'Back to the battlefields'
Code Talker documentary still in production phase

Dr. George A. Colburn interviews Navajo Code Talker Frank Thompson at the Gallup Cultural Center on Wednesday afternoon. Colburn with the Santa Fe Media and Education Center is finishing up on a two year project titled "AMERICA'S NATIVE HEROES: The Lives and Times of the Navajo Code Talkers." The project involved following six Code Talkers to three different WWII Pacific Battlefields and interviewing several other Code Talkers at or near their homes. This is The Santa Fe Media & Education Centerís first major national project and should be completed later this year. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

By Natasha Kaye Johnson
Diné Bureau

Colburn interviews Thompson, while Videographer Tom McCarthy gets a new tape ready. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

GALLUP — The much-anticipated documentary "Navajo Code Talkers: Back to the Battlefields" is still in the process of completing interviews, and expects a completed project by this summer.

George A. Colburn, historian and documentary producer, was in Gallup this week, conducting interviews with over a dozen Code Talkers from the area.

The completed project will be a major documentary program targeted for a prime-time national release. It will include a national educational program and a traveling museum exhibit. The hope of creators is that it will have a lasting impact on Americans.

Leahn Cox, production assistant, said that it was initially supposed to be the documentary's last series of interviews, but several Code Talkers were unable to go through with the interview due to various health reasons.

The documentary be the first in a series of broadcast and interactive, multi-media educational programs on the Code Talkers. Cox said this week that interviews revolved around the Code Talkers' entire life.

"The interviews were about how they grew up, what they're doing," said Cox.

Past interviews completed with the project include an October 2005 interview and March 2006 interview, where six Marine Corps veterans and a family companion made a trip to five of the major battlefields in the Pacific, including Guam, Siapan, Tinian, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The documentary followed the Code Talkers as they recalled events on the islands.

The interviews will offer audiences glimpses into the raw emotions and thoughts that Code Talkers had upon returning.

The documentary is being produced by the Santa Fe Media and Education Center. The Navajo Code Talkers Association of Gallup is collaborating on the project and has been providing consulting services since 2002, when the project initially began. In 2005, the program took flight after the New Mexico Legislature funded it.

The project is also anticipating extra funding this summer, which Cox said may allow expansion of the project, but this may also push back the completion date.

For more information, visit www.navajocodetalkers.com.