Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

The Great Seal of the Choctaw Nation

Solomon Bond Louis underage when he enlisted
BISHINIK March 2000


This proud young Indian man from Bryan County, Oklahoma attended Armstrong Academy and when his older friends enlisted, Louis pretended to be 18 so that he, too, could join the service. Solomon Louis received his basic training at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma and then was sent to Ft. Worth, Texas where he joined an all-indian Company which was part of the 36th Division. Louis was stationed at Division Headquarters, with Choctaw James Edwards o n the other end of the telephone line out in the field at the front line.

With Edwards in the actual combat zone, he was able to inform Louis, using the Choctaw language, what the Germans were up to. Other Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I were also strategically placed so that the information of military moves would be most helpful to the American Forces. Because the messages were all given in the Choctaw language, the Germans could not break this “new American code.”
