The Choctaw Code Talkers, the Ideal American Doughboy, and the Adventure of a Lifetime

Published: 14 July 2024

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Tribal Member
Special to the Doughboy Foundation website

Leader book cover and photo

American Doughboy Otis W. Leader, who was Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Irish, pictured on the cover of Sarah Elizabeth Sawyer's new book (left), and in a post-war portrait wearing his WWI Army uniform and overseas cap.

A few months following a phone call with a fellow Choctaw researcher, I found myself standing in a French airport, a bit shocked and certainly in awe. I had never imagined the whirlwind that would land me on foreign soil for the first time in my life. Just a girl living in a small Texas town, writing about my family’s deep Choctaw and Oklahoma roots.

People often ask me when I first learned of the Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I. I can’t recall a time not knowing about them. Since I was born in 1985, the story of the original code talkers was ingrained in the Choctaw Nation narrative by the time I was old enough to tell a story. The fact that no one I met outside of that circle knew about the original code talkers surprised me. What I didn’t know at the time, was the standout story of one of those code talkers—Otis W. Leader who was of Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Irish descent.

Pages from Otis W. Leader handwritten memoir of his World War I service in the American Expeditionary Forces.

When writing became my full-time endeavor, penning a story about these American heroes was top on my list. It wasn’t until 2016, though, that I awoke to the realization we were in the anniversary years of America’s forgotten war. I looked up the exact date the Great War ended—November 11, 1918.

Research consumed the next two years of my life.

I knew writing the first novel on the Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I was a tremendous undertaking. I didn’t know how tremendous—nor how it would lead me to meet family members who were children when those American Indian doughboys were still living. Many of those descendants became my friends.

Among those was Tewanna Anderson Edwards, who invited me into her home in Shawnee, Oklahoma. She plunked boxes of research material on her kitchen table for me to sift through. The majority of the papers were about one of the men she admired most in life—her great-uncle, Otis W. Leader. She had even scanned copies of his original war memoir and donated them to the Chickasaw Nation. I obtained copies of the Journal of Chickasaw History and Culture which had printed his memoir in two editions. I read it and knew I had discovered something as significant as the Choctaw Code Talkers story.

Otis’s writing grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.

I discovered there is very little known about his service as a code talker since he was in the 1st Division, apart from the bulk of the Choctaws in the 36th Division. But I knew then that Otis needed his own book to tell his full story.

First, I had to finish my primary mission of researching all the code talkers for my novel, Anumpa Warrior: Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I.

That’s when I connected with Tiajuana Cochnauer, a fellow Choctaw researcher and artist, in January 2018. In April 2018, I landed in France.

Tiajuana was scheduled to speak about the Choctaw Code Talkers at an international conference in Reims, France, and she invited me along on the trip. After a whirlwind that included fundraising from reader friends, family, and support from my tribe, I packed my bags, figured out international calling on my phone, and even tried to learn a few French phrases. Turned out, parlez-vous anglais? was the only helpful one for me.

There couldn’t have been a better way for me to comprehend what the Choctaws before me experienced, especially Otis. My translator app was no better than the French conversation book Otis bought in Paris. But like Otis, I found I didn’t need it, even when we were out in the countryside after the conference. The French people were friendly to this American researcher who acted like an awe-struck tourist. Restaurant waiters and our hotel host in Dun-sur-Meuse spoke English.

We connected with a local British-Welsh man, Roger Branfill-Cook, a writer, historian, translator, and tour guide extraordinaire. Roger kindly spent three days touring the countryside with us in his 1997 blue Renault Mégane Cabriolet, top down to let in the glorious spring sunshine. Mud and rain would have been more apt for my research, but we didn’t complain.

At the hilltop village of Voncq in the Meuse-Argonne, we took in the sight where the 36th Division won the battle at Forest Ferme, thanks in large part to the work of the Choctaw Code Talkers.

Following Otis and the 1st Division, I found nothing beat the view from the heights of Montsec. We also visited Chateau Thierry (near Soissons) and Cantigny during our trip. We made all of Otis’s major battle sites except Bathelémont, my one regret of the trip.

Raymond Desvarreux (right) displays his 1917 portrait of American soldier Otis W. Leader (left), who was Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Irish. Desvarreux noted “Who better to represent the Americans than an American Indian?”

The final leg of our ten-day trip was Paris and the moment that took the most connections to make happen—viewing Raymond Desvarreux’s famous portrait of Otis as the “ideal American doughboy.”

In the summer of 1917, the 1st Division of the American troops arrived in France. Commissioned by his government to capture representations of the Allied Forces, Raymond Desvarreux set out immediately to select a subject to paint as the ideal American doughboy. During the July 4th parade through the streets of Paris, he found his man—Otis W. Leader. Later, Desvarreux explained, “Who better to represent the Americans than an American Indian?”

