THE THERAPEUTIC VALUES IN NAVAJO RELIGION

Therapeutic Values In

To say that Navajo religion is directed at the cure of sickness is to oversimplify, yet it is hard to find any other way to express the facts briefly. All religions are fundamentally systems for obtaining a sense of security. The Navajo stress the insecurities of illness, but they also include other things, and in the realms of illness itself their concept of disease is so broad that it reaches far beyond what we should naturally consider. To say that Navajo religion is for curing sickness is about as correct as to say that Christian Science is for curing sickness, or that Christianity as a whole, because of its ethical stress, is directed at controlling social evils.

Witchcraft is a particularly important source of sickness. Men or women, especially those who are old and whitehaired, and also the very poor or the very sick may exert this malignant force. As with other cultures, the witches run counter to all the religious and moral laws. They murder their own nearest and dearest, practice incest, handle corpses freely, robbing them of their jewels and using parts of their bodies for their incantations. They deliberately cause illness to others, sometimes merely from jealousy, sometimes so the victim will pay heavily to regain his health. The witch can work this without exposing himself to detection by being a practicing medicine man, and to all outward appearances produces his cure by regular ceremonial methods, whereas in reality he is merely reversing his own witchcraft. Witches always keep their real nature a secret, and often pose as pleasant and kindly people. It can be seen that this cultural stress, accusations of witchcraft and the murder of witches spring up like mushrooms.

There are thirty-five principal Navajo ceremonials, each with numerous possible variations. The time required for performance ranges from two to nine days and nights. The majority are primarily concerned with disease, but directed at what the Navajos consider first causes rather than at the symptoms. There are a very large number of causes. Thirty-two animals are supposed to bring illness, and of these the commonest are the bear, deer, coyote, porcupine, snake and eagle. Ordinary contact with these animals does not bring misfortune, but under special circumstances one may get sick from hunting the animal, being attacked by it, eating it, seeing it, and particularly dreaming about it. Dreams are always taken seriously as sources of harbingers of disaster. Lightning, wind and, to a certain extent, the earth itself may cause illness. A man may receive harm from lightning or a whirlwind, not only by being directly hit but by being near where they have struck, or having anything to do with objects affected by them. Any ceremonial may infect a person if he commits improper behavior in relation to or during the ceremonial. Unborn children are particularly susceptible, and may catch the illness if either the father or the mother attend, even if no improper behavior occurs. The child may not immediately get sick, in fact he may be an old man before the overt symptoms appear. Spirits of the dead are especially dangerous. Navajos are famous for their horror of corpses or anything that has touched a corpse. Night and darkness are related dreads because then the spirits are thought to be abroad. Casual contacts with other tribes of Indians, Mexicans, and whites is thought to be a source of illness, and sexual relations with them dangerous.

The symptoms caused by these various causative factors of disease are not consistent, and there is little correlation between symptom and source. The symptoms include the run-of-the-mind aches and pains of the flesh, but also bad dreams and very commonly "feeling bad all over," which appears to be some sort of depression or anxiety state. The ceremonials are usually not directed at the symptoms but at the causative factors. Although a curing ceremonial is given for one or more specific patients, the good effects of it are not limited to the main objects, but extend to all who are present, particularly the family of the patient and those who live in the neighbor hood. This influence helps the ailing and perpetuates health.

Navajo Religion'

Besides the curing ceremonials which constitute most of the thirty-five major types of ceremonial, there are some others. One of these is the "Blessing Way," a rite whose legends, songs and prayers are chiefly concerned with the creation and placement of the earth and sky, sun and moon, sacred moun tains and vegetation, the inner forms of these natural phe nomena, the control of the he and she-rains, dark clouds and mist, the inner forms of the cardinal points and life phenomena that may be considered the harbingers of blessing and happi-ness." (Father Berard Haile: Some Cultural Aspects of the Navajo Hogan. Fort Wingate, Arizona, 1935.) This cere monial was very popular in the Ramah-Atarque region where he worked. It seemed to be employed to restore or insure harmony. Evil consists of disharmony between the forces of nature (and supernature), and the Blessing Way, being a reenactment of the creation, is a means of restoring harmony, or of strengthening it. To say "Reenactment" gives a false flavor. The Navajos believe that they are performing the very songs and rituals that the gods used to bring about creation. It is more than a reenactment, it is the real thing; it is the laying of their hands on the machinery of the infinite and straightening it out.

