Who are Navajo?

Answer 1

The Navajo also more phonetically spelled Navaho are a Native American tribe mainly located in The West. Their name for themselves is Dine' (with high tone on the final e). The language is called Dine' bizaad. The current Navajo Nation is on a portion of traditional lands which are between the four sacred mountains.It is in the modern states of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah and is 27,000 square miles, about the size of Holland and Belgium combined. There are over 300,000 enrolled members most of whom live on or near the Navajo Nation. About 60% speak the language. The are self-governing to the extent they even have a resident Navajo Bar exam for lawyer candidates! In World War II Navajo code-talkers were employed by the Army and Marines in the Pacific theater- a movie has been done on this. Modified spoken Indian language was used for combat verbal cipher purposes. It was not understandable to regular Navajo speakers. It sounds like a string of words with no grammar. One Navajo soldier,Joe Kieyoomia (November 21, 1919 - February 17, 1997), was captured in the Philippines in 1942 and tortured but he could not understand it, just say it was Navajo words..

By the way the so-called I-Spy code used by the British Juvenile series is NOT Navajo cipher but is a transposition cipher- the lead-off word, which may have even become popular slang in UK was, and is Odhu N"ttinggo! (pronounced exactly as spelled) this means, of course- Good Hunting!