‘Inhale the beauty!’ Diné Development Corporation opens Navajo Code Talkers Building in Dayton, Ohio

By Melanie Cissone
Special to the Times

DAYTON, Ohio – “We’re going to Dayton?” Austin Tsosie asked rhetorically as he cocked his head quizzically toward Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Dayton’s Mayor Jeffrey J. Mims Jr.

“Where?” he continued, “Daytona?” The crowd laughed.

Sharing time at the podium with Ohio’s governor, Dayton’s mayor, and other city, state, and Navajo representatives, the Diné Development Corporation’s chief executive officer proudly addressed an audience of guests, colleagues that included clients, the media, and others there to witness the grand opening of its Code Talkers Building in Dayton, Ohio, on Oct. 17.

Serving as the master of ceremonies, DDC’s chief operating officer, Jackie Goodwin, introduced Tsosie, who spoke on the topic of “The Vision Powering our Dayton Commitment.” Good nature-kidding continued as an affable Tsosie unveiled the answer to a question on many minds: why Dayton for a Navajo Nation enterprise? After all, the distance between a city known as the Birthplace of Aviation and Window Rock is nearly 1,600 miles.

“We’re teamed with the Dayton community,” Tsosie said of DDC’s well-established 11 years in the home of the pop-top can and cash register inventions.

“I was also researching governors’ initiatives and priorities,” he added, turning again toward Gov. DeWine.

“They’re the same as Navajos,” referring to Ohio’s priorities.

Easily charming laughter from the audience, Tsosie teased, “He took our Navajo priorities!” The governor shrugged and nodded as DDC’s CEO referred to broadband, environmental, community development, and interaction with the military as Navajo priorities-turned-initiatives.

Tsosie recalled the spirit in which DDC was welcomed in the Dayton area a decade ago. Seizing an opportunity “to share who we are as a Navajo people,” he said, DDC sponsored Navajo Code Talker Samuel Holiday on a tour in 2015 of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, followed by a visit to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

“He got the red-carpet treatment,” Tsosie remembered, “He really got his due as a code talker.”

Likewise, the DDC Dayton team at that time also had a chance to correlate the code talkers’ World War II missions and DDC’s efforts to protect the integrity of the U.S. government’s data.

In broad strokes, Tsosie recounted a timeline of events that began 20 years ago with an initial investment of $300,000 from the Navajo Nation in a burgeoning IT enterprise that has since developed into the holding company DDC is today. DDC’s family of 10 subsidiary IT, data, cyber security, and cloud solution companies provide services to defense and civilian agencies that generate annual revenues of approximately $175 million. DDC has never gone back to the Navajo Nation for investment capital. With more than 700 employees and operations in 30 states and six countries, the Navajo Nation’s return on investment in DDC is substantial.

Ten companies off Navajo

In an earlier interview, Tsosie, a 13-year veteran of the Diné Development Corporation, said about the company, “Twenty years ago, the holding company was set up through legislation by the Navajo Nation Council as a diversified way to generate revenues.”

DDC’s structure, Tsosie explained, “Even though we’re thrown into the group of the enterprises, we’re actually a corporation or instrumentality for economic development that allows us to function independently for the most part.
“It allows us to spin off companies, spin them down, and fire. All this is done in trust with the Navajo Nation. That’s how we’ve grown to 10 companies primarily off Navajo Nation.”

DDC reports to five shareholder reps of the Navajo Nation’s Legislative Branch. The corporation is also overseen by a nine-member board of directors, which insulates DDC from politics. The mix includes business professionals, former government employees, and representatives, the majority of whom must be documented Navajo. Its chair is Tazbah McCullah, whose extensive career in communications includes being a former member of the board of directors at Navajo Times.

In early September, DDC paid a $700,000 dividend, the largest in its history. Paid to the Navajo Nation general fund, the dividend supports infrastructure, programming, and other essential services. Depending on the corporate success of DDC in any given year, dividends are paid annually. To date, DDC has paid $4.1 million in total dividends. It was especially satisfying for DDC to commemorate its 20th anniversary by presenting its most recent payout at the Navajo Nation Fair. DDC also made a $175K contribution at the fair through sponsorship, support for Navajo vendors, community giveaways, and other initiatives that advance its Navajo Social Responsiveness.

While six of DDC’s 10 subsidiary companies are in Dayton’s Miami Valley, the Code Talkers Building in Downtown Dayton is home to DDC’s innovation center. It’s where DDC’s growth is driven by decades-long experience-turned-capability as a defense contractor with clients in both the Dayton area (approximately 30% of DDC’s revenues) and around the world.

