Lee Francis IV

Indigenous creators honor the Cherokee, Choctaw, Kiowa, Muscogee Creek, Comanche, and Caddo code talkers of World War I, World War II and the Korean War in this anthology of historical fiction short stories. These soldiers deserve praise for stepping up to serve the United States despite the racism and discrimination they faced in the military and back home. There is dark irony in the fact that some of them were sent to residential schools for forced assimilation to white culture. As Assiniboine code talker Gilbert Horn, Sr., underlines in a barbed quote on the last page: "The language which they forbade me to speak is the language that saved this country."

I was touched by the emotional impact of several of the stories and appreciated the inclusion of the frequently overlooked Aleutian Islands campaign.… (mehr)