During World War I, the Native American tribal language was used to send messages between deployed troops. The U.S. Army has learned that the Native American language provides a secure mode of communication between troops on the ground. During World War II the native Indian language of choice was the language of the Navajo tribe. Also during the war, a different Native American language was used to send messages between military troops and U.S. leaders. Due to the complex language and the fact that the language was taught orally to the next generation, and not a written language, the military was successfully able to translate messages between troops. This research paper will explain how Navajo Code Talking came to be, why the Navajos enlisted, the wartime experience of the Navajo Indians, the contributions of code talkers, the assimilation of Native Americans into white American society, and the recognition of the Navajo Code Talkers soldiers. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The Navajo language is a complex language; it is similar to East Asian languages ​​which are tonal. “Tonal means that the same word has another meaning based on tone.” For example, the word "really" nowadays has two meanings when you use it in a sentence, such as "the article was really informative for my research paper." Or, using modern English slang, the one-word answer “really” can be used as a question. Tonal languages ​​are extremely difficult for adults to learn because tone defines meaning. White Americans faced challenges communicating with members of the Navajo tribe. Missionaries and their families continually learned the language to witness Christianity to tribal members and to live within their community. The founding of the Navajo Code Talkers program has been credited to Philip Johnston. According to Zachary Spalding, author of “Experiences of the Navajo Code talkers in World War II”, a publication, written by collecting the stories of the Navajo Code Talkers or a member of their immediate family, which is a collection of personal experiences of the soldiers. It provides a historical overview of how the Code Talker program began. “Philip Johnston had the idea of ​​using the Navajo language instead of the military cipher system. As a child, Johnston and his family were missionaries on the Navajo Reservation. During his encounters with tribal members on the reservation, he learned the Navajo language. While working at the “Los Angeles Engineering Bureau,” the idea came to him. The idea was presented to the Navy and Marines branches of the military. According to Adam Jevec, Philip Johnston detailed his general knowledge of the Navajo language learned as a child while living on the Navajo reservation. He explained that the Navajo language remained mostly “unwritten.” “Major James Jones, of the Marine branch of the Army” was interested in the idea. Philip Johnston gathered a group of Navajos to learn and demonstrate the ability to translate messages. “The Navajo people were given six messages to decode,” the translation demonstration was a great success, and the project was approved to proceed. Johnston together with Native Americans from the Navajo tribe, created the code for the program. The first part of the code had twenty-six terms. Due to the complexity of the messages and the Navajo language, the coded alphabet went from twenty-six to forty-four words during the war. Terms were used as two options: they represented one word or they represented oneletter in the English alphabet. The Navajo Code Talkers had a positive effect on World War II because, according to Spaulding, “Germany did not know the Navajo language.” Before the German WarAnthropologists visited the United States and studied the culture and language of the Native American tribe. Fortunately for the United States, the anthropologist did not study the Navajo language. Since the Germans and Japanese did not know the Navajo language, the Navajo code talker deciphering program had a profoundly positive effect on the success of the United States in the war. According to Spalding, "Navajo code talkers served in the military for many reasons." First, they could speak their native language without fear of punishment or retaliation. Many Native Americans abandoned their native language due to the cruel punishments school-age children faced when they attended the public school system. The mistreatment of children has had a negative effect on the Navajo people's freedom to speak their native language. The ability to speak one's native language and at the same time support one's nation during war can give the soldier the dual purpose of serving in the military and fighting for their country. . Second, their strong loyalty to the land provided the motivation to serve during the war. Native Americans generally took pride in their lands, even though many Native Americans were forced from their land, they still took pride in fighting for their land. Many Navajo served to gain access to the military benefits they would receive as members of the military. Servicemen were able to access advanced higher education options once they returned from war. This was an attractive benefit as people on reservations faced limited access and financial resources for higher education opportunities. According to Nathan Aaseng, the Navajo Marines had to earn the trust of white American soldiers in their military troops. Navajo soldiers were subjected to discrimination and ridicule from white soldiers. During World War II, American Indians were not fully assimilated into white American society, so white soldiers were suspicious of Native American soldiers. The white soldiers thought that the Native American soldiers resembled the Japanese people. Because of their skin color and lack of facial hair, white soldiers put these two races in the same category. At one point, some soldiers heard Navajo Code Talkers speaking in the message code of the Navajo language and assumed that the Japanese had defeated the Marines and gained control of American radios. All soldiers who fought in World War II were afraid of dying, this was amplified for the Navajo soldiers, who were targeted by two groups of people during the war. The first is considered the enemy, the Japanese and German soldiers, and the other is the US soldiers who fought side by side. The additional pressure placed on the Navajo soldiers must have had a tremendous negative impact on them during the war, both physically and emotionally. There were two different enemies towards the Native American soldiers, they had to be on alert most of their time during the war. The experiences of Navajo code talkers during the war are described by both Zachary Spalding and Nathan Aaseng. The Navajo soldiers were under a lot of stress. Of course all soldiers had a constant fear of death, the Navajo soldiers, especially the code talkers, had an additional fear of being captured and tortured by the enemy. According to Zachary Spalding, the Navajo soldiers provided a weapon.