Heston Allred

Ethics 100
Cuadraz

In my opinion, one of the most impactful ways Chester Nezs life was shaped by
the dominant class was when he went to boarding school with his sister. It also provides a
good basis and starting point in determining which theoretical model is most effective for
analyzing his life. He describes himself as being tentative and even scared to go off to
boarding school and full of apprehensions. This is evidenced by the conversation, he
relates in Code Talkers, he and his sister had with his father. He writes, Wouldnt you
like to go to school? Learn English? Father had asked us. Sitting just outside Grandmas
summerhouse, we looked at each other. I wondered whether Dora could see the same
dread in my eyes that I saw in hers. And further writes, every night I thought about
leaving home. In Chichiltah, I had a sense of belonging, of being where I should be.
School was part of the white mans world I dreaded being separated from my family.
The colonization model fits very well with these quotes, in my opinion. I say that
because, not only is his culture being taken away from him but also his actual home, the
geographic location he grew up in and he is separated from his family. This also happens
against his will and it seems likely against the will of his family although he does not
explicitly state that. This is evidenced by the advice he records his father as having
received from the man he refers to as the thundering Mexican whom his father did
business with. Nez writes, He suggested to father, who had kept Dora and me, his
youngest children, at home, that we should attend school. Government pressure was
inevitable, said the thundering Mexican, if we werent sent voluntarily. This denotes that

the will and way of doing things of the dominant class superseded those of the dominated
class. This is consistent in a number of ways with an internal colonization model. Namely
the dominated class is of color and is controlled politically, notice the government being
mentioned in the above quote, and likely economically. Many of the native Americans
had also historically seen themselves as a separate and external political entity from the
United States government which is also consistent with the internal colonization model. I
think the strongest and most effective way to colonize a people is to take them from their
family and their land, which is clearly what happened to Nez. I also think this occurrence,
which happened when he was only eight, set the tone for the rest of Nezs life adapting to
the ways of the white man and allowed him to realize at a very young age what he was
up against. Thus it was both positive and negative for him. Clearly based on the overall
tone of his writing along with numerous specific examples from the text of his boarding
school days it was very hard for him to deal with all the lifestyle changes yet he drew
strength from his family. Uncertainties chased around in my brain, but I knew that father
and grandmother expected me to do my best.
Obviously, Nezs experience in World War II also affected and changed him and
can likely shed light on which model to use to interpret these changes. I believe Nezs
early childhood experiences with the government, and what I consider their internal
colonization efforts, were what lead him to be interested in joining the Marines. He
writes, The recruiters announced that they wanted young Navajo men who spoke fluent
English and fluent Navajo. The men were needed for a special project that would benefit
their country. I glanced at Roy. He seemed riveted by the Marines words. I, too was
intrigued. I find it interesting that, despite being manipulated and exploited by the

government up to that point in his life, he still had a strong desire to serve his country. He
also took pride in being able to do so. He demonstrates this when he writes about how
effective the Navajo code they had developed was and how some of his leaders reacted to
its efficiency. Over and over, we demonstrated the speed and accuracy of our code for
various high-ranking officers. Some observers even thought the code was so accurate
that we must be cheating somehow. That bothered us. What point would there be in
cheating? That wouldnt cut it in battle. He then explains how he and the others he
served with didnt let on how much these accusations offended them because they wanted
to get to use the code to help in the war effort. I think Nez was so willing and interested
to do this because it was a way for him to legitimize and stand up for his Navajo culture
and language that he had been taught from an early age was no longer acceptable. This is
also supported in the newspaper article. In reference to how some of the men felt about
the code they developed the paper reads and feel some sense of accomplishment and
pride in who they are, and that they were able to use their language. This feeling of pride
in their language and culture is evidence against the assimilation model, which argues
that the original culture is replaced and that individual ethnic identity would be lost. If
this was the case why would Nez and others like him take pride in helping with the war
effort through using the Navajo language? Wouldnt they have prefered to help in the
same way the members of the dominant culture had and no longer identify with their
previous culture, instead of differentiating themselves through their Navajo language?