Code Talker Bahe Ketchum laid to rest

Posted by Krista Allen | Jun 18, 2015 | News |

A soldier salutes as the honorary pallbearers carry the casket of the late Navajo Code Talker Bahe Ketchum on Saturday morning at the Ééhániih Day event grounds, where the service took place, in Naatsis’áán, Ariz. (Times photo – Krista Allen)

NAATSIS’ÁÁN, Ariz.

Active duty military, lawmakers, veterans, and the general public appeared at Bahe Ketchum’s funeral Saturday in an outpouring of support for the family after the Navajo Code Talker’s death earlier last week.

Ketchum, a former Marine who helped craft the Navajo language into a military code that helped the U.S. secure victory in the Pacific in 1945, died on June 8 in Flagstaff. He was 96.

The Dusty Trail Riders wait for the late Navajo Code Talker Bahe Ketchum’s funeral to begin on June 13 at the Ééhániih Day event grounds. The horsemen and women carried out an honorary equine trail ride early Saturday morning to Naatsis’áán, Ariz., where Ketchum’s body was laid to rest. (Times photo – Krista Allen)

The funeral started at 10 a.m. with opening hymn “Amazing Grace,” sung in Navajo by well-known pastor Elizabeth Bryant.

Navajo Code Talker president Peter MacDonald Sr. delivered Ketchum’s eulogy in Navajo and in English.

MacDonald said that he met Ketchum in the sixties when he was director of the Office of Navajo Economic Opportunity, a position in which he was appointed to establish preschool classes.

“I promoted the preschool project here before the Navajo Mountain chapter officials, who said the chapter didn’t have the materials such as chairs to implement a preschool,” MacDonald said in Navajo. “A man stood up and said that they have the materials. His name was Bahe Ketchum. And he suggested that the chapter officials climb the mountain to cut some trees down and make chairs for the children.”

“I saw at that time the kind of individual that he was,” MacDonald continued. “That was my first meeting with (Ketchum). He listened, he analyzed and then made a suggestion.”

When the preschool was established here, MacDonald said the Indian Health Service representatives visited one day and threatened to close the school due to unhygienic practices in the school’s kitchen.

“It was during the time when (Ketchum) was a chapter official. (Ketchum) said to the IHS representatives, ‘This shutdown is not right. Their mothers cook for them in the morning, then when they get here, the same mothers cook for them at noon. Perhaps you ought to close down their homes as well,’” MacDonald continued. “(Ketchum) was very smart. I got to know him that way.”