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