Dean Merrill, A Higher Code
“I noticed two Navajo ladies softly weeping nearby,” the pastor recalls. “It struck me as unusual, since Navajo people are known to be restrained and unemotional.”
After some minutes, Judy gradually quieted herself. The observing ladies said to the pastor, “Where did she get to know our language?”
David Killingsworth chuckled as he replied, “I can assure you—Judy only knows how to speak ‘Texan!’ She’s hardly mastered proper English.”
“No, no,” the ladies protested. “She’s been praying in Navajo for probably the last ten minutes.”
Navajo is a complex, tonal language and is well-known to be one of the most difficult languages on earth—so hard that during World War II the US Marines enlisted up to five hundred bilingual Navajos to pass classified tactical messages back and forth across the Pacific. The Japanese enemy forces never did crack their code.
What was even more remarkable was the content of Judy’s prayer. “She’s been praying against the power of the ‘skin-walker,’” the women said—a particular kind of Navajo medicine man who is said to be able to turn himself into (or disguise himself as) an animal, usually to bring harm to people. Many Navajos live in great fear of his powers.
Category: Living the Faith, Spring 2018