indian Organization facilities for eligible care provided to American Indian and Alaska Native veterans. The program is designed to bring care closer to home in a culturally sensitive setting. Eligible Native veterans generally do not need VA preauthorization or pay a copayment when receiving covered care through a participating facility.

VA psychologist Charlotte McCloskey, PhD, has also emphasized that Native veterans may carry personal trauma alongside repeated community losses and historical trauma. Clinicians need to understand that history when planning PTSD care, rather than treating the veteran as disconnected from family, nation, and community.

Their Final Message Is About Coming Home

The Navajo Code Talkers protected the United States with a language that government boarding schools had once tried to suppress. After the war, some returned to that same language, their families, traditional ceremonies, Christian faith, education, and public service as they rebuilt their lives.

On National Navajo Code Talkers Day, America should honor more than the messages they transmitted. We should also honor what they taught us about returning from war.

Editorial accuracy note: The surviving historical record supports these experiences for particular Code Talkers. It does not establish that every Code Talker experienced PTSD or participated in the same ceremony. Their careers and educational accomplishments are presented as paths of reintegration and purpose, not as proven substitutes for mental health treatment. Veterans and service members experiencing a crisis can call 988 and press 1 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line.