Maddie Brown
GSW 1110
Jay Jones
10 December 2015
Evaluating a Seminar on the Navajo Code Talkers of WWII
All through American college towns, campuses hold many cultural events throughout the academic school year. At Bowling Green State University, “we build a welcoming, safe and diverse environment where the creative ideas and achievements of all can benefit others throughout Ohio, the nation and the world” (“About BGSU”). These colleges hold these events to enhance the lives of students. Rather than taking normal classes, there are plenty of other options for students to attend if they want to expand their minds such as seminars, live shows, plays, sporting events, and much more. On November 30th, 2015 at 5:00 p.m., I attended a seminar given by a BGSU Professor, Spintz Harrison, on the Navajo Code talkers of WWII. This seminar was suggesting that it would take about two hours to complete and it ended up finishing about an hour and fifteen minutes into the presentation. Overall, I believe that the seminar was definitely worth my time. I learned history from WWII that I’ve never heard before and I would attend it next year if it was available to me.
Every time students learn about WWII, they learn about the Nazis, Hitler, Churchill, Eisenhower, and Patton; but most of the textbooks skip over the small but important section that is the Navajo Code Talkers. Spintz Harrison, the main speaker of this event, described the major turning points of the war when the Navajo were selected to join the services. When the war first started, “Japanese troops were breaking American codes left and right … giving them the ability to predict American actions ahead of time” (Washington: Unbreakable Code). The U.S. decided to use the Navajo language which didn’t have an alphabet as a code to communicate basic messages to troops, Professor Harrison explained. When many Navajo people were recruited to be in the war, “only 420 were Code Talkers” (Native Americans Tipped…). Throughout the war, “three Code Talkers were killed. Their bodies came home but not their secret. To conceal the code, Code Talkers’ letters home were never delivered. Families had no word from them until their enlistment ended” (Native Americans Tipped…).
The main speaker, Spintz Harrison, contributed to the presentation immensely. I believe that he was exceedingly professional from beginning to end. When the seminar started, the first speaker came out and introduced Professor Harrison. The first speaker was also a professor at BGSU. He mumbled through his five minute speech without realizing that most of the audience was confused. He didn’t speak much English because he was an international professor. Although English wasn’t his first language, his contribution to the presentation was immensely small. Throughout the presentation, Professor Harrison kept my attention by using eye contact, hand motions, and using clarity in his speech. I expected a monotonous, droned tone for two hours straight. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised. Although the first presenter didn’t leave a renowned impression, Professor Harrison was the focal point and did a superb job at keeping the presentation professional.
As I walked into the seminar, I thought about the venue. This presentation was announced in our student emails and posted in the campus event calendars. The seminar was held at 223 Olscamp Hall. When Olscamp comes to mind, I think of either a two hundred person plus lecture hall or a very small classroom. I was expecting complete opposites and didn’t know what to think. When I arrived, it was larger than what I was used to, a forty person lecture hall, but not bigger than a normal lecture hall in an average-sized university. There was about one hundred seats or so. While the seats were averagely comfortable, it felt cramped. The main reason for that was because the desks were packed in tightly. For a seminar, the lecture hall was absolutely appropriate. Towards the back of the room, the acoustics seemed to be quite pleasant. Nothing was muffled. The overall ambiance was absolutely amazing. I thought that the audience was going to be students but it ended up being an array of people of all ages. The venue for this seminar was chosen wisely and completely appropriate for the size of the audience.
The technical side of the performance of this seminar was average. A student who volunteers in the Department of Ethnic Studies decided to assist Professor Harrison in this seminar. She wanted to help out with the slides as Professor Harrison presented and she became confused very fast. Different slides were interchanging with another while a map of the United States kept popping up on another screen. All while this was happening, Professor Harrison did not break character and kept telling the stories of the Navajo Code Talkers. After about five minutes, she figured it out and Professor Harrison carried on as usual. With the hiccup in technology, the performance of the student only deemed average. Professor Harrison showed that he was ready for the blip in the computers and could conquer the challenge given. I believe that they did take quite some time to prepare for this seminar because I heard them announce that they did this seminar last year, also. The slides were prepared well, they had sources on three books that Professor Harrison used throughout his presentation.
Professor Harrison teaches three lectures on Native American studies at Bowling Green State University. As a Native American professor, he “worked with Hopi people of Northern Arizona, worked with groups from Navajo Nation: both Arizona and New Mexico. Worked with the Pueblo Indians from New Mexico” (“Faculty”). With a Doctorates Degree in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona, he seems like an expert on the subject at hand. His classes include Introduction to Native American Studies, Native Americans in Film, and Contemporary Issues in Native American Studies (“Faculty”). Many other classes like these are held at BGSU and are there because BG wants to be a diverse learning environment for the students.
The one critique I had on the seminar was that it was a bit too long. Normal academia seminars leave half an hour to forty five minutes to the speech and about fifteen to thirty minutes afterwards for questions and concerns. This seminar intended itself to be about two hours long and ended up being about an hour a fifteen minutes. Although the information was interesting and new, it was hard to keep myself focused for that amount of time. There were no breaks within the speech and there wasn’t a Q&A after the seminar was over. Keeping in the mindset that the seminar was going to be two hours long also didn’t help keep my attention to the presentation. The slides were very well presented; full of evidence. I just didn’t seem to latch on to the entire idea that these men needed to be talked about for two hours straight. Overall, it didn’t undermine the event.
Throughout the presentation of the seminar, I learned history of the brave Navajo men that translated code for WWII. Although the seminar lasted too long, it was well-prepared and I learned quite a few things about WWII that I didn’t know before. Many students and community members showed their support by attending this event even though it seemed to be held for extra credit for an ethnic studies class here at BGSU. As Bowling Green State University offers cultural events like these, students and other members of the community can benefit by enhancing and enriching their lives. In the future, I hope to see another addition of the Navajo Code Talkers of WWII. I also hope to see other cultural events such as musicals, sporting events, comedy shows, department seminars, and more.
Works Cited
“About BGSU.” Bowling Green State University. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.
“Washington: Unbreakable Code.” US Official News. Plus Media Solutions, 14 Nov. 2013. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.
“Native Americans Tipped Scale to End WWII.” Deming Headlight [New Mexico] 11 Aug. 2013: n. pag. Print.
“Faculty.” Bowling Green State University. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2015.