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- By Levi Rickert
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren on Wednesday said his office received word from the the White House that the Department of Defense will restore materials related to the Navajo Code Talkers on its website.
The restoration announcement came two days after an exclusive article was published by Axios reported that at least 10 articles mentioning the Code Talkers that had disappeared from the U.S. Army and Department of Defense websites as of Monday.
“White House officials reached out to my office and confirmed that removal of 'Navajo' from the agency websites was a result of an error caused by the Artificial Intelligence (AI) automated review process associated with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives,” Nygren said in a statement.
Nygren said the restoration was made possible through the dedicated advocacy of the Navajo Nation Washington Office and his letter to the Department of Defense.
“I want to assure the Navajo people that we remain in close communication with federal officials to ensure the legacy of our cherished Navajo Code Talkers is never erased from American and Navajo history,” Nygren said.
Nygren finished his statement by saying, “As sovereign nations, we are not defined by DEI classifications. We are political sovereigns with treaties and a long-standing relationship with the U.S. government.”
The 25th Navajo Nation Council weighed in on the matter on Wednesday as well.
“The Pentagon acknowledged the removal as a “mistake” and has since restored much of the deleted content. The DoD explained that the removal was part of an automated process to comply with the DEI policy directive. While some pages have been restored, others remain offline, replaced by server errors. The Pentagon has promised to resolve the issue fully,” the Council said in a statement.
"The restoration of the Navajo Code Talkers' articles is a necessary step, but it does not erase the harm caused by their initial removal. The service of the Code Talkers was crucial to the success of World War II, and their legacy must be continually recognized and honored, beyond any political agenda,” said Speaker Crystalyne Curley.
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