looking back contributors who helped preserve knowledge on navajo healing
TRANSCRIPT
Looking back
Contributors who helped preserve knowledge on Navajo
healing
Before 1841
• Little mention of Navajo or their health
• 1841 expedition headed by General Kearny
• To survey military strength of the Navajos– Reported “Navajos as healthy,
well clothed, and well-fed”
The starvation and pain of the Long Walk
• 8-9 thousand to Bosque Redondo
• High mortality/morbidity– Estimated 2,000 deaths
• Small hospital not well utilized
Notes made of high rates of infections, respiratory problems etc.
• Left no markers-cemetery
The Happy but Unhealthy Return to the Homeland
Highest death rates among those returned from Ft. Sumner
Burying bitter memories/experiences
The original memorial at Ft. Sumer
The 1868 Treaty and post Ft. Sumner
• Promises for schools, rations, economic recovery, improving health
• Government health resources– 1889-1893: 1 doc/18,000– Field matrons (sanitation)
• The peace Policy– Encouraged missionaries to
establish schools and health resources •Presbyterians (Ganado)•Catholics (St. Michaels)
Community Health Nursing
With an interpreter: from Hogan to hogan
Washington Matthews, M.D. (1843-1905)
Army Surgeon, stationed at Ft. Wingate
Jonathan Letterman, M.D.
• Army physician prior to Matthews– “Navahos have no religion, no
legends, no health knowledge”– Matthews:
• Navahos have multitude of legends, an elaborate religion with symbolism and allegory comparable to the Greeks
• Have numerous prayers and songs– Songs full of poetic images
Who was Washington Matthews?
• Born in Ireland– At age three, mother dies– Father brings him to United States
• Father is physician• Attends and graduate from
medical school– Joins the Army
•Confederate Prison•Hidatsa/Mandan in Montana•Navajo work most significant
Matthew’s contribution
• A self taught ethnographer– Worked with a number of chanters
• 1887: The Mountain Chant: a Navaho Ceremony
• 1897: Navaho Legends• 1907: Navaho Myths, Prayers, and
Songs– not active in treating patients—but
understands chanters not appreciated by most medical providers/missionaries
• 1921 passage of the Snyder Act
Under the 1930’s New Deal
• Marked by the great depression• Collier, new commissioner• Encouraging cultural revival, more
resources – Staff: 23 doctors, 51 nurses, 2 dentists– 1938 new hospital at Ft. Defiance
•Blessed by traditional healer
• The negative side: livestock reduction
The Native American Church
• Banned by the Navajo Tribal Council in 1940– Aberle: NAC became an
alternative to dealing with the emotional devastation associated with livestock reduction
• Collier—encouraged various organized religions to come establish churches on reservations
Erasing cultural traditions to foster “civilization”
Ganado: “Tradition is the enemy of progress”
The Health care in Ganado
• Opened the hospital in 1911• 1927: Clarence Salisbury, M.D.
– Missionary physician– Worked to win the confidence of
local community and local healers– hospitals as places of death– Become more culturally sensitive
• Initiated the first accredited nursing school for native nurses in the United States (1930-1953)
Sage Nursing School graduation
Ages 18-30, Unmarried, High school Graduate, and a Health Certificate
Endishodi: Father Berard Haile of St. Michael’s
Father Haile and Chic Sandoval
Not a physician but made significant contribution to preserving knowledge about Navajo healing
Father Berard Haile (1874-1961)
• A German, born in Ohio and had a number of siblings
• At age 3, Jacob’s mother dies– Father unable to care for all of the
children– Placed in a Catholic orphanage
• Becomes Franciscan priest– Works with Edward Sapir at U of
Chicago (Linguist)– Radcliffe-Brown vs. Sapir
• 52 years at St. Michaels – From 1902-1954
Contribution
• Priests were well accepted• Haile developed the Navajo
Alphabet– 29 characters in Navajo alphabet– Wrote or helped write 22 books
• Worked with a number of chanters• Some of the books by Father Haile
– Learning Navaho– Origin Legends of the Navajo Enemy
Way– Blessing way, etc.
From Some Navajo Healers: Hosteen Klah, a Chanter (Newcomb area)
Worked with Franc J. Newcomb and Mary Cabot Wheelwright
Hosteen Klah’s Sand Painting Rugs
1867-1937, wove 29 rugs/drawings (NAU/Santa Fe)
Age 25, at Chicago’s World Columbian Exposition
Died 1937 of pneumonia at Rehoboth hospital
Buried near Wheelwright Museum
Frank Mitchell, a Blessingway Singer
Charlotte Frisbie and David McAllester, 1978
1950s: The Termination Era
• The Cornell-Many Farms Project• (Kurt Deuschle, M.D.;
Cliff Barnett, PhD, etc.)
– Use of healers—TB Sanatoriums
• The concern over diminishing number of Navajo healers– 1978 Medicine Men Association
formed• Protecting traditional medicine• 1999 NAGPRA
– 1999 School for Medicine Men (Robert Bergman)
1960s
• Economic Opportunity• Paving the way for self-
determination• Improving health/school
resources• Funding tribes directly
– Bypassing BIA– CHR programs– IHS training physician assistants
1970’s Era Self Determination
• Using traditional practitioners in Behavioral health programs
• Dine’CollegeDine’College: Nursing program• Making a place for medicine
people in the health care arena– Winslow
• Increasing the number of Navajo physicians and other health care providers
Making Progress in reclaiming cultural traditions and valuing the gift of healing from both Western and traditional medicine