The Blessing Way is performed specifically for girls at puberty, for pregnant women, for a returned traveler who has lived for a time with non-Navajos, for a family after a death, and in general when the need is felt for "Good Hope." There are ceremonials for hunting, for war, for trading, and for gathering salt. A man may not be a hunter and a medicine man at the same time. They say that one whose mind is on killing will be dangerous to patients, and that one whose mind is on healing will not be skillful in wounding game.

Singers

The greater part of the religious culture of the Navajos is carried out by the medicine man, whose Navajo title, Hataalii, is best rendered in English by the word Singer. The Singers practice and direct the ceremonials. These esoteric matters are believed to have been handed down in an unbroken chain from the time when the gods gave the ceremonials to the first Navajos, in a manner similar to the Apostolic succession. A Singer is hired by a family to conduct a particular ceremonial, and works in a thorough and conscientious manner, but the selection is not his responsibility. Nevertheless, being a Singer is not a small job. Ceremonials take from two to nine days and nights to perform, and the amount of detailed and exact knowledge required is staggering. It is not often that any one Singer knows more than two or three complete ceremonials, though he may know parts of many others. He is a specialist in a particular realm of the total religious lore of the culture.

A man becomes a Singer by serving an apprenticeship with an established Singer. He must learn hundreds and hundreds of songs full of archaic words, and must learn them perfectly, not merely the words but the precise tone and way of singing them, and an enormous number of rules about sequence that are almost obsessive in their complexity and thoroughness. In addition, he should know all the legends concerned in the origin of the ceremonials, must know how to find and prepare the herbs concerned, how to make the fetishes and paraphernalia, how to make the sandpaintings, direct the dances, and finally all the acts and procedures of the ceremonial, not only for himself but for the patient, the helpers and the audience, which always participates to some extent. If you can imagine that you had to learn a Wagnerian Opera by heart, words, music and stage business of all the characters, all the details of lighting, staging and scene painting, not merely in a general way but so well that you could perform any of these functions perfectly, and if you can imagine that you had to do all this without the benefit of a single written note, and that you had to learn a couple of books of the old Germanic legends for good measure, you will have some idea of what one has to know to be able to perform one ceremonial.

A Navajo described the learning process thus: “When a man wanted to be a Singer he should start in the summer and get a good crop of corn and harvest it and store it, and then about the time the first snow flies build him up a good hogan (house), and then haul plenty of wood there to do a long time. And have the woman there, mother or somebody to cook for them, cook that corn and make bread. Then he gets the Singer and has him there in the hogan and they work and keep at it. If they get too tired, then they can take a sweat bath and next day they feel good and can go on with it again. They stay at it until the first thunder and then quit. Next summer the learner does the same thing again and the next winter goes on with the learning. Do that for maybe five years. By that time learn two or three ceremonials.” Singers receive, depending on the length of the ceremonial, and how closely related to the patient, from $5.00 to $500.০০, or the equivalent in goods. A survey in the Ramah-Atarque area shows that a Singer averages five days out of fourteen.

"Medicine Man and Patient in Hogan" Joseph Meagher

"... in a land of distance and elusive horizons live the Navajos, whose love of their land is a religion"

In addition to the strict practice of ritual, many Singers know a good deal of practical medicine, such as opening abscesses and setting bones. It is possible that some of their ritual herbs have pharmacological properties that are unknown to us. Some anthropologists believe that they possess a secret specific for snakebite. Often, due to his position of prestige, personality, and proven capacity for sound judgment, the Singeris an informal leader. People with major and minor crises come to ask his advice. However, in terms of Navajo theory, his effectiveness as a Singer is not necessarily linked to his personality and character. He may be a scamp, but if he performs his rituals with perfection and knows his lore thoroughly, he will be none the less effective for the patient, and his reputation thus enhanced.

