Tribe: Code Talker who was ex-AZ state senator dies
We Salute some Great People...Code Talkers
Posted: Feb 10, 2014 6:56 PM EST Updated: Feb 11, 2014 8:41 PM EST
Arthur Hubbard (Source: Marty Thompson)
Arthur Hubbard Sr., a Navajo Code Talker and the first American Indian to serve in the Arizona Senate, has died at age 102.
Services for Hubbard are scheduled Tuesday at Pinnacle Presbyterian Church in Scottsdale with burial to follow in Phoenix. Tribal officials say he died Friday of natural causes.
Hubbard was born in Topawa in 1912 on the Tohono O'odham reservation but also lived on the Navajo reservation. He was born the same year Arizona became a state.
During World War II, he stumped the Japanese by training new recruits in the use of the Navajo code. The code was instrumental in Marine victories throughout the Pacific theater including Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
He was elected to the state Senate in 1972 and served 12 years.
A 2011 Senate resolution listed Hubbard as the first American Indian to serve in the Senate. Tribal leaders called Hubbard a powerful advocate for American Indians.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. CBS 5 (KPHO Broadcasting Corporation) contributed to this report.
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