Thursday 1 March 2018

THE NAVAJO CODE TALKERS IN THE WWII: HE SAID THAT...

Tania Bean
Today, The Beans have visited the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. The family has been invited to participate of one of the most important Navajo cerimonies: The Blessing Way.  

Cristina Bean has been chosen to participate in this cerimony where you put your soul in contact with the universe and become stronger to confront difficult situations. 

After the cerimony, the family has been revising some English grammar with the Reported Speech and they have started the last chapter of Christmas Carol.
 
Tania Bean and Estefanía Bean have participated in a difficult password that they have won demonstrating that there isn't anything more important that the teamwork.

More information: Reported Speech

A member of the Navajo Community has explained them the importance of his community during the WWII where they worked as code talkers using his own language and The Grandma has been talking about the importance of money in all our daily activities where a coin becomes more important than a person, a vision totally opposed to the point of view of the Native American cultures. 


 More information: Reported Speech

Estefanía Bean
The Grandma has also talked about the importance of being a member of a community and working together to keep good services of all for all as a way to live better; and about the evaluation of happiness like a social indicator

The Earth is inhabited for differents cultures and we can take example of the best things that everyone of them can offer to us to improve our lives, our communities and our environment. 

It's a very difficult goal but we must do it, if we think in the next generations and we want to leave them a good legacy.

There are about 175,000 speakers of the Navajo language Díne Bizaad. While English is the language that all Navajo speak, they also keep alive their own language, culture and customs so that future generations will be aware of their heritage. 


For Americans who grew up on old TV westerns, they may have heard the language without realizing it. As most westerns were centered on the southwestern United States, the most depicted tribes in these westerns were Apache or Navajo. The Navajo greetings Yah’eh-teh’, meaning how do you do?, and Ah-hah-lah’nih, which is an affectionate greeting, were often used.

Anton Bean & Navajo Code Talker Monument
Probably the most famous use of the Navajo language outside of the Navajo Nation was during World War II. 420 young Navajo men were recruited and became Marines codetalkers during the war in the Pacific. 

They were picked because they spoke both English and their native language fluently, so they could receive orders and relay them to other codetalkers to give to their superiors. The Navajo language had not been studied by the enemy, so orders could be issued without fear of interception.

Code talkers are people in the 20th century who used obscure languages as a means of secret communication during wartime. The term is now usually associated with the United States service members during the world wars who used their knowledge of Native American languages as a basis to transmit coded messages. In particular, there were approximately 400–500 Native Americans in the United States Marine Corps whose primary job was the transmission of secret tactical messages. 

More information: Navajo Nation Museum

The Beans flying over the Horseshoe Bend
Code talkers transmitted these messages over military telephone or radio communications nets using formal or informally developed codes built upon their native languages. Their service improved the speed of encryption of communications at both ends in front line operations during World War II.

The name code talkers is strongly associated with bilingual Navajo speakers specially recruited during World War II by the Marines to serve in their standard communications units in the Pacific Theater. Code talking, however, was pioneered by the Cherokee and Choctaw peoples during World War I.

More information: CNN

Other Native American code talkers were deployed by the United States Army during World War II, including Lakota, Meskwaki, and Comanche soldiers. Soldiers of Basque ancestry were also used for code talking by the U.S. Marines during World War II in areas where other Basque speakers were not expected to be operating. 

Finally, The Beans have visited Navajo Nation in Arizona and Utah by the air. It has been an unforgettable experience before traveling to Lisbon where tomorrow night they are going to participate in the Eurovision Song Festival

More information: HistoryNet

  
Naa'óí naalzhoodí / Moving the beans around.

Navajo Proverb

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