Navajo Code Talkers Museum to break ground in December

SANTA FE, N.M. — After decades of planning and anticipation, the Navajo Code Talkers Museum has a date for its groundbreaking in New Mexico.

The groundbreaking is set for Dec. 1 at the Navajo Preparatory School in Farmington. Once constructed, the museum will be a permanent place to celebrate the more than 400 Navajo Marines who served as Navajo Code Talkers during World War II.

The Navajo Code Talkers created the only military code in modern history that was never broken. The museum will preserve that legacy. It will also preserve the Diné language, cultural knowledge and traditions that made their contributions possible.

“The Navajo Code Talkers answered our nation’s call with their language, their courage and their lives,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a press release issued Wednesday. “Breaking ground on this museum is a promise kept. New Mexico will make sure their story is told for generations, in a place built by and for the Diné community.”

The museum will be on Navajo Nation land at Navajo Preparatory School. They will hold it under a 99-year lease with the Navajo Nation. The campus is significant because it used to be home to the Navajo Methodist Mission School. At least 17 Navajo men attended that school before serving as Navajo Code Talkers.

“This groundbreaking is a moment our students, families and veterans will remember,” said Navajo Preparatory School’s head of school, Shawna Allison Becenti. “The Navajo Code Talkers carried Diné Bizaad into history. This museum will carry it forward, rooted in our culture and guided by our community.”

Planners will work with surviving Navajo Code Talkers, their families, descendants, cultural knowledge holders and community members to shape the museum in an authentic and respectful manner.

The state is supporting the museum with $20 million in funding. The groundbreaking and dedication ceremony event will start at around 1 p.m. It’s free and open to the public at the Navajo Preparatory School’s Eagle’s Nest Gymnasium in Farmington.

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