PHOENIX – Arthur Hubbard, Sr., American Navajo Code Talker and Arizona’s first Arizona State Senator, was laid to rest in Phoenix after a service at Pinnacle Presbyterian Church in Scottsdale at 102-years old.

Mr. Hubbard was born in January of 1912 in Topawa on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation, but was raised on the Navajo reservation with Christian, Navajo and O’odham traditions.

He joined the Marines and during World War II trained Navajo code talkers who were instrumental in success in the war in the Pacific. They used their native language to describe various Japanese military equipment and movements in their own native language which became the code the Japanese could not break.

Other Native American code talkers were deployed by the United States Army during World War II, including Cherokee, Choctaw, Lakota, Meskwaki, and Comanche soldiers. Soldiers of Basque ancestry were used for code talking by the U.S. Marines during World War II in areas where other Basque speakers were not expected to be operating.

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According to Indian Country, Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly said

“The Navajo Code Talkers are living treasures of the Navajo Nation. With the passing of Arthur Hubbard, Sr., we have lost a true American hero. The Nation offers our heartfelt condolences to the family during this time.”

In 1972 he became the first Native American Arizona Senator and served six terms.