Construction will start next month on a museum seven years in the making honoring the Navajo Code Talkers.
The state will host a groundbreaking ceremony at 1 p.m. on Dec. 1 at the Navajo Preparatory School in Farmington, where the museum will be constructed, according to a Wednesday news release from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office.
Just two members of the Navajo Code Talkers, a group of Marines assigned in World War II to communicate military orders in a complex code based on their Indigenous language that was never deciphered by Japanese forces, are still living.
“The Navajo Code Talkers answered our nation’s call with their language, their courage and their lives,” Lujan Grisham wrote in the release. “Breaking ground on this museum is a promise kept. New Mexico will make sure their story is told for generations, in a place built by and for the Diné community.”
The museum’s construction has stalled for years since lawmakers in 2019 set aside an initial $1 million for the project. It failed to gain traction for years while under the control of the Navajo Nation, the project’s longtime fiscal agent. Navajo Nation officials did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday, which was Veterans Day.
In August, Lujan Grisham announced the project would move forward at a new site, the preparatory school, using nearly $20 million total in state funding. State officials at the time said the proposal to plan, design and construct the museum had been discussed with school leadership and outgoing Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren.
Many have worried the surviving Code Talkers will not be around to see a completed museum in their honor — both are approaching, or over, 100 years old. A state General Services Department spokesperson in August said the planned 6,500-square-foot museum is scheduled to be completed in fall 2028.
There have also been concerns that the project, which was originally planned in the northwestern New Mexico community of Tse Bonito, failed to adequately incorporate public input.
“I wish it was the dream,” Sen. Shannon Pinto, D-Tohatchi, said in an interview. “But there’s still the descendants that can push it … the families still feel there’s still more that can be done to honor them.”
Pinto, though, acknowledged the efforts of Lujan Grisham to move the project forward before she leaves office at the end of the year, even if the museum will not be located where originally hoped.
The Governor’s Office on Wednesday noted in its release the new location holds historical significance, as Navajo Prep “occupies the former campus of the Navajo Methodist Mission School, where at least 17 Navajo men who later served as Navajo Code Talkers once attended school.”
Esteban Candelaria is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. He covers child welfare and the state Children, Youth and Families Department. Learn more about Report for America at reportforamerica.org.
