During the 1940’s & WWII, “Few Navajos… spoke or understood English, with the result that supervisors and others who came in contact with them began to demand a dictionary in the hope of learning enough Navajo to meet basic communication needs. To meet this demand, the data that had been brought together [was] arranged in alphabetic order and published by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, under the title The Navajo Language (1943).” (Young and Morgan, 1987)

Young and Morgan also published The Function and Signification of Certain Navajo Particles (1948). This would serve as a prelude to the linguistic work that the pair would do later on in their careers.