DDC maintains its headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, a small office in Window Rock, and considers Dayton its operational hub and a “second home,” according to Tsosie. Among a list of known agencies and multi-million- and billion-dollar companies in a variety of industries, DDC counts among its clients the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Cyber Command, NASA, the USDA, the U.S. Department of State, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Energy, The Nature Conservancy, Sweden’s SES Group, Straughan Environmental, Wilson Engineering, Forsgren Associates, ECORP Consulting Inc., Samson Resources, and SMA to name a few.

Charged with encoding and signaling the movements of Japanese Empire enemy forces in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, Navajo Code Talkers defended the United States at a time when Native Americans couldn’t vote, when speaking Diné Bizaad was prevented in schools, and the ancestral land where Navajo soldiers volunteered willingly to defend the country was and continues to be held in trust by the U.S. government, which seized over 90 million acres of Indigenous land through the General Allotment Act.

Tonal in nature (one sound can completely change a word’s meaning), the complexity of the people’s language was impossible to decipher by anyone but Navajo people, thereby making Navajo Code Talkers integral to winning the war. DDC upholds this legacy by defending the country with innovative technology that targets modern threats that exist largely in the ether. Unlike a World War II enemy tank surmounting a hill, digital or cyber-attacks, for example, can be anticipated but can’t always be seen, which makes defending against assaults of this nature a challenge that evolves at warp speed.

Tribal ownership of real property

Last year’s purchase and renovation of the 36,000-square-foot real property at 714 E. Monument Avenue is symbolic beyond the building’s name. Like the Washington office of Navajo Nation at 11 D Street SE in Washington, D.C., purchased for $4.8 million in 2021, the $6.8 million Code Talkers Building is wholly owned by DDC and, therefore, by its only shareholder, Navajo Nation. It’s worth noting that the $6.8 million budget was for the purchase and renovation, with nearly half the amount because of grants and tax incentives.

Juxtaposed against a history of land and property that’s held in trust, tribal ownership of real property—hard assets—makes the purchase and appreciation in value of the Code Talkers Building that much more meaningful both in Navajoland and throughout Indian Country.

Further to the remarkableness of the Code Talkers Building is its renovation. It took less than a year from closing to ribbon cutting. That’s right! In a building and construction climate where it can take years to get anything done on residential or commercial property, it took a mere 11 months to get the 36,000-square-foot Code Talkers Building stripped down and reconceived for DDC business.

Much of the open-plan interior, designed with gathering places throughout, is designated as office space. Nonetheless, two 1,000-square-foot areas can easily be transformed into protective Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, otherwise known as SCIFs. A SCIF would enable DDC to level up to operating in the “classified” space that sometimes comes with government contracts involving intelligence gathering and research and development.

HUBZone-certified, the DDC Code Talkers Building and the operations therein benefit from the U.S. Small Business Administration program, which is intended to “fuel small business growth in historically underutilized business zones.” Designees are poised to procure business from the program goal that awards “at least 3% of federal contract dollars to HUBZone-certified companies each year.”

The Entrepreneur Center – an innovation center

The Code Talkers Building is the former home of The Entrepreneurs’ Center, now located at The Hub in Dayton. In a city known for its inventiveness—once considered the U.S. leader in patents per capita—one might ask, was it kismet that led to the purchase of this particular building? DDC has transformed The Entrepreneur Center into its innovation center, and the similarity of vision for each is uncanny. As a local technology accelerator and business incubator, The Entrepreneur Center “powers progress and prosperity through entrepreneurship.” Meanwhile, the DDC “uses its legacy to advance the Navajo Nation and ensure sustainable community prosperity.”

Dayton’s mayor, Jeffrey J. Mims Jr., is focused on community prosperity, too. He approaches urban revitalization with an attitude reminiscent of the metaphor “a rising tide lifts all ships.” From a glance at his Instagram feed, we see ribbon cutting after ribbon cutting. The former teacher and coach, with the support of, among others, Gov. DeWine, JobsOhio, county commissioners, and the Dayton Development Coalition, Mayor Mims is intent on leaving a legacy of growth and prosperity for Dayton families through opportunity in all forms.

Permanent fixture in Dayton

Currently, job growth in the Dayton region has outpaced declining population growth over the last 10 years. With the addition of 100 new jobs and the retention of 150 jobs at DDC alone, companies such as Joby Aviation and Sierra Nevada Corp., both setting up shop in Dayton, only underscores current and future employment opportunities. Dayton has set its sights on $1.3 billion in economic growth.

Party lines blurred as Gov. DeWine (R) and Mayor Mims (D) welcomed DDC as a permanent fixture on the Buckeye State’s landscape. DeWine first acknowledged Native forebears of the Miami Valley, notably and most recently, the Miami and Shawnee Indians.

“It’s another great day in the Miami Valley. Another great announcement,” DeWine said, referring to the grand opening.
“This is a state that values history,” he remarked.

