Lesson 4: Beyond Dusty Books: Ask an Expert

This lesson seems very simple, but sometimes it doesn't seem so obvious, so I thought I would share an example. If you are struggling to understand something from a historical culture, sometimes you can ask modern-day descendants and modern-day experts!

This weekend I was trying to understand Navajo names and Code talkers. The book I am writing has a Navajo Code Talker in France during WWII.... actually, I discovered by asking an online group who gave me some clues that I chased down through a few more layers, that Navajo Code talkers __were not__ in France. Comanche code talkers were in France, and the Navajo ones worked in the Pacific. Oops.
Nonetheless... I really want to pair the concept of the phoenix (rising from the ashes) with the Acadian heroine (and the native hero), and Comanches didn't have the phoenix as part of their culture, so I'll have to make an apology in my footnotes. I thought I might make my hero have a Comanche mother and Navajo dad, or something, but all of the Comanche code talkers were from Fort Seal Indian School, so I probably couldn't make that work in a reasonable life timeline. Or maybe I will -- I'll ponder it. Anyway -- I am just trying to show that the internet and interactions with other people really help us take our research deeper. Sometimes the first question we ask leads to another layer, and another and another, and often, those new questions end up forming significant plot points! I'm interested to see how this new research settles with my characters. 

Then I was struggling to figure out what a Navajo guy named "Sam" by the white guys in 1944 would have actually been called by his own people. I was having trouble getting answers by surfing the internet, so I wrote to the assistant editor of a Navajo newspaper, and got an amazing answer! I just had to share it here.

Dear Assistant Editor (except I used her name),

I am writing a novel where I would like to include a Navajo Code Talker as one of the characters. From my research online I have been able to find out that the code talkers all had anglicized names like “Sam” and “George,” but I am wondering if you could please tell me, if a guy was named Sam in 1944 to the white guys, what might his name have been in the Navajo tongue? 

If you have any other resources that you recommend online that are better and more authentic than others, I would love to know them. I would like this story to bring the Navajo code talker story more into prominence and to do it as accurately and honorably as possible.

Thank you,

Christa Bedwin

Hi Christa,

That is a good question! Most Navajos of that era were assigned English names at church or boarding schools more or less randomly. A name like "Sam" would not translate into anything in Navajo.

Navajos are given "warrior names" by a medicine man during their form of a christening ceremony, but they are only to be used within the family and with very close associates. Most older Navajos are careful not to reveal their warrior names, as a person who means them harm could use them during a bad ceremony.

Instead, before they had English names, Diné used to call each other by names that connoted physical attributes. A famously homely woman leader in Western Agency, for instance, was called "Asdzaan Biwoo" (Tooth Woman). A man might be "Hastiin Nez" (Tall Man) or "Ashkii Chischilly" (Curly Hair boy). Clan names also were used, such as "Kinlichiinii Tso" (referring to a large member of Kinlichiinii, or Redhouse Clan). You could also be named after your parents, such as Atsidi Biyé (Silversmith's son). (This is how the common Navajo last name "Begay" came about; it's a crude Anglicization of "Biyé," or son.)

You could make up a Navajo name for your code talker by using Hastiin (man) or Ashkii (boy) followed by an adjective like:

yazhi — small

tso - big

nez - tall

bigood - his knees, referring to someone who had an injury or something unusual about his knees; also

biwoo — his teeth

bijaad — his legs

bijaa — his ears ... You get the idea. If you can find a Navajo-speaking person in your area, they could give you some more ideas.


How generous of her to share that with me! But I have notice that experts do often share generously. I received similar generosity by TWO experts when I wrote to the Edinburgh public library asking about a vocabulary detail for 1790s Edinburgh last year.

Anybody else ask experts and get hugely generous responses? We'd love to hear about it!

Christa