Click2Flicks - Windtalkers, The Story Behind the Movie, The Navajo Nation, Chapter 6

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b><i>WINDTALKERS</i></p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 6 - THE NAVAJO NATION</b></font></p> </div>  <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">By the time Pearl Harbor was attacked on 7 December 1941, most Navajos had <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/38/21/38-2097a.gif" target="_blank"><b>never left</b></a> their 25,000 square mile reservation. They were one of few tribes allowed to keep their homelands in <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/5/25/05-2466a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Arizona</b></a>, New Mexico and southern Utah. Americans moving west did not want to settle on the <a href="http://www3.nau.edu/cline/imagedisplay.cfm?control_num=1139" target="_blank"><b>rocky</b></a>, <a href="http://www3.nau.edu/cline/imagedisplay.cfm?control_num=1156" target="_blank"><b>inhospitable</b></a> and arid <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/5/25/05-2477a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Navajo land</b></a>.</p> <p>Educated in government schools, Navajo <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/38/21/38-2098a.gif" target="_blank"><b>children</b></a> were taught English. Their native language is unwritten, so the experience of <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/38/21/38-2099a.gif" target="_blank"><b>learning</b></a> a second language was unique for them.</p> <p>English-speaking teachers discouraged the children from speaking their own tongue. Parents, fortunately, ignored such suggestions. Had they heeded that advice, who can say whether the Allies would have won the war in the Pacific?</p> <p>U.S. public records contain a rich pictorial record of Navajo life in the decade before World War II. A virtual “trip” to the national archives reveals what America’s future Code Talkers experienced before they were called to duty.</p><ul> <li>At the time of WWII, and to this day, the Navajo nation <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/38/22/38-2123a.gif" target="_blank"><b>governs</b></a> itself through a tribal council.</li><br><br> <li>Many people <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/40/9/40-0827a.gif" target="_blank"><b>lived in</b></a> rundown shacks or <a href="http://www3.nau.edu/cline/imagedisplay.cfm?control_num=1300" target="_blank"><b>hogans</b></a> on the reservation.</li><br><br> <li>Government relief, in the early 1930s, helped some Navajo families <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/40/9/40-0836a.gif" target="_blank"><b>build</b></a> new <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/40/9/40-0833a.gif" target="_blank"><b>homes</b></a>.</li><br><br> <li>Navajo families usually had several <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/40/9/40-0838a.gif" target="_blank"><b>ponies</b></a> and traveled to fall fairs in horse-drawn <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/7/29/07-2897a.gif" target="_blank"><b>carriages</b></a>, cars, trucks or <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/7/29/07-2884a.gif" target="_blank"><b>trailers</b></a>.</li><br><br> <li>Although the Navajo homeland stretches for thousands of miles, getting to the interior (just before World War II erupted) was <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/7/30/07-2978a.gif" target="_blank"><b>difficult</b></a> due to wide creeks and <a href="http://www3.nau.edu/cline/imagedisplay.cfm?control_num=1170" target="_blank"><b>washes</b></a>. Vehicles were often <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/7/30/07-2981a.gif" target="_blank"><b>stuck</b></a> due to <a href="http://www3.nau.edu/cline/imagedisplay.cfm?control_num=1216" target="_blank"><b>lack</b></a> of proper roads and bridges.</li><br><br> <li><a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/7/30/07-2977a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Building</b></a> roads through canyons, like Tohatchi, required back-breaking work.</li><br><br> <li>Crudely built bridges could <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/7/30/07-2979a.gif" target="_blank"><b>not survive</b></a> significant storms.</li><br><br> <li>Navajo “day schools” ranged from one-room <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/38/22/38-2109a.gif" target="_blank"><b>rural cabins</b></a> to more <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/38/22/38-2110a.gif" target="_blank"><b>modern</b></a> facilities.</li><br><br> <li>Children learned English with <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/38/22/38-2106a.gif" target="_blank"><b>picture cards</b></a> and <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/38/22/38-2117a.gif" target="_blank"><b>notebooks</b></a>.</li><br><br> <li><a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/38/22/38-2107a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Santa Clause</b></a> must have been a foreign concept for Navajo children.</li></ul> <p align="justify">The Navajo way of life had prepared future Code Talkers to endure the hardships of war. A young man used to deprivation, and the desert’s harshness, would be able to deal with life on a desolate Pacific Island. On the other hand, a young man free to roam wide-open spaces would have to <a href="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0816036039.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" target="_blank"><b>adjust</b></a> to Marine Corps discipline.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"><a href="wind_talkers_ch5.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="wind_talkers_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER  </a>   <a href="wind_talkers_ch7.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </a> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>