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During an era when many Native Nations found themselves forcibly removed from their homelands, the () also faced increasing pressure to leave their .

In the mid-1800s, the United States emerged as a nation driven to expand its territory west of the Mississippi. Spain controlled much of the land that today is known as the southwestern United States and Mexico.

Following the and the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 , the United States was poised to take more lands and increase settlement in the Southwest. Like many Native Nations, the Navajo (Diné) signed treaties as well as fought against American efforts to create pathways from the East to California.

Despite all their efforts, the Navajo (Diné) people were removed from their homelands by the United States government in the 1860s. However, they maintained an unflinching resolve to return home.

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Explore this interactive The Long Walk | The Navajo Treaties Study.

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Welcome to Britannica School, a safe, up-to-date, and age-appropriate information resource for Elementary, Middle, and High School.

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The Science of Codes: An Intro to Cryptography

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The Navajo are a Native American people of the southwestern United States. After the Cherokee, they are the country's second largest Native American tribe. At the end of the 20th century there were almost 270,000 Navajo.

The Navajo originally lived in what is now western and central Canada. There they hunted animals and gathered plants to eat. Between ad 900 and 1200 the Navajo migrated southward. Then they began to farm. They lived in houses called hogans. Hogans were six- or eight-sided homes made from wood covered with earth.

The Navajo learned many skills from their neighbors. They probably learned farming from the Pueblo Indians. The Navajo also learned weaving from the Pueblo. Navajo rugs and blankets are well known. The Navajo learned to work with silver from their Mexican neighbors.

Spanish explorers arrived in Navajo lands in the late 1500s. They brought horses, sheep, and cattle. Many Navajo then became animal herders. For many years the Navajo raided Spanish and, later, American settlements. To end the raids the U.S. government went to war against the Navajo in 1863. U.S. troops destroyed Navajo herds and fields. In 1864 the government captured and held about 8,000 Navajo in eastern New Mexico.

In 1868 the Navajo were allowed to return to their homeland. They settled on a reservation along the border of Arizona and New Mexico. Today the Navajo have the largest reservation in the United States. It covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

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The Navajo are a Native American people of the southwestern United States. After the Cherokee, they are the country's second largest Native American tribe. At the end of the...

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Aerial View Of Pearl Harbor & Arizona Memorial

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Aerial View Of Oahu Island & Pearl Harbor Naval Base

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Educational Videos for Students (Cartoons on Bullying, Leadership & More)

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Pearl Harbor for Kids (Educational Videos for Students) Free TV (Cartoon Network) @FresBerg

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Pearl Harbor for Kids (Educational Videos for Students) Free TV (Cartoon Network) @FresBerg In honor of all that served at Pearl Harbor join Ms. Erikka for a fun lesson on the history of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

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Navajo rugs and blankets ( Navajo: ) are textiles produced by Navajo people of the Four Corners area of the United States. Navajo textiles are highly regarded and have been sought after as trade items for over 150 years. Commercial production of handwoven blankets and rugs has been an important element of the Navajo economy. As one expert expresses it, "Classic Navajo serapes at their finest equal the delicacy and sophistication of any pre-mechanical loom-woven textile in the world."

Navajo textiles were originally utilitarian blankets for use as cloaks, dresses, saddle blankets, and similar purposes. Toward the end of the 19th century, weavers began to make rugs for tourism and export. Typical Navajo textiles have strong geometric patterns. They are a flat tapestry- woven textile produced in a fashion similar to kilims of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, but with some notable differences. In Navajo weaving, the slit weave technique common in kilims is not used, and the warp is one continuous length of yarn, not extending beyond the weaving as fringe. Traders from the late 19th and early 20th century encouraged adoption of some kilim motifs into Navajo designs.

Originally, Navajo blankets were used in a wide variety of garments, including (but not limited to) dresses, saddle blankets, serapes, night covers, or as a "door" at the entrance of their homes.

