From: lefty@apple.com (Lefty)
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 09:56:42 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Native American Encryption?!
Message-ID: <9310131653.AA08213@internal.apple.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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>  I remember hearing many years ago that one of the branches of the armed
>aervices during WWII used a native American -- Cherokee? Apache? --
>language to communicate. The Japanese (the story goes) went nuts trying to
>crack the code -- unsuccessfully.

It was Navajo.

>  Two questions:
>  1) Can anyone give me a reference for this story (assuming it's true)?

There was a recent (i.e. within the past year) article in Smithsonian
magazine on the "code talkers".  I believe only one or two of them are
still surviving.

This sort of thing doesn't constitute what would properly be called a
cipher; it's either a code, or perhaps a species of steganography.


--
Lefty (lefty@apple.com)
C:.M:.C:., D:.O:.D:.