Judith Schiess Avila

An interesting memoir from one of the Navajo code talkers, Chester Nez, who helped develop the secret military code that could not be broken and helped the Americans win the Pacific side of WWII. While I found the sections of the book about his life in America fascinating, large parts of the war story were not. They were just descriptions of battles on many islands across the Pacific and the terrible, tragic death toll. What was interesting was learning that Native Americans were not allowed show more to vote during the time he was growing up and that many bars would not serve Native Americans, even a war hero like Nez. Also, his family sent him to boarding school so that he could become fluent in English. The downside to that was the rigid restriction on speaking his own language and the punishments meted out for minor infractions. I know there is another book by Chester Nez and his co-author Judith Scheiss Avila on the same topic. I don't know the difference between them. Overall: very interesting look into Navajo culture in the middle of the 20th century with WWII history that was undramatic and repetitive. show less