Navajo warriors : the great secret / by Michel Viotte for Bonne Pioche.

New York, NY : Filmakers Library, 2003.

1 streaming video (50 min.)

Access is available to the Yale community.

English.

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The famous Navajo Code Talkers, memorialized by Hollywood in the feature film "Windtalkers," were an integral part of the armed forces during World War II. Navajo veterans who fought in the Pacific in World War II, used their unwritten Native American tongue as an unbreakable code language, essential in the American military intelligence machine. Richard West, President, Museum of the American Indian, says, "Ironically, the U.S. military used the Native American language as a potent instrument of war although the government had prohibited [native] people from speaking their own language for almost a century."Successive generations of young Navajo men who fought in the elite division of the U.S. Marine Corps, relate their stories in this film. Vincent and his brother enlisted in the 1970s; his brother died in Vietnam. Benjamin, Calbert and Michael are currently training as Marines in San Diego. The film reveals how their strong Navajo cultural identity and spiritual references correlated with traditional Marine Corps values and a passionate patriotism.

ASP-AVON OCLC KB.

DVD version: Viotte, Michel. Navajo warriors. New York, NY : Filmakers Library, 2003

Images / Online / Video & Film

English; Navajo

November 15, 2019

For College; Adult audiences.