The inspiring true story of a young Navajo soldier and the unique value of his culture As a young boy, Chester Nez was taught that his native Navajo language and culture were useless. But during World War I, the US military needed a new way to send secret messages, and the Navajo language and 29 Navajo soldiers, including Chester, became integral to creating an unbreakable military code that helped win the war. This powerful picture book biography contains backmatter including a timeline and a portion of the Navajo code, and also depicts the life of an original Navajo code talker while capturing the importance of heritage.