Code Talkers - Novel

Code Talkers - Novel

By: Joseph Bruchac

In World War ll the Japanese had broken every code used by the United States.

Until

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.

Multiple Select

Why do you think that the US government chose the Navajo language? There are more than one correct answers.

• It was easy to learn

• it was spoken quickly

• It was secure

• it was a complex language

Multiple Choice

How fast could a Navajo Code Talker transmit 3 sentences of English?

• 1 minute

• 45 seconds

• 10 seconds

• 2 minutes

• 20 seconds

Multiple Choice

Which World War II theater used the Navajo Code Breakers?

• European Theater

• Pacific Theater

• Zeus Theater

• American Theater

Multiple Choice

Where did the Navajo Code Talkers communicate their messages?

• From boat located off shore

• in safe locations away from combat

• on the battle field or in intense situations

• From reservations in the United States

Open Ended

What extra dangers do you think the Navajo Code Talkers faced while serving in World War II?

Multiple Choice

How many types of codes did they use?

• only the original Navajo language

• two systems

• 4 systems or codes

• 10 different systems or codes

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.”

Open Ended

Create a code using Type one only choose the letters used in the word Parry McCluer Middle School.