Bruchac, J. (2005). Code talker: A
novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two. New York: Dial Books.
Kii Yazhi is a Navajo boy who at six
years old is being sent to boarding school to learn the ways of the white
people to help his family. He is there
given the white name of Ned Begay. He is
not allowed to speak Navajo language anymore and can only speak English. Ned does very well and school and is a quick
learner. He does so well that he is
allowed to continue on to high school.
During this time the US is in war with Japan and the Marines come
looking for 17-32 year old men who can speak Navajo and English. Ned is only 15 but wants to sign up to serve
his country. His parents refuse until he
is a year older, but at age 16 they agree and he joins the Marines where he
becomes a Navajo code talker to send messages in the war without the Japanese
knowing what the US was doing.
This story was based on true events and
people, except the main character, who is also the narrator, is fictitious along
with some of the other characters. The
job of the Code Talkers was very top secret and the Navajo were not allowed to
talk about what they did with anyone even after the war was over, so a lot of
things about the Code Talkers are still unknown. Bruchac does a great job of including history
along with some fiction to tell this story.
He uses Navajo words throughout the book along with belief systems they
have.
Bruchac has a theme throughout the
story that he restates in different ways, “The first thing was that bilagaanaas (white people) are not born
knowing everything. The second was that
in many of the most important ways, white men are no different from
Navajos. The third? That no matter who they are, people can
always learn from each other.” He relays this again and again and shows through
Ned’s thoughts and interaction with other men the truth in this statement. Ned sees this through a white boy, “Georgia
Boy,” who comes to him and can’t read and asks Ned to read a letter from home
to him.
Some cultural stories that Navajos grew
up with were staying away from deep water because of water monsters, so the
Navajos always tried to stay away from eating anything that came from the water. The Navajos also did better in training
because of their life and how they lived.
One story from a training exercise was how they were crossing a desert
in two days on foot with only one canteen of water. The Navajos knew they could get water from
prickly pear cactuses and were able to save their canteen water, whereas the
white men didn’t know that and almost died.
Ned talks about the religious beliefs
of Navajos that he attends Catholic Church, but also the Holy People and tells
about Monster Slayer who killed off Monsters who killed people except for
Poverty, Old Age, and Hunger. Those
Monster Slayer was unable to kill. Ned also talks about ceremonies the Navajo
have one was before he went in the Marines to keep him safe called Blessingway
and another Enemyway ceremony for restoring balance.
Reviews:
"Readers
who choose the book for the attraction of Navajo code talking and the heat of
battle will come away with more than they ever expected to find." —Booklist
"Bruchac's
gentle prose presents a clear historical picture of young men in wartime,
island hopping across the Pacific, waging war in the hells of Guadalcanal,
Bougainville, and Iwo Jima. Nonsensational and accurate, Bruchac's tale is
quietly inspiring..." —School Library
Journal
Activities:
Dorris, M. (1997). The window.
New York: Hyperion Books for Children.
Rayona Taylor lives with her mom, who
is an alcoholic. Her Dad, Elgin, does
not live with them, but checks on them every once in a while. It is during one of the checks that he
discovers Rayona’s mom has not been around for 3 days. He decides to get a friend who is a social
worker to help place Rayona with a family temporarily while he gets help for
her mom. She goes to one family for one
night and then moves to another one for a week, however she ends up being taken
to stay with Elgin’s family. She has
never met her great-grandmother, grandmother, and great-aunt before and
discovers she is loved and has a family she never knew about.
The
Window doesn’t have a ton of cultural markers
in the way of Native American, but the story does a great job of developing
Rayona’s character. She is just
finishing 5th grade and is 11 and in the book she seems like she is
more with it than her parents. Her mom
leaves her for hours and days at a time, but Rayona takes care of herself. She has a great sense of sarcastic humor when
she says, “I love being a surprise. I
really do. I love it almost as much as
getting a booster shot, as having a cavity filled, as the first day at a new school in the middle
of the year.”
Dorris also describes Rayona’s foster
homes each time she moves. The Potters
live in an aluminum prefab house that is in a neighborhood of the same and the
only difference is in the “accessories” of flower boxes, weather vanes or in
this case a homemade sign that reads “THE POTTERS.” She also admits her room is great with a bed,
frilly spread, dresser, desk and chair and a bookshelf. She is then moved to Mrs. Jackson’s apartment
building into apartment 3-F, which has an elevator and a security system you
have to be buzzed in by. However, when
Rayona gets to her grandmother’s home Dorris describes the people more than the
setting.