Pueblo influence

The Navajo may have learned to weave from their Pueblo Indian neighbors when they moved into the Four Corners region during the year 1000 A.D. Some experts contend that the Navajo were not weavers until after the 17th century. The Navajo obtained cotton through local trade routes before the arrival of the Spanish, after which time they began to use wool. The Pueblo and Navajo were not generally on friendly terms due to frequent Navajo raids on Pueblo settlements, yet many Pueblo sought refuge with their Navajo neighbors in the late 17th century to evade the conquistadors in the aftermath of the Pueblo Revolt. This social interchange is the probable origin of the distinctive Navajo weaving tradition. Spanish records show that Navajo people began to herd sheep and weave wool blankets from that time onward.

The extent of Pueblo influence on Navajo weaving is uncertain. As Wolfgang Haberland notes, "Prehistoric Puebloan textiles were much more elaborate than historic ones, as can be seen in the few remnants recovered archaeologically and in costumed figures in pre-contact kiva murals." Haberland suggests that the absence of surviving colonial-era Pueblo textile examples make it impossible to do more than conjecture about whether the creative origins of Navajo weaving arose from Navajo culture or were borrowed from the neighboring people.

Early records

Written records establish the Navajo as fine weavers for at least the last 300 years, beginning with Spanish colonial descriptions of the early 18th century. By 1812, Pedro Piño called the Navajo the best weavers in the province. Few remnants of 18th-century Navajo weaving survive; the most important surviving examples of early Navajo weaving come from Massacre Cave at Canyon de Chelly, Arizona. In 1804, a group of Navajo were shot and killed there, where they were seeking refuge from Spanish soldiers. For a hundred years the cave remained untouched due to Navajo taboos until local trader Sam Day entered it and retrieved the textiles. Day separated the collection and sold it to various museums. The majority of Massacre Cave blankets feature plain stripes, but some exhibit the terraces and diamonds characteristic of later Navajo weaving.

Wider commerce

Commerce expanded after the Santa Fe Trail opened in 1822, and greater numbers of examples survive. Until 1880, all such textiles were blankets as opposed to rugs. In 1850, these highly prized trade items sold for $50 in gold, a huge sum at that time.

Railroad service reached Navajo lands in the early 1880s and resulted in considerable expansion of the market for Navajo woven goods. According to Kathy M'Closkey of the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada, "wool production more than doubled between 1890 and 1910, yet textile production escalated more than 800%". Purchases of manufactured yarn compensated for the deficit in wool production. Federal government reports affirmed that this weaving, which was performed almost exclusively by women, was the most profitable Navajo industry during that era. Quality declined in some regards as the weavers attempted to keep up with demand. However, today the average price of a rug is about $8,000.

Several European-American merchants influenced Navajo weaving during the next decades. The first to advertise Navajo textiles in a catalog was C. N. Cotton in 1894. Cotton encouraged professional production and marketing among his peers and the weavers whose work they handled. Another trader named John. B. Moore, who settled in the Chuska Mountains in 1897 attempted to improve the quality of textiles he traded. He attempted to regulate the cleaning and dyeing process of artisans who did business with him, and shipped wool intended for higher grade weaving outside the region for factory cleaning. He limited the range of dyes in textiles he traded and refused to deal fabric that had included certain commercially produced yarns. Moore's catalogs identified individual textile pieces rather than illustrating representative styles. He appears to have been instrumental in introducing new motifs to Navajo weaving. Carpets from the Caucasus region were popular among Anglo-Americans at that time. Both the Navajo and the Caucasus weavers worked under similar conditions and in similar styles, so it was relatively simple for them to incorporate Caucasus patterns such as an octagonal motif known as a gul.

Traders encouraged the locals to weave blankets and rugs into distinct styles. They included "Two Gray Hills" (credited to George Bloomfield, Ed Davies, and local Navajo weavers, are predominantly black and white, with traditional patterns), "Teec Nos Pos" (colorful, with very extensive patterns), "Ganado" (founded by Don Lorenzo Hubbell), red dominated patterns with black and white, "Crystal" (founded by J. B. Moore), Oriental and Persian styles (almost always with natural dyes), "Wide Ruins," "Chinle," banded geometric patterns, "Klagetoh", diamond type patterns, "Red Mesa" and bold diamond patterns. Many of these patterns exhibit a fourfold symmetry, which is thought by Professor Gary Witherspoon to embody traditional ideas about harmony or Hozh.

