So I needed to come up with a name for my motorcycle. While my wife is great at naming things, I am not. I tend toward black humor. And while Domino is almost subtle, once I explained it as “street pizza” it got rejected. It’s a Storm Blue Indian Scout 60, so I tried to think of something that fit into that scheme.

After a day or two, it came to me: Code Talkers. During World War II, it was a policy of the US Military to recruit Native Americans who were fluent in English and their native language. They used tribal language, unlikely to be understood by the enemy, to send secret communications on the battlefield. The Navajo, who worked in the Pacific theater, are the most well-known, but apparently over a dozen other Native nations were recruited as well. Eventually survivors were awarded a presidential medal by Reagan, and there’s a state holiday in Arizona to “honor the Navajo Code Talkers who answered the call to protect our nation.” There’s also a movie, Windtalkers, starring Nicholas Cage and directed by John Woo. I’ve never seen it, but the trailer looks interesting.

I found a list of Najavo code talkers and from that found David Bluehorse. I like his name for the color and that it evokes “iron horse.” I could only find one description of him on the net:

[David Bluehorse] left his name and little else to remember him by, but his name is all we need to know that he was a hero – American, Marine and Navajo.