Why did the military value a Native language that schools had tried to silence?

The military valued Navajo because wartime needs changed what officials wanted from Native people, not because the language had suddenly become more capable. The Navajo, a Native nation whose language carried military messages, supplied code talkers during World War II. Teddy Draper Sr., a Navajo speaker recalling government policy, described the earlier suppression of that language: “the U.S. government told us not to speak Navajo, but during the war, they wanted us to speak it!” (YPT 289). This says government institutions first prohibited Navajo speech and later demanded it. It shows that official judgments about Native culture changed according to institutional goals. However, the language’s military usefulness depended on knowledge those earlier policies had discouraged. Major Howard Conner declared, “Without the Navajos, the marines would never have taken Iwo Jima” (YPT 288). This says Conner considered Navajo participation essential to the victory. It shows that expertise associated with an excluded people could become indispensable when officials needed it. This recognition exposed a contradiction between treating Native knowledge as a problem and relying on it as a strength. This illustrates the Key Idea that Race is socially constructed. Institutions gave Native identity unequal social value through their policies; that value was not a natural measure of Navajo ability. Although the military praised their service, returning Navajo veterans still faced poverty on their reservations. Wartime recognition therefore revealed changing judgments without ending material inequality.