Recent developments

Large numbers of Navajo continue to weave commercially. Contemporary weavers are more likely to learn the craft from a Dine College course, as opposed to family. Contemporary Navajo textiles have suffered commercially from two sets of pressures: extensive investment in pre-1950 examples and price competition from foreign imitations. Modern Navajo rugs command high prices.

Construction

Wool and yarn

Main page: Navajo-Churro sheep

In the late 17th century, the Navajo acquired the Iberian Churra, a breed of sheep, from Spanish explorers. These animals were developed into a unique breed by the Navajo, today called the Navajo-Churro. These sheep were well-suited to the climate in Navajo lands, and that produced a useful long-staple wool. Hand-spun wool from these animals was the main source of yarn for Navajo blankets until the 1860s, when the United States government forced the Navajo people to relocate at Bosque Redondo and seized their livestock. The 1869 peace treaty that allowed the Navajo to return to their traditional lands included a $30,000 settlement to replace their livestock. The tribe purchased 14,000 sheep and 1,000 goats.

Mid-19th century Navajo rugs often used a three-ply yarn called Saxony, which refers to high-quality, naturally dyed, silky yarns. Red tones in Navajo rugs of this period come either from Saxony or from a raveled cloth known in Spanish as bayeta, which was a woolen manufactured in England. With the arrival of the railroad in the early 1880s, another machine-produced yarn came into use in Navajo weaving: four-ply aniline dyed yarn known as Germantown because the yarn was manufactured in Pennsylvania.

Among the locally produced yarns for Navajo textile, indiscriminate breeding from 1870-1890 caused a steady decline in wool quality. Increasing proportions of brittle kemp can be found in well-preserved examples from the period. In 1903, federal agents attempted to address the problem by introducing Rambouillet rams into the breeding population. The Rambouillet is a French breed that produces good meat and heavy, fine-wool fleeces. The Rambouillet stock were well adapted to the Southwestern climate, but their wool was less suitable to hand spinning. Short-stapled Rambouillet wool has a tight crimp, which makes hand spinning difficult. The higher lanolin content of its wool necessitated significantly more scouring with scarce water before it could be dyed effectively. From 1920 to 1940, when Rambouillet bloodlines dominated the tribe's stock, Navajo rugs have a characteristically curly wool and sometimes a knotted or lumpy appearance.

In 1935, the United States Department of the Interior created the Southwestern Range and Sheep Breeding Laboratory to address the problems Rambouillet stock had caused for the Navajo economy. Located at Fort Wingate, New Mexico, the program's aim was to develop a new sheep bloodline that simulated the wool characteristics of the 19th-century Navajo-Churro stock and would also supply adequate meat. The Fort Wingate researchers collected old Navajo-Churro stock from remote parts of the reservation and hired a weaver to test their experimental wool. Offspring of these experiments were distributed among the Navajo people. World War II interrupted the greater part of this effort when military work resumed at Fort Wingate.

Coloration

Prior to the mid-19th century, Navajo weaving coloration was mostly natural brown, white, and indigo. Indigo dye was obtained through trade and purchased in lumps.

By the middle of the century, the palette had expanded to include red, black, green, yellow, and gray which signifies different aspects of the earth as defined by different locations of the reservation. Navajo used indigo to obtain shades from pale blue to near black and mixed it with indigenous yellow dyes such as the rabbit brush plant to obtain bright green effects. Red was the most difficult dye to obtain locally. Early Navajo textiles use cochineal, an extract from a Mesoamerican beetle, which often made a circuitous trade route through Spain and England on its way to the Navajo. Reds used in Navajo weaving tended to be raveled from imported textiles. The Navajo obtained black dye through piñon pitch and ashes.