Referring specifically to DDC, the 70th governor of Ohio was gracious, “We value you. We’re very grateful that you’re here. On behalf of all the people of the state of Ohio, we are very happy with your investment. We’re happy you’re here.”
“It’s another great day for the state of Ohio,” DeWine concluded.

Next, at the podium, Mayor Mims greeted the crowd with a big grin and a hardy, “Good morning. Welcome to Daytona, Ohio.”

A French language student in high school before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force at 18, the Vietnam veteran was all too familiar with both volunteering to defend our country and the advantages of knowing another language or code. As broken as it was, Mims’ ability to speak a little French and some Vietnamese, he likened his 1965-69 Vietnam experiences to those of Navajo Code Talkers, “I could communicate in some challenging situations and save lives, including my own.”

To be part of moving the needle from having been the number one state in foreclosures and job losses and 49th in job creation, Mims welcomed DDC warmly to its new Downtown Dayton quarters. He was elated at the prospect of DDC’s job creation. Getting the last laugh, however, the mayor implored the audience, “When someone says something about Daytona, you’ll say, ‘No, I want to go to Dayton, Ohio.”

In a moving introduction, COO Jackie Goodwin called Jocelyn Billy-Upshaw DDC’s “heart.” Head of tribal business relations, Billy-Upshaw (who is Bit’ahnii and born for Tódích’íi’nii. Her maternal grandfather is Áshįįhí, and her paternal grandfather is Dził T’áád Kiyaa’áanii) paraphrases from a speech made at the christening of the USNS Navajo in 2023.

“Today, inhale the beauty!” she proclaimed.

Almost in the form of a blessing, Billy-Upshaw remembered code talkers living and dead. She petitioned the audience, “May we strive to live up to the examples set by these men and the Navajo people. To be brave in the face of adversity and to honor the sacrifices of those who came before us.”

Diné-inspired interior, permanent exhibit

“Remember John Kinsel, Thomas H. Begay, and Peter MacDonald (Sr.)?” she asked.

Little could Billy-Upshaw know that John Kinsel of the second cohort of code talkers would die two days later in his home in Lukachukai at 107 years old.

After the official ribbon cutting, dignitaries and guests filed into the Code Talkers Building to see both the subtle Navajo-inspired interior and the permanent Navajo Code Talker exhibit. Hosted at first by the vice president of operations, Jen Creamer, special guests learned about the use of specific colors (white, blue, yellow, and black) to represent each of the four directions (east, south, west, and north). Plants native to the Southwest could be seen in the lobby.

Creamer handed off to Zonnie Gorman, Ph.D., the curator of the code talker exhibit and daughter of Carl Gorman, who was among the first 29 Code Talkers. She directed onlookers’ attention to the various walls with displays already mounted, referring to them as “Phase 1.”

Gorman is a recent recipient of her doctorate from the University of New Mexico, where she defended her dissertation titled “The First Twenty-Nine: A Microhistory of the Original Pilot Group of Navajo Code Talkers.”

Gorman pointed to an incomplete display wall designated for showcasing Navajo life. A leading authority on Code Talkers, she said, “This is where we’ll talk about boarding schools, the assimilation policies, and life on the reservation prior to World War II.”

Next, Gorman pointed in the direction of the “War Wall,” which highlights “the beginning of the Navajo Code Talker program and the original pilot group,” she said.

Exhibiting quotations from the code talkers, DDC works closely with descendants like Gorman and some 20 others who requested as many Navajo faces and voices as possible on display. Gorman points to a middle panel, which illustrates the actual code the men created.

“Because this is an IT building, we wanted to really focus on the code,” said Gorman, “whereas the descendants wanted us to focus on the language.”

Extraordinary exhibit in a ‘small, big town’

The exhibit highlights the techniques undertaken by the code talkers to develop their unbreakable code. “It wasn’t just substituting. It wasn’t just the alphabet. There was a whole lot more to the code,” Gorman explained as she pointed to a language panel.

The Navajo Code Talkers were in all six divisions of the Marine Corps. The “Pacific” panel shows the battles those divisions and Navajo Code Talkers took part in. The exhibit has a signaler’s radio, and a replica of the 2001 Congressional Medal awarded to Navajo Code Talkers. A photo of John Kinsel Sr. in his identifiable yellow code talker uniform hangs on the wall next to a mannequin displaying the actual attire. The Navajo Code Talkers’ missions were declassified in 1968, and in 1972, the elite group formed the Navajo Code Talkers Association.

Unlike many men who said they were older than they were, Gorman’s father said he was younger than his 35 years when he enlisted. As the rest of the extraordinary exhibit is phased in, Gorman points to a wall reserved for rotating individual stories of the men. The proud daughter of a code talker hopes to incorporate audio, video, and QR codes into the exhibit for a seamless glimpse at the lives of the more than 400 Navajo Code Talkers. It will be the most comprehensive exhibit of Navajo Code Talker history and memorabilia in the country.

