Last of the Mohawk code talkers dies after finally being hailed a war hero
Second world war efforts of Louis Levi Oakes and other indigenous peoples stayed secret for decades
In the dense jungle battlefields of the south Pacific, Louis Levi Oakes was a target. Often flanked by bodyguards as he carried a large field pack with a tangle of transmission lines, the men surrounding Oakes were assigned to protect a valuable asset – his language.
A Mohawk soldier from a territory straddling the US and Canada, Oakes was the last surviving member of a secretive group of second world war soldiers who used their native language to confound and frustrate enemy forces.