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Orland Joe discusses his larger-than-life sculpture "Navajo Code Talker".

WINDOW ROCK , AZ - Cowboy Artists of America member Oreland Joe was commissioned by the Navajo Code Talkers Memorial Foundation to create a 9-foot-high memorial, a larger-than-life sculpture of a Navajo Code Talker rendered in bronze.

Joe’s high school principal was a Code Talker, and was instrumental in encouraging Joe to study art. “A lot of people pitched in on this project,” Joe said. “I spoke to surviving Code Talkers and a friend provided uniforms, patches and rifles. Ed Reilly of the Bronzesmith Foundry provided a replica of a gun,” he said. The memorial was cast at Bronzesmith.

A coalition of Arizona State Legislators, Native and non-Native veterans and other community members came together during the 2003 legislative session to honor the Code Talkers. The bill, HB 2104, was sponsored by Rep. Sylvia Laughter (I-Kayenta) and supported unanimously by the Legislature. Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano formally signed the bill on April 21, 2003 before a large crowd in the Navajo Nation.

“With the support of the legislature as well as the Governor, we will now have the opportunity to honor a group of Navajo Men who created an unbreakable code and helped their country win World War II,” Laughter said. “As a Legislator, I cannot think of anything more valuable than participating in recognizing the Navajo Code Talkers for their incredible service to our country during World War II. Because of the successful passage of this bill, we will now have the opportunity to place two monuments here in Arizona in recognition of these Code Talkers,” she said.

The memorial will be located in Wesley Bolin Plaza in downtown Phoenix. A second memorial, the twin of the first, will be installed at a yet-to-be-determined site within the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Code Talkers group is working to get a third statue installed in Washington, DC.

Joe, a master sculptor, is world-renowned for his bronze and stone sculptures. His work can be found in private, corporate, and museum collections in the United States and abroad. Oreland is a native New Mexican and is of Dine' (Navajo) and Ute decent.