Code talker

For this reason, he knows a great deal about America's new enemy. Ned is in the dorms when he hears about the attack on Pearl Harbor and he goes to listen to the report on the radio with a group of other students.

In the days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, several Navajos try to join the military, but because of their poor English skills and other prejudices, they are turned away. Then a recruiter for the Marines comes to the school and tells the community that they are looking for Navajo who can speak both Navajo and English fluently. Ned is excited about this, but he is only fifteen and he must be seventeen. Ned asks his parents if they will lie about his age so he can join the Marines, but they ask him to wait a year.