Citation: Little, Keith Morrison, Va Central Office Broadcast Center, and Ann Ramsey. Keith Morrison Little Collection. 1943. Personal Narrative. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.28922/.
This resource is a valuable way to present audiences with an authentic, first-person account of an indigenous person’s experience and brave contributions to the US military. This interview helps frame the Navajo Code Talkers’ experiences and crucial role in preserving secretive communication among allied forces and protecting allied forces’ military strategies and plans from enemy infiltration. This video interview will help students understand the significant role that Indigenous language played in the allied forces’ safety and strategy during World War II.
This is a collection of short video clips derived from a longer oral history/personal narrative/interview with Navajo Code Talker Keith Morrison Little. The larger interview is broken up into smaller video clips that categorize different aspects of his experience as an Indigenous member of the US military. There are clips of his interview that cover his pre-military service experience and his experience as a code talker during World War II.
This is a collection of interview clips of Keith Morrision Little, a veteran of the US armed forces, specifically the US Marine Corps, and his time as a Navajo Code Talker during World War II. The collection breaks his interview into labeled parts that helps people select specific aspects of his cultural, personal, and military experiences to listen to or view..
- How does Keith Morrison Little’s upbringing and age impact his decision to enlist in the US military?
- What role does Little’s Indigenous language play in the allied forces’ efforts during the war?
- How does this first-person account help viewers better understand the Navajo Code Talkers’ significance?
- What does this interview with Keith Morrison Little reveal to readers about Indigenous languages?
New York State Next Generation Standards
9-10W3a: Engage the reader by presenting a problem, conflict, situation, or observation, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters.
- This primary source engages students with the multiple conflicts and situations that Keith Morrison Little experienced as a Navajo Code Talker. Students can use this as a model for creating their own interview questions/developing their own personal narratives.
9-10SL1c: Pose and respond to questions that relate the discussion to broader themes or ideas; actively incorporate others into the discussion; and clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions.
- This primary source provides viewers with multiple entry points for crafting open-ended questions about indigenous identity, military experience, indigenous language, and sacrifice. These questions can be shared during a Socratic seminar, or during a small group or partner discussion activity.
- This resource would be an excellent pairing with any of the novels or other texts that students study from the World War II era. They can use this primary source to learn about US military service peoples’ perspectives on communication practices during the war. For instance, if students are reading a text that includes people spying or communicating in secret, this is a great resource for demonstrating how the US military included Indigenous languages as part of transmitting messages that enemies could not decipher.
- This resource would pair well with a short video put together by the US Department of the Interior that describes Navajo Code Talkers and celebrates National Navajo Code Talkers Day.
- “National Navajo Code Talkers Day,” YouTube video from the U.S. Department of the Interior that provides an overview of the Navajo Code Talkers. 2018. Youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFLu73qKA8k.
Some families may object to students viewing this interview because Keith Morrison Little is a member of a historically marginalized group—Indigenous tribal communities—and elements of his interview touch upon his and other military members’ experiences with poverty and discrimination. Though this is not the primary source’s focus, and though Little’s account is based on factual events that have occurred across the United States during the World War II era, some people may find those elements of the interview emotionally challenging for students to view.
- The Navajo not only had significant contributions to World War II as infantrymen and code-carriers, they also contributed to the fabric of their community through crafts such as weaving. This photo of Navajo weavers offers context about the significance of this tribe to the United States as well as context about the Navajo community.
- There was a Navajo Scouts program that allowed Navajo men to enlist in the cavalry and contribute to westward expansion alongside army troops. This was a more beneficial arrangement for the white settlers than for the Indigenous Navajo people.
- The US National Parks Service has an online reference page dedicated to the legacy of the Navajo Code Talkers. It can help educators better understand the role that Keith Morrison Little and his fellow Code Talkers played during WWII.
- The National Archives has a page dedicated to the Navajo Code Talkers. This resource includes charts of words and their English language meanings. It’s a great reference for understanding the Navajo Code Talkers’ significant role during WWII, as well as providing entry points for including Indigenous language study in the classroom.
- The National Archives has the Memorandum Regarding the Enlistment of young Navajo people in the Marine Corps during WWII. This resource could be used to help frame how the Navajo Code Talkers came to be part of the US Marine Corps during WWII.
- Jevec, Adam and Lee Ann Potter. "Memorandum re the Enlistment of Navajo Indians." Social Education 65, 5 (September 2001): 262–268.
- The National Archives has a photograph of the first twenty-nine Navajo Code Talker recruits being sworn in. This resource provides a visual representation of the origins of the first group of Navajo Code Talkers.
- “First 29 Navajo U.S. Marine Corps Code-Talker Recruits being Sworn in at Fort Wingate, NM,” Photograph of the first Navajo Code Talkers recruits being sworn in. n.d. Archives.gov. Accessed January 4, 2025. Photograph. https://www.archives.gov/riverside/highlights/navajo-code-talkers.