After railroad service began in the early 1880s, aniline dyes became available in bright shades of red, orange, green, purple, and yellow. Gaudy "eyedazzler" weaves dominated the final years of the 19th century. Navajo weaving aesthetics underwent rapid change as artisans experimented with the new palette and a new clientele entered the region whose tastes differed from earlier purchasers. During the later years of the 19th century, the Navajo continued to produce earlier styles for traditional customers while they adopted new techniques for a second market.

Traditional Navajo weaving used upright looms with no moving parts. Support poles were traditionally constructed of wood; steel pipe is more common today. The artisan sits on the floor during weaving and wraps the finished portion of fabric underneath the loom as it grows. The average weaver takes anywhere from two months to many years to finish a single rug. The size greatly determines the amount of time spent weaving a rug. The ratio of weft to warp threads had a fine count before the Bosque Redondo internment and declined in the following decades, then rose somewhat to a midrange ratio of five to one for the period 1920-1940. 19th-century warps were colored handspun wool or cotton string, then switched to white handspun wool in the early decades of the 20th century.

Weaving plays a role in the creation myth of Navajo cosmology, which articulates social relationships and continues to play a role in Navajo culture. According to one aspect of this tradition, a spiritual being called "Spider Woman" instructed the women of the Navajo how to build the first loom from exotic materials including sky, earth, sunrays, rock crystal, and sheet lightning. Then "Spider Woman" taught the Navajo how to weave on it. Because of this belief traditionally there will be a "mistake" somewhere within the pattern. It is said to prevent the weaver from becoming lost in spider woman's web or pattern.

Use of traditional motifs sometimes leads to the mistaken notion that these textiles serve a purpose in Navajo religion. Actually these items have no use as prayer rugs or any other ceremonial function, and controversy has existed among the Navajo about the appropriateness of including religious symbolism in items designed for commercial sale. The financial success of purported ceremonial rugs led to their continued production.

Weaving styles and designs

Ganado

Two Grey Hills

Red Mesa Outline or Eye Dazzler

Teec Nos Pos

Klagetoh

Chinle

Crystal

Burntwater

Wide Ruins

Storm Pattern

Newlands Raised Outline

Coal Mine Mesa Raised Outline

Yei

Yei be Chei

Pine Springs

Germantown (old and contemporary)

1st 2nd and 3rd ase Chief Blanket

Sand Paining or Mother Earth Father Sky

Spider rock design

Pictorial Rugs

Burnham Design

Eye Dazzler

JB Moore plate rugs

Double and Single saddle blankets

Diamond Twill

Two Faced

Blue Canyon

Many of these patterns are handed down from one weaver to the next generation of weavers who live within the same area. Because of this tradition older rugs can be traced back to a geographic location where it was produced.

Critical study

Until recently, anthropologists have dominated the study of Navajo textiles. Most historic examples of these works belong to ethnological collections rather than fine art collections, which means items have been exhibited and analyzed with an eye toward normative or average works rather than emphasizing technical or artistic excellence. These priorities have artificially inflated the market value for items of inferior craftsmanship. In general, this tendency has affected most non-European art to some degree.

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For the Navajo, the sand painting is a dynamic, living, sacred entity that enables a transformation in the mental and physical state of the ailing individual. They believe that the holy figures in the painting absorb the ailment and provide relief.

After the healing ceremony, the sand painting is considered toxic and destroyed because it has absorbed the illness or problem.

Traditionally, outsiders are rarely invited by the shaman to attend the sand painting ceremony due to it's holy nature. The paintings are quickly destroyed after use as the image is believed to be sacred and and temporal (temporary). It is only meant to be seen by the ailing individual and the shaman- in fact, it is believed by many Navajo that the replication or publicization of these sacred artworks is a cursed activity.

However, some modern Navajo now choose to permatize the sacred images (make the designs permanent) by turning them into weavings or prints that can be sold for a profit. The sand original is still destroyed. These Navajo Artisans usually make respectful changes to the original design (adding intentional errors and changing colors so it's not exactly the same).

