A review by alinacg
Code Talker by Judith Schiess Avila, Chester Nez

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring sad slow-paced

4.0

As the current US administration (as of April 2025) is pulling history that they don't agree with/like/are "DEI", I felt that it was important to learn about more US history. This memoir talked about the incredible contributions of the Navajo Code talkers in WWII, while showing the federally imposed restrictions and immense challenges the the Navajo people handled in the 1900s. The memoir also provided  glimpse into Navajo language and culture that I really enjoyed. It also drove home some of the absolute horrors of war - I cried many times while reading this, just from the sheer loss of life, not to mention the other terrible things the soldiers dealt with in the pacific theatre of WWII. I am using this memoir as a jumping off point for deeper dives into WWII histories, and more memoirs and stories by Native Americans.
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