Dr. William Meadows reviews his summer research interviewing Native Americans and giving talks about his research across the southwest.
This summer, Dr. William Meadows conducted fieldwork with the Laguna, Hopi, Navajo, and Choctaw Tribes in New Mexico, Arizona, and Oklahoma. On July 29, Dr. Meadows served as the keynote speaker for the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony at Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. The event was held to recognize Mr. Joseph R. Day Sr., a Laguna Code Talker who served with fourteen other natives from several tribes in a radio net of eight bomb groups, under the 5th Bomb Command in the 5th Army Air Corps, in the Pacific Theater of WW II. Day was linked by radio to Mr. Paul Histia of Acoma Pueblo, both being Keres speakers. The V Army Air Corps ran bombing missions throughout the South Pacific, New Guinea, Taiwan, Okinawa, China, and Japan. On September 4, Dr. Meadows reported on his research and findings over the last year on the Choctaw Code Talkers, including a one-hour power-point presentation to the Choctaw Code Talkers Association at the annual Choctaw Nation Fair in Tuskahoma, Oklahoma. Dr. Meadows is continuing to work with over thirty Native American communities in documenting their code talkers of WW I and II and the related aspects of military service and cultural ceremonies in each. His research, congressional testimony and publications contributed to the passage of the Code Talker Recognition Act of 2008, awarding Congressional Gold and Silver medals to each tribe and all Native Americans who served as code talkers.