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Essay On Navajo Code Talkers

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Arizona is home is home to twenty-two recognized Native American tribes. The rich history and tradition of the Navajo people in particular are woven throughout the vibrant cultural story of our state.
Known in their language as the Diné, meaning the people, the Navajos have, “The largest American Indian nation in the United States” (Lavin, 3). In fact, Navajo land is comprised of over 27,000 square miles, which is greater than ten individual states within the U.S. Hundreds of years ago the Navajo people migrated southward from the northwestern region of Canada. The Navajo Nation occupies land in portions of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. In 1868, the Navajos and the U.S. government signed a treaty creating their reservation on …show more content…

Roosevelt requested all men over the age of twenty-one to register for the military in order to help over seas during WWII. Therefore, a numerous amount of Navajo men enlisted in the army, navy, marines and other war-related industries (Lavin, 67). A particularly unique group of men known as the Navajo Code Talkers were an integral part of this effort. The first Navajo recruits at Camp Pendleton, California developed a unique code for military words in 1942 (History). This group of men, “Created an unbreakable code alphabet from their language by attaching familiar words to letters” (Olalde). “Approximately four hundred Navajos were trained as code talkers,” to serve in a multitude of military units in order to aid in the American war effort (History). These code talkers made it nearly impossible for the Japanese to decode their special language, giving the Americans a major advantage and saving countless American lives (Lavin, …show more content…

This policy was meant to decrease the federal government’s involvement and financial responsibility for Indians in hopes that they would be more welcomed into modern American society (Lavin, 73). Therefore, the federal government established the Indian Claims Commission (ICC) in 1946 (Lavin, 73). The ICC created a federal court specifically designed to give the tribes an opportunity to sue the government for damages or lost land (Lavin, 73). This policy proved to be a success as the Navajos were able to elect chairmen and make much needed improvements in their communities (Lavin,

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