PIERRE — House Appropriators have deferred action Wednesday night on a bill that would fund a permanent memorial display to South Dakota’s Native American “Code Talkers”. Code Talkers used their native languages to transmit American military communications in code to prevent the enemy from learning the contents. Representative Steve Haugaard says Native soldiers took a lot of pride in their service…
Representative Shawn Bordeaux says he wishes he was more fluent in his native tongue and the memorial will keep Native languages alive…
Committee members ask Haugaard to describe the memorial…
The statues would be depicted in uniforms from the conflicts in which they served in. The bill is looking for 700-thousand dollars for the memorial. Haugaard believes around 150-thousand dollars in private donations have been raised for the memorial and also says the final cost of the project will likely be above the 700-thousand dollar request.