Navajo: Unwritten? Not quite, but maybe ...

My TV Guide came today, and it contained this listing:

Navajo Warriors: The Great Secret. Military, 8/7c Six Navajo veterans representing three generations discuss their lives as U.S. Marines and how they were enlisted by the Corps to put their unwritten language to use as a code in WWII, Vietnam, and Iraq. (page 69, vol 54, no 19 issue #2771 May 9-14, 2006)

A couple of minutes poking around on the Net brought me to the Navajo Language Academy, where I can easily see that grammars, dictionaries, and so on have been written for Navajo for more than a century.

It does, however, appear to be true that any widespread schooling in Navajo - formal schooling, with literacy - didn't come about until after WWII. "Unwritten" may refer to this usage, rather than an ability to write it. Nonetheless, the sentence still strikes me as odd: it implies that the language remains unwritten today ("Vietnam, and Iraq"), which is not true.

Unfortunately, I don't get the Military Channel, so I won't be able to see if this claim is addressed in any way.

For those interested:

Eaton, J.H. (1852)

"Vocabulary of the language of the Navajo," in H.R. Schoolcraft (ed.) Information Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States.

The first extensive Navajo vocabulary.

Franciscan Fathers (1910)

An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navajo Language. Saint Michaels, Arizona: The Franciscan Fathers. Reprinted by Saint Michael's Press, Saint Michaels, Arizona, 1968.

Franciscan Fathers (1912)

A Vocabulary of the Navajo Language. Saint Michaels, Arizona: The Franciscan Fathers. Two volumes.

The first Navajo dictionary.

Haile, Father Berard (1926)

A Manual of Navajo Grammar. St. Michaels, Arizona: The Franciscan Fathers.

Simpson, Lt. James H. (1849)

Journal of a Military Reconnaissance from Santa Fe, New Mexico to the Navajo Country in 1844.

An early vocabulary.