Choctaw soldier thwarts German eavedroppers during WWI

When seeking subjects for this column sometimes I just look into something on a whim.

Such was the case recently while going through a list of oral histories at the Ontario City Library.

There, under "Carrie Gooding," was a curious notation, "using Choctaw language during WWI."

And the story about a future resident of Ontario, Louis Gooding, was only there because of a son’s hope that this father’s legacy not be forgotten.

Gooding, a member of the Army’s Signal Corps, served in France in the waning months of World War I, playing a role of a little-known aspect of that conflict.

He spoke fluent Choctaw -- his mother was a member of that Oklahoma tribe.

Much like the Navajo soldiers in World War II -- honored in the 2002 movie, "Windtalkers" -- Gooding and other Choctaws in 1918 used their linguistic skills to thwart German attempts to intercept military communications.

In the chaos of the trench warfare that existed in France in World War I, communication was as vital as it was ineffective.

Word was usually telephoned along landlines which were easy for either side to hook into and learn of the other’s movements.

The Germans regularly intercepted the Allies’ transmissions and overcame any attempt to use coded messages, wrote William C. Meadows in a 2002 book on Indians in modern warfare.

Then an American lieutenant overheard two young soldiers speaking in Choctaw and proposed using them
to transmit messages in their language.

Consequently, several dozen Choctaws were put to work and are credited for helping to turn the tide in several battles.

In her oral history taken at the library in November 1977, Gooding’s wife, Carrie, said her husband and another soldier were in an advanced position one day hidden in a haystack someplace in France.

In the story told by her late husband, she said Louis and his partner saw enemy soldiers nearby who had apparently tapped into the American telephone lines.

It was then that the Native Americans turned to their heritage.

“ ‘All right, brother, see what you can do with this,’ so he started sending the message in the Choctaw Indian language, which he spoke as good as you speak English. He started sending messages in that," Carrie Gooding said.

“The enemy soldiers got so excited trying to figure that out, that (Louis) and his buddy got up, got their instruments and slipped out and got away."

On the other end of these cryptic messages were other Choctaws.

“In his company, there were men from Oklahoma and Texas, and they knew (how to translate the message into English)," she said.

Her recollection, given about 10 years after Louis’ death, may not be absolutely accurate in terms of every detail, but the role of Choctaws in the war proved as successful as it was little-known.

The messages sent in Choctaw helped the Allies make strategic moves in the battles at St. Etienne and Forest Ferme in the last months of the war.

“After twenty-four hours after the Choctaw language was essentially pressed into service. . . ., the Germans’ advances were stopped," wrote Meadows. "In seventy-two hours, the Germans had been forced into a full retreat."

The war ended a month later in November 1918.

Louis Gooding was born in 1887 in Oklahoma (then still known as Indian Territory). He and Carrie had married in Little Rock, Ark., just before he was sent to Europe.

The Goodings lived in Ontario from about 1943 until 1965 when they moved to Ventura, probably to live near their son Jack.

Louis Gooding, according to census records and city directories, was an aircraft worker and electrician and also work for Armstrong Nursery in Ontario. He died in 1967 in Ventura at age 80.

The 1977 oral history given by Carrie Gooding was not conducted by library volunteers or staff as were most taken at that time. It was done by her son Jack.

Judging by the line of questions, Jack Gooding obviously wanted her mother to record her recollections of his father’s achievements before they were lost.

Carrie Gooding died in Ventura less than a year after the interview at 84.

Thanks goes to Kelly Zachmann of the Ontario City Library for her help with this article.