Ira Hayes was an Apache from Arizona.

He was one of 6 men who were pictured raising the US flag on Iwo Jima where 30,000 US soldiers were wounded or kiled.

I believe that Ira hayes was probably a Wind Talker. The US Marines used the almost unknown languages of the native peoples as a secret code to get messages into, out of and across the island. The existence of the wind talkers was almost never acknowledged until decades after the event.

The men who were wind talkers were sworn to secrecy. Up until the day that Ira Hayes died in poverty and misery he would not have been able to speak of his status as a wind talker.