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An Art of Healing: Navajo Sandpainting - The Old Jail Art Center

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The Navajo people are Native American tribe in the Southwestern United States. Most Navajo people now live in New Mexico and Arizona. Traditionally, the Navajo were largely hunters and gatherers. The tribe grew crops of corn, beans, and squash. When the Spanish arrived in the Americas, the Navajo be

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History >>World War 2 for Kids The Battle of Iwo Jima took place during World War II between the United States andJapan. It was the first major battle of World War II to take place on Japanese homeland. The island of Iwo Jima was a strategic location because the US needed a place for fighter planes and bombers to land and take off when attacking Japan.

US Marines storm the beaches of Iwo Jima
Source: National Archives

Where is Iwo Jima?

Iwo Jima is a small island located 750 miles south of Tokyo, Japan. The island is only 8 square miles in size. It is mostly flat except for a mountain, called Mount Suribachi, located on the southern end of the island.

When was the battle?

The Battle of Iwo Jima took place near the end of World War II. US Marines first landed on the island on February 19, 1945. The generals who planned the attack had thought that it would take around a week to take the island. They were wrong. The Japanese had many surprises for the US soldiers and it took over a month (36 days) of furious fighting for the US to finally capture the island.

The Battle

On the first day of the battle 30,000 US marines landed on the shores of Iwo Jima. The first soldiers that landed weren't attacked by the Japanese. They thought that the bombings from US planes and battleships may have killed the Japanese. They were wrong.

Soldier using flame thrower
Source: US Marines

The Japanese had dug all sorts of tunnels and hiding places all over the island. They were waiting quietly for more marines to get on shore. Once a number of marines were on shore they attacked. Many US soldiers were killed.

The battle went on for days. The Japanese would move from area to area in their secret tunnels. Sometimes the US soldiers would kill the Japanese in a bunker. They would move on thinking it was safe. However, more Japanese would sneak into the bunker through a tunnel and then attack from behind.

First flag raised at Iwo Jima
by Staff Sergeant Louis R. Lowery

Raising the Flag of the United States

After 36 days of brutal fighting, the US had finally secured the island of Iwo Jima. They placed a flag on top of Mount Suribachi. When they raised the flag a picture was taken by photographer Joe Rosenthal. This picture became famous in the United States. Later a statue was made of the picture. It became the US Marine Corps Memorial located just outside Washington, DC.

Marine Corps Memorial by Christopher Hollis

Interesting Facts

The famous picture of the US Flag being raised on Iwo Jima was actually not the first flag raised by the US. Another smaller flag pole had been put there earlier.

Although the US had more soldiers wounded on Iwo Jima than the Japanese, the Japanese had many more deaths. This was because the Japanese had decided to fight to the death. Out of 18,000 Japanese soldiers only 216 were taken prisoner. The rest died in the battle.

Around 6,800 American soldiers died in the battle.

The US government awarded 27 soldiers with the Medal of Honor for their bravery during the battle.

There were six men in the famous picture showing the US flag being raised. Three were killed later in the battle. The other three became famous celebrities in the US.

The Japanese dug 11 miles of tunnels within the island of Iwo Jima.

Activities

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Works Cited

History >>World War 2 for Kids

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History >>World War 2 for Kids The Battle of Iwo Jima took place during World War II between the United States andJapan. It was the first major battle of World War II to take place on Japanese homeland.

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Know This Before You Learn The Navajo Language

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Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code (read aloud)

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Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code (read aloud)

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On June 5 a fleet of 3,000 landing craft, 2,500 other ships, and 500 naval vessels began to leave ports in England headed for France. That night thousands of men were dropped by parachute into the landing zone. Their task was to capture important towns, roads, and bridges in Normandy so that the soldiers from the beaches could make their way inland.

Early on the morning of June 6 the fleet of ships arrived at the Normandy coast. The landing craft were boats that could carry soldiers and tanks. These ships could land on the beaches, drop off their soldiers and tanks, and then return to the larger ships to bring back more men.

