Navajo 'code-talkers' deserved better from Trump

As creatures of Washington, Warren and Trump are not likely to acknowledge wrongdoing or change their ways.

So let's focus on a more admirable group: the code talkers.

It's a great story. Originally, there were 29 Navajo recruited by the U.S. Marines during World War II specifically due to their language skills. Presented with the challenge of coming up with a way for Marines to communicate with one another that the Japanese couldn't decipher, the recruits spent months developing and memorizing a special code based on their shared Navajo language. Assigned to all six Marine divisions, the Navajo code talkers took part in every assault in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. The Navajo "code talk" baffled the Japanese, stumping their expert code breakers. The messages got through. And in the process, countless American lives were saved -- thanks to the Navajo.

And the irony to all this is that, throughout the last part of the 19th century and the first part of the 20th century, there was a government-sponsored policy of forced assimilation imposed on Native Americans. It included attempts to strip them of their language by punishing those who spoke it, especially the children who attended government-run boarding schools whose mission was to "de-Indianize" the native people. Had those repugnant efforts been successful, there would have been, in all likelihood, no Navajo code talkers to celebrate today.

That's the story Trump should have told at the White House, as he attempted to honor a few of these heroes. He should have shelved the politics, and focused all of his attention on the Navajo.

But this would have required something that the president doesn't have much of -- class.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.