Native American Code Talkers

Native American Code Talkers

This unit is intended to work within the framework of World War II and help rework the master narrative that Native American communities disappeared after Westward Expansion. The final lesson plan, in particular, focuses connecting past injustices that the U.S. government committed against Native American tribes and connecting that to present day plights that many of these tribes still face today.

The United States is often remembered as a vital player in helping win WWII, but what is so often left out of the narrative is the crucial role that Native Americans played. The misremembrance of the war plays into the idea that Native Americans disappeared and were completely separate from larger American society. This unit seeks to rectify this larger miscommunication and as such should be incorporated into the teacher's larger unit on WWII. While the mini unit does touch on Native American soldiers, the main focus rests on Native code talkers, who helped code American messages that were unbreakable to enemy powers. At a time when coding and decoding messages was the difference between winning or losing battles, students will get a sense of how important these tribes were in winning the war.

In addition to simply discussing code talkers, throughout the unit students are asked to analyze a variety of primary and secondary sources to identify biases. The goal is to use these sources to help students build their own narrative of who the code talkers were, how they are remembered today, and the dangers of blindly trusting sources without interrogating their bias.

Ruth Isaac

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