Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Under the Eagle: Samuel Holiday, Navajo Code Talker

Under the Eagle: Samuel Holiday, Navajo Code Talker

Holiday, Samuel
McPherson, Robert S.

Paperback

Biographies GeneralMilitary BiographiesWorld War II

Publisher Price: $21.95

ISBN10: 0806143894
ISBN13: 9780806143897
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: Aug 13 2013
Pages: 280
Weight: 0.85
Height: 0.90 Width: 6.00 Depth: 8.90
Language: English
Awards: Utah Book Award, Utah Book Award
Samuel Holiday was one of a small group of Navajo men enlisted by the Marine Corps during World War II to use their native language to transmit secret communications on the battlefield. Based on extensive interviews with Robert S. McPherson, Under the Eagle is Holiday's vivid account of his own story. It is the only book-length oral history of a Navajo code talker in which the narrator relates his experiences in his own voice and words.

Under the Eagle carries the reader from Holiday's childhood years in rural Monument Valley, Utah, into the world of the United States's Pacific campaign against Japan--to such places as Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima. Central to Holiday's story is his Navajo worldview, which shapes how he views his upbringing in Utah, his time at an Indian boarding school, and his experiences during World War II. Holiday's story, coupled with historical and cultural commentary by McPherson, shows how traditional Navajo practices gave strength and healing to soldiers facing danger and hardship and to veterans during their difficult readjustment to life after the war.

The Navajo code talkers have become famous in recent years through books and movies that have dramatized their remarkable story. Their wartime achievements are also a source of national pride for the Navajos. And yet, as McPherson explains, Holiday's own experience was as much mental and spiritual as it was physical. This decorated marine served under the eagle not only as a soldier but also as a Navajo man deeply aware of his cultural obligations.

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