In WWII, “more than half the eligible residents of some reservations volunteered for military service” (p. In units such as Oklahoma’s 142d Infantry, with its sizable Choctaw contingent, Indian Code Talkers speaking by telephone easily confounded Germen eavesdroppers who had tapped Allied lines” (p. In WWI, officers in units with Native American soldiers found that these soldiers had “impenetrable native languages. military in WWI, and more than 44,000 served in WWII. Over 10,000 Native Americans served in the U.S. ‘Lo and behold,’ he said later, ‘I had completed the four requirements to become a chief.'” (p. When he related these exploits at a ceremony for the recounting of war deed, his elders recognized that he had led a war party, touched an enemy, taken an enemy weapon, and stolen enemy horses. … Joseph Medicine Crow…hile fighting the Germans, …had led a squad across enemy lines, engaged in hand-to-hand combat, and rounded up a band of horses belonging to S.S. When asked why they had come, they answered, ‘We’re going to fight.’ The Navajos’ resolve to join the conflict followed a long tradition of Indians serving the U.S. “On December 7, 1941, the superintendent of the Navajo Indian Reservation at Window Rock, Arizona, saw a crowd of armed young men assembling outside his office. Time-Life Books’s “The Way of the Warrior,” Alexandria, Virginia, references Native Americans finding honor in the military: This week, with Veteran’s Day on Friday, November 11, I present a list of children’s and Native American literature that focuses on Native American veterans and their contribution to war efforts. Worlds of Words’s current exhibit, “Code Making and Perspective Taking,” features stories of Native American code talkers, with art reflections from Tucson High Magnet School art students and fifth graders at Van Buskirk Elementary School.

Navajo Code Talkers by Brynn Baker