Chester Nez > Quotes

“We Navajos believe in witchcraft. Cut hair and fingernail clippings should be gathered and hidden or burned. Such things could be used to invoke bad medicine against their owner. People should not leave parts of themselves scattered around to be picked up by someone else. Even the smallest children knew that.”
― Chester Nez, Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII

“Quiet! English only!” The dark eyes of a matron bored into me. “English, or you’ll be punished.” I wonder what she said?”
― Chester Nez, Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII

“I'm not saying we were heroes, but we Navajo men always tried to do our bet, like we'd been taught by our families back home”
― Chester Nez, Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII

“Torn between two cultures, we were unable to fully embrace either one. We didn't know where we fit.”
― Chester Nez, Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII

“Seeing death come, on either side, was something I never forgot.”
― Chester Nez, Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII

“In beauty all is made whole. In beauty all is restored.”
― Chester Nez, Code Talker

“We talked about her as though she was still there, just 'unavailable.”
― Chester Nez, Code Talker

“Everything that happens in our lives happens in relationship to the world that surrounds us.”
― Chester Nez, Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII