Southwestern Native Peoples

Very few examples of Native American primary documents exist today; but due to an increasing interest in Indians during the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries, some men actually went to live and attempt to objectively chronicle tribal life. This collection of stories is comprised of older Pueblo tales, as well as stories from 1929, the time Frank Applegate was with the Pueblos. 178 pages, softcover.

The United States is at war, and sixteen-year-old Ned Begay wants to join the cause - especially when he hears that Navajos are being specifically recruited by the Marine Corps. So he claims he's old enough to enlist, breezes his way through boot camp, and suddenly finds himself involved in a top-secret task, one that's exclusively performed by Navajos. He has become a code talker. Now Ned must brave some of the heaviest fighting of the war, and with his native Navajo language as code, send crucial messages back and forth to aid in the conflict against Japan. His experiences in the Pacific - from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima and beyond - will leave him forever changed.

When 16-year-old Navajo Ned Begay enlists in the Marines during World War II, he's tapped to join one of the Allies' most secret groups---the code talkers. Braving some of the fiercest battles of the war, Ned and his companions save countless American lives, while honoring their native culture and traditions. Bruchac's inspiring historical novel is a riveting read for kids ages 10 and up. 240 pages, hardcover from Dial.

As a young Navajo boy, Chester Nez had to leave the reservation and attend boarding school, where he was taught that his native language and culture were useless. But Chester refused to give up his heritage. Years later, during World War II, Chester and other Navajo men like him were recruited by the US Marines to use the Navajo language to create an unbreakable military code. Suddenly the language he had been told to forget was needed to fight a war. This powerful picture book biography tells Chester Nez’ story and depicts the life of an original Navajo code talker while capturing the importance of heritage. Includes a timeline and a portion of the Navajo code. 32 pages, hardcover. Ages 7 to 9.

Navajo Code Talkers of WWII provides viewers with highly personal insights from a group of Native American war heroes regarding their service on behalf of the United States and the Navajo Nation. The secret code these marines developed based on the unwritten Navajo language was never broken, giving American troops an upper hand in many battles that ultimately led to Japan's surrender in 1945. Filmed on locations in Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Saipan, Guam, and Tinian during two trips with six USMC World War II veterans and their family members, the documentary reveals the wartime stories of these heroes as they travel on their journey of remembrance. Approx. 68 minutes.

The Navajo New Testament presents the gospels, and all the rest of the New Testament books, in the Navajo language.

With the conquest of New Mexico in 1598, Spanish governors, soldiers, and missionaries began their brutal subjugation of the Pueblo Indians in what is today the Southwestern United States. This oppression continued for decades, until, in the summer of 1680, led by a visionary shaman named Pope, the Puebloans revolted. Every Spaniard was driven from the Pueblo homeland, the only time in North American history that conquering Europeans were thoroughly expelled from Indian territory. Yet today, more than three centuries later, crucial questions about the Pueblo Revolt remain unanswered. How did Pope succeed in his brilliant plot? And what happened in the Pueblo world between 1680 and 1692, when a new Spanish force again conquered the Pueblo peoples with relative ease? This well-researched book looks at history from every angle to solve the mysteries still surrounding the Pueblo revolt. 279 pages, hardcover with dust jacket.