They were the original Code Talkers, Native American soldiers sent to fight in France a century ago who relayed orders from the trenches in Cherokee to confuse the enemy and help the Allies secure victory during World War I.
Then, the Germans were the foe. Now, it's Covid-19.
While the rollout of coronavirus vaccinations has been chaotic and resisted by some of the public, the Cherokee have quietly mobilized their members to get as many needles into as many arms as soon as possible, starting with some of the most endangered members of the tribe — those who still speak Cherokee.
"We put Cherokee-fluent speakers, most of whom are elders, at the front of the line," Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., leader of the 385,000-strong Cherokee Nation, said on a Zoom call from the reservation in Oklahoma. "The reason is that our language is at risk."
Tribal leaders and activists across the country have harnessed the reverence for Native American culture and tradition to vaccinate a people that has deep-rooted fears and suspicions of the U.S. government and the medical establishment.
"We are more at risk because we've had to deal with 500 years of oppression," said Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Seattle-based Urban Indian Health Institute, who said some of the Native American women who were forcibly sterilized in the 1960s and the 1970s are still alive.
But a survey of 1,435 Native Americans across the country spearheaded by Echo-Hawk in November also revealed that 75 percent would be willing to be vaccinated, not because they suddenly trust Uncle Sam, but because they put the "we" ahead of the "me."
"The primary motivation for participants who indicated willingness to get vaccinated was a strong sense of responsibility to protect the Native community and preserve cultural ways," a summary of the report said. "Despite hesitancy towards the vaccine due to historical and current abuse from healthcare and government institutions, they ultimately felt that the heavy cost of COVID-19 on their community outweighed potential risks from the vaccine."
So Native American leaders are selling their people on vaccinations by emphasizing the good they could do for the tribe, as opposed to the individual, Echo-Hawk said. And it appears to be working.
The Seattle Indian Health Board gets about 7,000 calls a month, Echo-Hawk said. On Monday, it got 4,900 calls from Native Americans seeking vaccine information. "It crashed our system," she said.
The Cherokee nation, as of Wednesday, had been able to vaccinate 12,000 people.
Hoskin said: "When fluent speakers got the vaccine, I think that helped people's anxiety subside. And I think people felt sort of a renewed obligation to try and protect the culture by getting vaccinated."
Not all the Cherokee speakers who got the first shots are over 65, Hoskin said. But the tribe was able to prioritize who was vaccinated first because it answers to the Indian Health Service, a federal agency, rather than the state of Oklahoma, which has put most people under age 65 in Phase 4 of its rollout.
"I like to think a lot of Cherokee leaders feel like this," Hoskin said. "You've got your ancestors at your back."

hmmm ok