What is the topic of your winning essay?
My topic is the Navajo Code Talkers and their code, whom I liked learning about because they’re another group within America who aren’t represented in U.S. history enough.
What are your plans/dreams for after high school?
I hope to graduate with a Ph.D. in Math and become a math professor.
How did your National History Day project influence you and your interest in the American West?
My National History Day project made me more interested in the Native Americans’ interactions with non-indigenous peoples. It makes me more curious about what other interactions between races or cultures in America are not widely known about.
What advice do you have for future NHD students?
Revise, revise, and revise some more. I found having multiple people review my essay was highly beneficial, as they helped me tighten up my essay a lot more than I could have alone.
In his winning essay, Kiran tells the fascinating and complicated story of the Navajo Code Talkers. He highlights how even though the Navajos suffered violence and oppression at the hands of the United States government, Navajos loyally served the U.S. during World War II, playing a critical role in the war effort. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, Kiran shows how and why the Navajo language served as such effective code, and he describes when it proved most useful in battles. Kiran shows great promise as a budding historian of the U.S. West!
– Brooke Neely, Research Fellow