My wife and I teach a Native American Culture class at our local community college. We recently had the opportunity to have Samuel Tom Holiday come to the college to talk about his experiences as a Marine Corps Code Talker in WWII. Sam is 90 years old and has an incredible story to share. He comes from Kayenta, AZ.
To thank him for his service as a Marine Code Talker, i made a cedar plate, inlaid with a turquoise band and 4 large turquoise stones set at each direction. His delight with the plate made it all worthwhile. The plate was presented in the traditional way - wrapped in red trade cloth and tied with sinew.
In the attached pictures, Sam is dressed in his Code Talker uniform — a red hat depicting the United States Marine Corps, turquoise jewelry representing the Navajo sacred stone, a gold shirt symbolizing corn pollen, with a patch on the arm denoting the Fourth Marine division, light-colored pants signifying mother earth and shoes the color of abalone which is also a sacred stone. He shared his childhood and experiences as a code talker.
To thank him for his service as a Marine Code Talker, i made a cedar plate, inlaid with a turquoise band and 4 large turquoise stones set at each direction. His delight with the plate made it all worthwhile. The plate was presented in the traditional way - wrapped in red trade cloth and tied with sinew.
In the attached pictures, Sam is dressed in his Code Talker uniform — a red hat depicting the United States Marine Corps, turquoise jewelry representing the Navajo sacred stone, a gold shirt symbolizing corn pollen, with a patch on the arm denoting the Fourth Marine division, light-colored pants signifying mother earth and shoes the color of abalone which is also a sacred stone. He shared his childhood and experiences as a code talker.
