Can we commemorate something that was never known?

Alec Soth takes us with him to the state of Oklahoma, home to the Choctaw Native Americans. In the 1830s, the Choctaws were forced off their land and relocated to Oklahoma. By the early twentieth century, they had lost many of their tribal rights and were still not granted full citizenship, but many of them enlisted to serve in World War I nevertheless.

Alec Soth portrays the descendants of the nineteen Choctaw Indians who served as ‘code talkers’ in the US army in the first World War. These soldiers played a vital role in the final weeks of...