Our hotel was within walking distance of the Musée de l’Armée – Hôtel National des Invalides (Army Museum). We arrived early, thankfully, as the line grew longer and longer before the ornate gate. It finally opened and we were taken one by one through security. Passing muster, we headed up the cobblestone road to enter the magnificent museum. It felt like army barracks with cannons and even a WWI tank displayed in the courtyard. Following the wall, we came to the door marking the one we’d been looking for.

Pressing the intercom, we connected with Laëtitia Desserrières, who worked in the archives there. She greeted us in English and escorted us to the non-tourist area of the Musée de l’Armée, and finally to a nondescript back room set up for research and preservation of priceless works of art. We entered and beheld a legend—the famed, rarely photographed, original copy of the ideal American doughboy portrait.

I was taken aback at first and thought we had the wrong painting because it lacked Otis’s smile.

But it was the right one, and what a moment it was. To see Otis’s name inked on the portrait and know he stood only feet away as Desvarreux captured his likeness to represent the American doughboys.

(l to r) Musée de l’Armée – Hôtel National des Invalides staff member Laëtitia Desserrières, Choctaw tribal researcher Tiajuana Cochnauer, and author Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer pictured with the original of artist Raymond Desvarreux’s portrait of Otis W. Leader as the “ideal American Doughboy.”

There we were, one hundred years later, viewing the painting that bridged time as though none had passed at all.

We stayed awhile with Laëtitia and shared some of Otis’s history the museum didn’t have. She gave us more tidbits about Desvarreux.

We said our goodbyes to Laëtitia and her colleagues. And to Otis, my heart and head about a thousand feet into the sky. I was in love with his story and knew I had to write it someday.

Our time in France was nearly over. In the few hours left, Tiajuana and I hopped on a tour bus. I climbed straight to the open-air top deck. As the bus rumbled through Paris, it wasn’t hard to picture the July 4th parade where Otis marched five miles to Picpus Cemetery in crammed packed streets loaded with ancient history.

After publishing my novel on the Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I, Tiajuana and I were able to present an exact replica of Otis’s portrait to the Choctaw Nation leadership. It resides in the Choctaw Nation Museum at Tuskahoma, Oklahoma.

Tiajuana Cochnauer and Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (left and right in center) present an exact replica of Raymond Desvarreux’s famous portrait of Otis W. Leader to the Choctaw Nation leadership. It now is displayed in the Choctaw Nation Museum at Tuskahoma, Oklahoma.

Then, I set to work on Otis’s story. The portrait of the ideal American doughboy was just the beginning—or perhaps the middle—of Otis’s story.

Days before America declared war, Otis was mistaken as a German spy by two federal agents tailing him and his Swiss bosses while they were on a cattle buying trip in Fort Worth. The accusation riled Otis and the Oklahoman enlisted as soon as war was declared. He wanted to prove he was 100% American.

Otis went on to do just that as a machine gunner in the Fighting First, the “Let’s go boys.

After writing and publishing 18 fiction books, I felt a different direction was needed for Otis. I decided to write his story in narrative biography style, relying heavily on sharing his war journal and poems, and the hundreds of newspaper article mentions where he offered more insight into his battle experiences.

What I discovered about Otis’s life before, during, and after the war filled me with tears, laughter, and a feeling that he was my friend.

I believe you’ll feel the same when you read Otis W. Leader: The Ideal American Doughboy (Chickasaw Press 2023).

The book was awarded the 2024 Oklahoma Book Award for Nonfiction and the Oklahoma Book Award for Design, and was selected to represent the state of Oklahoma at the Library of Congress’s National Book Festival in Washington, DC on August 24, 2024.

Otis, arguably the most decorated WWI soldier from Oklahoma, is still making us proud.

— ♦ —

Author’s Note:

Thank you to Chickasaw Press for allowing me to use a modified portion of the Afterword section in Otis W. Leader: The Ideal American Doughboy for the bulk of this article. The book is available at ChickasawPress.com and online retail outlets.


Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer is a story archaeologist. She digs up shards of past lives, hopes, and truths, and pieces them together for readers today. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian honored her as a literary artist through their Artist Leadership Program for her work in preserving Choctaw Trail of Tears stories. She is the creator of the Fiction Writing: American Indians digital course.  Sarah has written and published 17 historical fiction books, and over 275 non-fiction articles on Native artists and organizations with representatives from dozens of North American tribes. Otis W. Leader: The Ideal American Doughboy is her first nonfiction book. A tribal member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Sarah writes from her hometown in Texas, partnering with her mother, Lynda Kay Sawyer, in continued research for future works. Learn more at ChoctawSpirit.com, SarahElisabethWrites.com and Facebook.com/SarahElisabethSawyer

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