The five beaches chosen as the sites of the landings were spread along a 30-mile (48-kilometer) stretch of coastline. British and Canadian soldiers landed on Sword, Juno, and Gold beaches. American soldiers landed on Omaha and Utah beaches.

Before the first soldiers landed on the beaches, Allied ships and planes fired at German forts. They hoped to destroy them, but some of the forts were so well built that the Germans were protected and were able to attack the Allies.

On the three British beaches the soldiers made good progress. They pushed inland. The Americans faced strong defenses on one of their beaches and took longer than they had planned to move off the beach. By the end of the day, though, all five beaches were in the hands of the Allies.

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D-Day was the name given to the first day of Operation Overlord—an action that took place during World War II. The operation was also called the Normandy Invasion. On June 6,…

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About Navajo Dances | Native American Culture | PBS LearningMedia

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Albert Brent Chase, artistic director of The Pollen Trail Dancers, explains the purposes of dance in Navajo culture. He notes that dance is a form of honoring one's self and the connection with one's surroundings; that dance has a healing purpose; and that dance and songs are ways of carrying on traditional teachings and history of the Navajo people.

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Kids learn about the history of Native American Rights from the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears to the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968.

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What is a code talker? A code talker is the name given to American Indians who used their tribal language to send secret communications on the battlefield. Most people have heard of the famous Navajo (or Diné) code talkers who used their traditional language to transmit secret Allied messages in the Pacific theater of combat during World War II. But did you know that there were at least 14 other Native nations, including the Cherokee and Comanche, that served as code talkers in both the Pacific and Europe during the war? The idea of using American Indians who were fluent in both their traditional tribal language and in English to send secret messages in battle was first put to the test in World War I with the Choctaw Telephone Squad and other Native communications experts and messengers. However, it wasn't until World War II that the US military developed a specific policy to recruit and train American Indian speakers to become code talkers. The irony of being asked to use their Native languages to fight on behalf of America was not lost on code talkers, many of whom had been forced to attend government or religious-run boarding schools that tried to assimilate Native peoples and would punish students for speaking in their traditional language.

The US Army was the first branch of the military that began recruiting code talkers from places like Oklahoma in 1940. Other branches, such as the US Marines and Navy, followed a few years later, and the first class of 29 Navajo code talker US Marine recruits completed its training in 1942. Apart from basic training, these men had to develop and memorize a unique military code using their mostly unwritten language, and were placed in a guarded room until this task was completed.

The first type of code they created, Type 1 code, consisted of 26 Navajo terms that stood for individual English letters that could be used to spell out a word. For instance, the Navajo word for "ant," wo-la-chee, was used to represent the letter "a" in English.

Type 2 code contained words that could be directly translated from English into Navajo, and the code talkers also developed a dictionary of 211 terms (later expanded to 411) for military words and names that didn't originally exist in the Navajo language. For example, since there was no existing Navajo word for "submarine," the code talkers agreed to use the term besh-lo, which translates to "iron fish."

Most code talkers were assigned in pairs to a military unit. During battle, one person would operate the portable radio while the second person would relay and receive messages in the Native language and translate them into English. Their work was highly dangerous especially in the Pacific, because Japanese soldiers would deliberately target officers, medics, and radiomen, and code talkers had to keep moving as they transmitted their messages. The work of hundreds of code talkers was essential to Allied victory in World War II, and they were present at many important battles, including at Utah Beach during the D-Day invasion in France, and at Iwo Jima in the Pacific. In fact, 5th Marine Division signal officer Major Howard Connor stated, "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima."

Despite their heroic contributions during the war, American Indian code talkers were told that they had to keep their work secret. They couldn't even tell their family members about their communications work. Since the codes that they developed remained unbroken, the US military wanted to keep the program classified in case the code talkers were needed again in future wars. Even when the WWII code talker program was declassified in 1968, national recognition of code talkers was slow. While there was some recognition in the 1970s and 1980s, it wasn't until 2001 that Congressional Gold Medals were given to the Navajo and other code talkers.

