A bill authorizing the Congressional Gold and Silver Medals to honor the Navajo Code Talkers was signed into law in 2000.

In wartime, secrecy is of the essence. The most common method to transmit secret messages in times of war is by means of a code. A code is a system of information transfer involving words, sounds or symbols that have definite, assigned meanings. Finding codes that the enemy cannot break is essential to military success. In World War II, the Allies had two advantages in the arena of codes. The first was that the Germans' “Enigma” code was broken by the Allies earlier in the War than the Germans realized or had expected. The second advantage was the Navajo Code Talkers. The Navajo language offered the Allies several advantages for use as a code. It is an extremely complex, unwritten language, spoken only by those living on Navajo lands in the American Southwest. It has a unique syntax, uses tonal changes and has numerous dialects. It is believed that fewer than 30 non-Navajo people understood the language at the time of World War II. In addition, the Code talkers created a code within the language, specifically for use in sending military messages. Thus, even someone who did speak Navajo—like one particular Navajo soldier taken prisoner by the Japanese at Bataan—was unable to understand the words being used by the Code Talkers. The Japanese chief of intelligence, Lieutenant General Seizo Arisue, confessed that while they were able to decipher the codes used by the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps, they never cracked the Navajo Code used by the Marines.

The Navajo Code was used in Korea and Vietnam, and was then declassified in 1968. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan designated August 14th to be National Code Talkers' Day, and on July 26, 2001, President George W. Bush presented the Congressional Gold Medal to Navajo Code Talkers.

Illuminations
Codes (K–12) is an interactive applet designed to help students to explore a substitution cipher by encoding and decoding text messages. The applet contains a brief explanation of substitution ciphers and the Caesar cipher, as well as an interactive graph which students can manipulate to solve the code.

In Code Crackers (9–12), students begin an exploration of cryptology by first learning about two simple coding methods, the Caesar cipher and the Vigenere cipher. Students then use matrices and their inverses to create more sophisticated codes.

ARTSEDGE
The Life of a Navajo Weaver (K–4) introduces students to Native Americans and various aspects of Native American weavings. Emphasis in the lesson is placed on Navajo loom weavings. Students explore various ways of relating the weaving pattern to dance movement.

Navajo Weaving (K–4) has students explore various aspects of Native American cultures and Navajo weavings. A large part of the lesson is student translation of visual patterns into dance steps in order that they may create and perform a "traveling pattern" based on Navajo weavings.