![]() ![]() Along the way, he gains respect from his fellow soldiers and is happy that he can prove the value of his native language. Over the next years, Ned takes part in some of the most dangerous and famous battles of World War II. Although Ned is technically too young to join, he enlists in the Marines and becomes a Code Talker, one of only 400 Navajo soldiers who become crucial in the U.S.’s efforts to beat the Japanese. Because the Navajo language is so hard to learn and speak, and because so few people know it, the military believes it is the perfect secret code to use to communicate during the upcoming battles in the Pacific. When he is sixteen, a Marine officer arrives looking for native Navajo speakers to help the military fight World War II in a very special way. Despite constant discrimination from his white teachers, Ned succeeds in school. ![]() When Ned Begay was only seven years old, he was sent away from his family living on the Navajo reservation to attend a “white” mission school, where he was told that he must forget all of his Navajo ways, especially his beloved Navajo language. Social Issues: horrors of war, oppression of indigenous peoples, discrimination, self-worth ![]() Violence: descriptions of intense battle scenes although not graphic ![]() Age and Grade of Main Character(s): 16 yearsĭrug/Alcohol Use: references to adult soldiers drinking beer, references to veterans using alcohol to forget the horrors of war ![]()
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