Diagnosticians

From what has been said it may be seen that the Singers are learned priests, in a sense the products of academic training and the bearers of an enormous traditional esoteric knowledge that is handed from one generation to the next. There is another type of Navajo religious practitioner whose method is in contrast to that of Singers. These are called Diagnosticians by the anthropologists, because their function is to discover the cause and proper cure of sickness as well as to find lost property and point out witches. The term Diagnostician has a misleading clinical aura and gives no inkling of the mystical nature of the profession, but since it has been established we shall use it. The main point of contrast is that Diagnosticians do not learn their powers by long hours of hard work, but achieve it suddenly by becoming inspired and having the spirit enter into them.

After being summoned, the Diagnostician arrives with slow dignity at the hogan of the patient. He does not have to mess about "asking questions and guessing," as one Indian described the white doctor's technique, but goes directly to work. He washes his hands and then sits crosslegged near the patient. His hands and arms are sprinkled with pollen. He offers a prayer to the Gila Monster spirit, asking that he be allowed to discover the nature of the disease and its treatment. After the prayer, a song is started and the Diagnostician sits with eyes shut, face averted, and one hand extended before him. Soon it begins to shake. This motion is said to be wholly involuntary, starting and stopping by itself. As the shaking progresses, the Diagnostician thinks of various diseases. A finger of the hand often draws figures in the dirt and rubs them out again. After a while it will draw one and instead of erasing will pat and point toward it. That indicates to the Diagnostician that he is thinking of the right disease at the moment. He then goes on to think of possible ceremonials and Singers until the correct ones are picked out in a similar manner by the hand. When all the desired information has been gathered, the hand stops trembling and the Diagnostician opens his eyes and reveals what he has found.

Since the performance is an inspirational one, it varies a good deal from one practitioner to another. The general similarity arity to automatic writing is obvious, and the signs made on the floor are parts of religious symbols, such as sandpainting figures, or fetishes. Hand Trembling practitioners do not have the same prestige level as the Singers, the fees are much smaller, usually $2.00 or the equivalent. Many women do Hand Trembling, but are almost never Singers. Hand Trembling may go to excess, shake the whole body, persist intermittently for days and weeks, and finally lead to scattered talk, delusions and hallucinations. In such a case it is recognized as insanity, and there is a special ceremonial for treating it. Sometimes a period of this kind of sickness is the means whereby the skill of Diagnosis is acquired. At other times the skill just suddenly comes to a person present at the side of a patient the nature of whose illness is in doubt, and if the trembler makes a report that leads to a Singer that cures the patient, he gets more calls. Hand Trembling sometimes comes when a person is alone, especially after sleeping.

Laymen

Religious practice is not, of course, confined to the two types of practitioners described. Every Navajo man and woman knows and performs some rituals, prayers, songs and legends. All through life he will collect new items and add to his store. These personal rites are used in planting, trading, house-building, care of stock, and for general "Good Hope," as well as treating illness. Many have a tabu, or prohibitive quality, but they are nearly all directed at maintaining or creating harmonious living of man in the universe. Some of this lore is common knowledge of the culture, but much of it is just as esoteric as that possessed by the Singers. One person learns a particular bit from another, and when he can perform it perfectly he pays for it to make it his own. Navajos buy songs and prayers from each other as they do jewelry.

Besides personal religious practice, the lay Navajo, of course, is the source of audience and patients for the ceremonials. In the Ramah-Atarque region men spend approximately from one-fourth to one-third of their productive hours in religious activity, and women spend from one-sixth to onefifth. On the average, twenty percent of the family income is devoted to religion.