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American Indian Code Talkers | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

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The idea of using American Indians who were fluent in both their traditional tribal language and in English to send secret messages in battle was first put to the test in World War I with the Choctaw Telephone Squad and other Native communications experts and messengers.

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Chapter 6: Survival | Native Words, Native Warriors

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After World War II, most American Indian Code Talkers returned to communities that were having difficult economic times.

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Play Narration Your browser does not support the audio element.

The Navajo people call themselves the Naabeeho´ Dine'é, or sometimes, Diné. Diné Bizaad is the Navajo term for the Navajo language. In many ways, today's Navajo live like other people in the United States. Fortunately, many Navajos still speak their language. During World War II, about 420 Navajos served as Code Talkers-the most from any Native group. Today, the tribe works to preserve its language for future generations.

More about today's Navajo

Current population: The Navajo have more than 300,000 tribal members.

The Navajo homeland: Four sacred mountains covering 27,000 square miles of the four corners area of Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona define the Navajo homeland, Dinétah.

Arts: Traditionally, Navajo artists were well known for beautiful woven textiles and silver jewelry. Navajo artists today are also musicians, painters, sculptors, and poets.

Tribal government: The Navajo government operates under a constitution with a president, vice president, council (with 88 delegates representing 110 chapters), court system, police force, college, and many other programs and services for the Navajo people.

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Chapter 2: Native Languages | Native Words, Native Warriors

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Native American tribes have lived and thrived upon the North American landscape for thousands of years-since long before there was a United States.

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Play Narration Your browser does not support the audio element.

For thousands of years, American Indian men have protected their communities and lands. "Warrior" is an English word that has come to describe them. However, their traditional roles involved more than fighting enemies. They cared for people and helped in many ways, in any time of difficulty. They would do anything to help their people survive, including laying down their own lives.

Warriors were regarded with the utmost respect in their communities. Boys trained from an early age to develop the spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical strength they would need to become warriors. Many tribes had special warrior societies, which had their own ceremonies, songs, dances, and regalia that they wore. Usually, a warrior had to prove himself before being asked to join a warrior society. It was a great honor to be chosen in this way.

Despite everything that American Indians had endured in the past, the warrior tradition-the tradition of protecting their people-called many of them to serve in the United States military. They cared about their communities and the lands on which their people had lived for thousands of years. Many of them also served out of a sense of patriotism, wanting to defend the United States. For some American Indians, the military offered economic security and an opportunity for education, training, and world travel.

More than 12,000 American Indians served in World War I-about 25 percent of the male American Indian population at that time. During World War II, when the total American Indian population was less than 400,000, an estimated 44,000 Indian men and 800 women served.

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Chapter 4: Code Talking | Native Words, Native Warriors

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Play Narration Your browser does not support the audio element. For thousands of years, American Indian men have protected their communities and lands. "Warrior" is an English word that has come to describe them. However, their traditional roles involved more than fighting enemies. They cared for people and helped in many ways, in any time of difficulty.

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Chapter 5: Coming Home | Native Words, Native Warriors

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War is hard on soldiers. They see death and destruction. They see comrades injured or killed—and sometimes they must kill others.

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Chapter 7: Recognition | Native Words, Native Warriors

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In the military and non-Indian world, recognition for the Code Talkers was slow to develop.

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Native American Resistance | Kids Discover Online

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The Navajo were treated badly by Spanish and American settlers. They were forced to march hundreds of miles from their home.

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The homes of veterans highlight the never-ending battle against poverty on the reservation. They also highlight the failings of a tribal effort to provide housing for the veterans.

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“Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima,” wrote a Marine major about the code talkers during that bloody battle of World War II.

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How Indigenous people were denied the right to vote for decades

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How Indigenous people were denied the right to vote for decades

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How Indigenous people were denied the right to vote for decades

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“We still have no privilege to vote. We do not understand what kind of citizenship you would call that.” — From a 1943 letter written by U.S. Army Private Ralph W. Anderson, a Navajo