I met Randall Wilson at the 7^th Annual Dam Short Film Festival in Boulder City, Nevada.  His 30-minute short film, “Spirit Warriors: Legacy of the Navajo Veteran” opened the four-day event.  The documentary filmmaker stumbled on the story when he was researching a longer documentary about Vietnam Veterans for PBS.

Wilson was reaching out to Vietnam veterans across the states and across all demographics when he set up an interview date with veterans from the Navaho nation near Chinle, Arizona.  Arriving to the rural outpost, he expected to interview one or two former military men.  Instead, the room was crowded with veterans from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.  Instead of interviewing for a few hours, Wilson and his Director of Photography Erin Cameron spent three days with tribal members.

Most of the WWII Code Talkers were from Arizona and many from Chinle and a few still lived who were eager to share their stories. For many of the 25 veterans Wilson eventually interviewed, this was the first time that they had ever discussed their war experiences with anyone, including their own wives and children.  A Vietnam vet who was a Ranger, recalls Wilson, was still deeply affected by his wartime experiences.  During the war, he says, he and fellow Rangers were not allowed to go into the local villages because “we were killers, they didn’t want us around the villages.” As the aging veteran recounted his experiences, his wife sat on the side, watching and listening, tears pouring down her face.  She never knew the guilt that had been affecting him his whole life.

Other family members within the tribe were equally moved by the men’s stories.  Many told Wilson that they had always thought that the devils they saw in their own loved ones were unique.  Instead, the interview process revealed that long-standing wounds had never healed.  Many who lived on the already isolated reservation pulled back even further from society.  What is different about the Navajo veterans from other veterans is the isolation, Wilson says.

The daughter of a vet who had become a virtual recluse who rarely left his house and kept all the windows shut and the drapes closed told Wilson that she had always thought that it was only her own father who was “weird.  We had no idea that this was what they were all going through.”

The government help that was promised them over the years never came.  They waited in stoic silence.  One Code Talker revealed that he had been waiting for 70 years for promised pension.  “They never pushed the government; they never pushed the VA,” says Albert Kinache.  To address this need, the Obama administration recently directed the VA to create a new office to directly help veterans who are tribal decedents (Val, link to VA reaches out to Native American Veterans.)

The documentary, Spirit Warriors: Legacy of the Navajo Veteran,” has been picked up by PBS for broadcast, although no date has been set.  Follow the Wilson’s website for updates.