Austin Tsosie bestowed special guests with a beaded medallion with “DDC” emblazoned on it. Governor DeWine, Mayor Mims, Montgomery County Commissioner Debbie Lieberman, and Dayton Development Coalition president and CEO Jeff Hoagland sported their traditional outfits in a photo opportunity in front of the code talkers exhibit.

In their earlier speeches, Lieberman, who visited the Navajo Nation last spring, undertook the Navajo tradition of introducing herself by way of her four clans, while Hoagland referred to the beloved City of Dayton as “a small, big town.”

The “other” DDC CEO, Hoagland, illustrated the profound nature of connections and relationships in such a setting. Hoagland and DDC’s chief growth and strategy officer, Dan Riggs, not only lived in the same neighborhood, but they were going to the same recreation center gym. Coincidentally, Hoagland’s son, now a high school senior, was coached as a four-year-old on the soccer field by Riggs.

A few years ago, a random gym conversation between the two went like this, “I was running, and Dan was working out when he said to me, ‘Hey, by the way, Jeff, you should come out to our facility. We’ve got some growth that’s real.’”

Quintessential collaboration

The Dayton Development Coalition, through collaborative partnerships, strives to “recruit, expand, and retain jobs in the Dayton region.” Several years after that invitation, there stood Hoagland welcoming the Diné Development Corporation to its new building in the quintessential collaboration between and among local, state, and federal government agencies and the military, commercial operators, a tribal nation, and a city driven to resurrect itself through economic development.

Retired Marine Corp. Four-Star Gen. Robert Neller watched Marine Corps soldiers as they took in the code talker walls. A recent addition to the DDC Board of Directors, Neller emphasized to the uniformed recruiters the importance of knowing about Navajo Code Talkers in the context of the Marine Corps history.

As dignitaries left the event and the crowd dissipated, Airman Zechariah Gerardi from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base lingered to look more carefully at the exhibit.

Serendipity flirted on that sunny day in Dayton, Ohio.

Reporting for work as a member of the color guard, he marched holding the American flag at the beginning of the event. Gerardi assumed he was attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony like any other. But, after DDC’s Gerald Secody’s (Naasht’ézhí Dine’é Tábąąhá and born for Tł’ógí Dine’é. His maternal grandfather is Tódích’íi’nii, and his paternal grandfather is Kinłichíi’nii) children sang the national anthem in Diné Bizaad, Gerardi began to piece together that he was at a grand opening that had to do with the Navajo people.

Gerardi waited around to talk to Billy-Upshaw to tell her how special the day had turned for him.

“My great grandfather,” he said, “was Navajo from New Mexico.”

Billy-Upshaw explained to Gerardi that his great-grandfather was likely subjected to an Indian Relocation Program. A 1950 government initiative that encouraged Native Americans to move to cities for work, Navajo families were sent largely to Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Denver.

A self-proclaimed lover of history, Gerardi left the conversation thankful. He said, “Oh my goodness, thank you. This is so special.” The airman was effusive with his thanks to Billy-Upshaw, who gave him a USNS Navajo pin. Gerardi went to work as a dutiful member of a color guard and left a Navajo veteran.

An even more profound twist of fate occurred inside the hallowed hallway Code Talker exhibition of DDC’s Code Talkers Building.

A Dayton clinical nurse manager, Stephanie Tancreti, attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 17. Her grandfather, Keith Little, was not only a Navajo Code Talker, but for many years, he was the president of the Navajo Code Talkers Association and the Navajo Code Talkers Foundation. A leader among this special class of World War II veterans, Little worked tirelessly to memorialize Navajo Code Talkers’ history and stories in a museum. Tancreti attended the opening with the founder of a Dayton-area Native American advocacy group. Among the Code Talker quotes featured in the exhibit, she was delighted to see one from her grandfather:

“Every word had to be memorized…they really drilled you…. You had to know how to spell each one so that you could write a message when you were talking on the radio. If you were talking into the mic, you were encoding the English vocabulary into the Navajo code. The receiver down there, he was decoding it … you have to be really precise. They tested to see if you could make it so many words a minute. You couldn’t miss one spelling or the required time to write a message. The time on the the radio has to be short and precise.”

Little passed away 13 years ago in Crystal, New Mexico. Through his grandaughter’s eyes, the war hero’s dream of telling the story of and memorializing the heroism of more than 400 courageous soldiers, their families, and the history of a people and a unique codified communication system was taking shape on a sunny October day in Dayton, Ohio, in a building borne of a company that got its start too as a unique idea nearly 80 years after the end of World War II.

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