2008 Medal Fond du Lac Code Talkers Bronze 38mm

Coin Details

Description

This 38mm bronze medal honors the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Code Talkers, members of the Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) community in northeastern Minnesota who contributed their native language to military communications. The Fond du Lac Reservation, located near Cloquet, Minnesota, is one of six Ojibwe reservations in Minnesota, and its code talkers used the Ojibwe language — an Algonquian language with complex verb morphology and a rich oral tradition — for secure battlefield communications that enemy forces could not decode. The obverse features a design developed with the Fond du Lac Band, incorporating Ojibwe cultural elements and imagery reflective of the Anishinaabe heritage of the Lake Superior Chippewa people. The Ojibwe language, spoken across a vast territory stretching from Quebec to Montana, has numerous dialects, and the specific variant spoken by the Fond du Lac community added its own distinctive characteristics to the code talker arsenal. The Ojibwe's polysynthetic grammar, in which single words can express complete thoughts through elaborate prefixes and suffixes, made the language particularly challenging for non-speakers to analyze or interpret. The reverse carries Code Talkers program inscriptions. The Fond du Lac Band's inclusion in the Code Talkers recognition program acknowledges the contributions of Great Lakes-region Native Americans to the military communication effort, extending recognition beyond the more widely known Plains and Southwest tribal programs.

Rarity Notes

Bronze duplicate medal, 38mm. Code Talkers Recognition Act of 2008 series.

Cross References

PCGS #911959; Code Talkers 2008; Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa; Ojibwe/Anishinaabe