2008 Medal Oglala Sioux Tribe Code Talkers Bronze 38mm

Coin Details

Description

This 38mm bronze medal honors the Oglala Sioux Tribe Code Talkers, members of the Oglala Lakota people of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota who used the Lakota language for military communications. The Oglala are one of the seven bands of the Teton (Western) Sioux and are the most historically prominent of all Lakota bands, producing legendary leaders including Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, and Black Elk. The Oglala code talkers continued this warrior tradition by employing their ancestral language in modern military service. The obverse features a design honoring the Oglala code talkers with cultural imagery reflecting the tribe's Lakota heritage. The Lakota language, with its guttural stops, aspirated consonants, and complex verb morphology, was virtually impossible for non-speakers to understand or reproduce, making it an ideal vehicle for secure military communications. The Oglala's deep warrior tradition, rooted in the horse culture of the Northern Plains and the resistance wars of the nineteenth century, provided cultural context for military service that made the transition from traditional warfare to modern coded communications a natural extension of ancestral values. The reverse carries Code Talkers program inscriptions. The Pine Ridge Reservation, home to the Oglala Lakota, is the second-largest reservation in the United States and has maintained strong cultural traditions including the Lakota language, whose preservation was given additional significance by its role in the code talker program.

Rarity Notes

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

Cross References

PCGS #910566; Code Talkers 2008; Oglala Sioux Tribe; Lakota language; Pine Ridge Reservation, SD