In describing the people in the story,
Dorris uses some physical description, but more of a heritage description. Elgin comes from a black father and an Irish
mother. He has not told Rayona or her mother
that his mother’s side of the family is white.
Elgin is described as “…mysterious:
dark complected, sharp cologne, sad pale-green eyes…skin feels like
satin…” and her mother as “Mom’s from Montana—‘pure Indian,’—she brags…” Rayona is never described, but we can imagine
from her parental coloring that she is a brown color and it does say at one
point that she has brown eyes like her mother.
While she is with her extended family,
Aunt Edna has a lot of art to do with Rayona, paint-by-number, “all these
Indian scenes and projects—Aunt Edna’s bought a beadwork loom as well, but we
never get around to it—are intended to make me proud of my heritage.” She also
has a conversation with a “middle-aged Indian guy in full costume—turkey feather
headdress, buckskin suit, beadwork.” And
he asks her if she knows her language and tribe and she discloses she knows a
little by saying something her mother has told her not to say in public.
REVIEWS:
“This
honest tale, with its wise narrator, will engross young readers.” – The New York Times Book Review
“The first-person narration is sophisticated and
perceptive, and seems to promise more of a story than it delivers…readers are
ready for the story to begin at last, until they realize that there are only 20
pages left in the book. Dorris's lyrical writing and ability to create
evocative moments will sustain those who have read his historical novels, but
won't give them an idea of the real Rayona of the earlier books.” –
Kirkus Reviews
Activities:
Students
can finish the book – add to the plot and tell what they think happens next.
Students
could also pretend a journal of Rayona’s trips.
Smith, C. L. (2001). Rain is not my
Indian name. New York: HarperCollins.
Cassidy Rain Berghoff is turning 14 on
New Year’s Day, but as she wakes up she is given the news that her best friend,
Galen, died last night in an accident on his way home from her house. She spends the next 6 months withdrawing from
everyone and everything. Her father is
in the military and stationed in Guam, so she lives with her Grampa Berghoff
and her brother Fynnegan. Her Aunt
Georgia is having an Indian Camp during the summer and Fynn signs her up to go
against her wishes. She ends up documenting
the camp for the local newspaper with her camera and as she does so she begins
to find her way back to the world and begins to heal from her loss of
Galen.
Leitich Smith gives us a view of a
modern day Native American, who is not struggling with her mixed blood, but
with grief and healing from the loss of her mother and best friend. The night before Rain’s birthday, Galen gives
her a present of a necklace of a seed-beaded pouch. Rain remembered it from a Lakota trader’s
table at a powwow her Aunt Georgia had taken them to in Oklahoma City. She also recalls her finger’s sticky from an
Indian taco and taking pictures of a girl dancing to the rhythm of the Drum.
In her journal Rain describes her
heritage as, “I’m Muscogee Creek-Cherokee and Scots-Irish on my Mom’s side,
Irish-German-Ojibway on Dad’s.” and she begins by saying, “Rain is not my
Indian name, not the way people think of Indian names.” it came from her
parents meeting in a rainstorm.
Rain describes herself as “average
height, average weight…eyes pinched at the corners…my so-called Kansas
coloring. She (her mother) used to say
my hair looked like waving wheat and my eyes changed color with the
weather. Dishwater hair, I’ve always
thought. Hazel eyes.” Rain goes on to
say her brother looks more like their mother and more Native American.
Most of the names in the book are
typical names, however Fynn’s girlfriend is pregnant and she calls the baby
Aiyana after Rain’s mother which is explained “Aiyana is an old name, a musical
name. My mom’s name…It means ‘forever
flowering.’” Rain also recalls a memory of her and her mother traveling to
Oklahoma to go to powwows, socials and stomp dances. She recalls the smell of pork cooking, her
the songs and fell the rhythm of the shell shakers.
Leitich Smith does a good job of
including Native American culture throughout the book, without making it the
focus. She also gives a realistic picture
of the “outsiders” to begin to have an understanding of the culture.
Reviews:
“Some of Smith's devices such as opening each
chapter with a snippet from Rain's journal add depth and clarify Rain's
relationships for readers…” – Publisher’s Weekly
“There is
a surprising amount of humor in this tender novel. It is one of the best
portrayals around of kids whose heritage is mixed but still very important in
their lives.” – School Library Journal
Activities
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