Play Book Tag discussion

My rating has nothing to do with what Chester Nez and the other WW II indigeonous code talkers did.

Before I discuss this book, I want to remember the Canadian Cree Code Talkers of WW II the US government used to help win the war in Europe. If you want to see the bad side of politics, note that the US government has never acknowledged those Cree and Métis men who were every bit as important in Europe as were the Navajo code talkers, but almost no one bothered to seek out their story. Some of them were fluent in French as well as English and Cree. Here is one video about the man who developed the Cree code https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JiUP... but you can find other videos and online articles.

Code Talker book here
This book didn't live up to my expectations because I wasn't all that impressed with much of it--I wanted more time spent on the code and how it was used, but much of it was just another description of the horrors of war. Important, but I've read so many of those before and also books about the Navajo people, although I found the parts about his life more interesting than the horrible battle scenes.

That said, this is an important book for the history it records even if it is the recounting of one man.

Thanks for bringing our attention to them. It seems that many group's contributions are consistently omitted or deleted from historical records. That's why I love these kinds of tags or challenges. I like to know about the notable achievements, and hear about people whose stories were silenced. I don't love a lot of battle scenes either, but I like that the stories are getting out in some way.

It was only very recently that female code breakers were even allowed to tell ANYONE what they did during WWII (much less tell them HOW they did it). I'm sure spies all over the world learned how they did it after so many years. l don't think it would have jeopardized national security for a women to tell her grandkids that she did some cool code breaking during WWII.

Book banners are trying to keep kids from reading about the historical achievements or struggles of many blacks, Mexicans, indigenous people, etc. I just read about a Florida school that removed (poet) Amanda Gorman's book from an elementary school based on one parent's complaint that it was divisive. (It was about unity!) They just want to silence these voices and pretend that only white people are capable of doing important things.