Code Talkers- Native American Young Adult

Code Talkers: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two 

Native American Literature

Young Adult 

    

     This novel was written by Joseph Bruchac. It is based on historical events, but it is a historical fiction story. Ned Begay, a Navajo man, narrates the story. He refers to the readers as his grandchildren. During the War, Navajo speakers were recruited by the United States military to help Allied forces by using their unique language skills. The main character of the novel, Ned Begay, recounts his childhood where he attended a boarding school for Native American children. The children were taught to abandon their culture and ways of their people and embrace the English language and ways. They are punished if they make a mistake and accidentally speak in their Navajo tongue. He was only six years old when he was taken 100 miles away from his family and taken to the boarding school in New Mexico. They are forced to change and even have their hair cut, which is very important in Native American culture. They are also given English names. The narrator’s given name is Kii Yazhi, but he is given the English name Ned Begay. 

     Ned is small, so he doesn’t excel at sports; however, he is very smart and excels at academics, especially English. When Ned is a teenager, the War is escalating, and the United States military starts looking to recruit Navajos in 1942. Ned joins the United States marines when he is only 16 years old. After he completes basic training, he is finally told that he and other Navajo recruits will be enlisted to be code talkers. Due to difficulty of the Navajo language, the recruits are told that they will be using the Navajo language to create a indecipherable code to use between the Allied forces. Ned and his fellow code talkers are shipped to Hawaii for training. From there, they are sent to the Solomon Islands where they have their first combat. They experience many other battles, but they finally end up in Iwo Jim and Okinawa. The United States forces drop bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which causes the Japanese Emperor to surrender and officially ends World War II. Ned returns home where he furthers his education using his GI Bill to become a Navajo educator. He tells about the racism he and his other Navajo soldiers experienced in their own country. The code talkers involvement in the war was not made public until 1969. Their skills were integral to winning the war. 

    Windtalkers is a 2002 movie about the Code talkers of World War II.  After completing the novel, I would show this movie to my class.  Due to the content of the movie and novel, which includes the harsh realities of War, I would recommend this novel for high school students.  The movie was released three years prior to the novel, but they are both based off the same Navajo soldiers used as code talkers during World War II. Comparison of the main characters in the novel versus their portrayal in the movie would be an excellent activity to complete.