Theology

The thirty-five ceremonials that have been mentioned and all the personal lore are not independent bits of superstition, but part of one enormous loosely integrated pattern which is Navajo religion. This vast spending interwoven mosaic of thought and belief has a complexity, an intellectual quality and a mysticism that suggest an Oriental religion. It is a bond that touches all Navajos, binding in spite of individualistic tendencies, marking them off as the chosen ones among unfriendly people, in an arid, fruitless land with red rock mountains like Moab. The Navajos believe that before the days of men the gods lived on the earth, had adventures and coped with evil monsters. There were major gods and minor gods, many identified with various forces in nature, and each had his personality and characteristics. They had foibles that remind one of Greek mythology Achilles sulking in his tent, or Zeus trying to sneak past Hera to go paddling with Leda.

In the course of various adventures, such as killing off the evil monsters, the gods developed methods of accomplishment. These methods were in part practical, but since they were used by gods they were also magically worked by songs and rituals. After a time the gods decided to leave the earth and go to permanent homes at the east, south, west, north, zenith and nadir. Before doing this they had a great meeting at which they created the Navajos and taught them all the methods that had been developed. By these the Navajos could protect themselves against disease, famine, and war, and they could build houses, get food, travel, marry and trade. This meeting, the creation of the Navajos and the giving to them of godlike powers to control the natural forces of wind, lightning, storms and animals, and to keep all these in harmony with each other, was in itself a ceremonial of the gods and became one for the Navajo. It is the Blessing Way, which we have already mentioned, and occupies a keystone position in the theological scheme. After creating the Navajos and teaching them, the gods moved off to their various abodes, saying they would watch over the doings of men but never return until the Navajo forgot the Blessing Way and the world came to an end.

A Ceremonial

To summarize and give a more vivid picture of this religion in action, we shall describe a ceremonial. Imagine a Navajo hogan in a piñon clearing. One of the family "feels bad all over," and arrangements have been made with a Singer. For days they have been anticipating, laying in stores of food, notifying friends, retrieving their best clothes and jewels from pawn at the trader's store. There is excitement in the air and children scurry around with more than usual boisterousness, and even the dogs have the spirit in them as they jump about out of kicking range. When the Singer is seen approaching, bouncing over the ruts in an old car driven by an assistant, outward calm at once comes down on the family. They hardly look in his direction as he comes to a stop, but after a little they welcome him with quiet dignity and conduct him inside.

There is little religious activity on this day of arrival. In the evening an hour or two after supper the Singer may offer a prayer. Turning to the east, he will address one of the dieties who live there, "I and the sick man and all the rest of the people who are here with us and who will come to this ceremonial, we all thank you and we sure are glad that you are with us and we are with you these days and nights. You should pray good for us. The songs should be the same way. You must give us good life, no sickness, for all these people that are here and also the neighbors out around and also the white people. We must all get along. You should have good living, make a little money, have horses and sheep, what to live on. Especially give the young folks more lessons. Give us rain, we want the earth wet all the time so we can raise some crops. And about the feed, stock feed, grasses, give us that plenty, too." (As translated by a Navajo). The next morning, at dawn, the hogan is swept out, all the materials of daily living put away, and the fire removed from the center of the floor. The doorway is covered with blankets so no air can get in. The Singer and his helpers light a new fire. They use a fire drill, powdered lightning-struck rock, charcoal from the scar of a struck tree, and they sing Lightning Songs. The patient and others who wish to join in the treatment undress outside. Four pokers are laid on the ground, radiating from the fire toward the cardinal points of the compass, the homes of the gods. The pokers are made of carefully selected lightning-struck piñon and cedar and represent men who chase evil away. The patient and the other participants enter the hogan and sit around the fire at specified spots. The heat is growing intense. There is an implement called the bull roarer, which is a piece of wood from a lightning-struck tree carved in such a shape that it will twirl and make a roaring sound when swung on the end of a buckskin thong, and it is inlaid with turquoise and abalone shell to mark it with features. The bull roarer is taken outside by one of the Singer's helpers, made to roar, then brought in and applied to the patient. The sound is supposed to be thunder, and the device was given to the Navajo by the Lightning Spirit. At the fire a pot is heating which contains an emetic composed of buckthorn, limber pine, bearberry, wild currant, juniper, and Colorado blue spruce. Each person gets a portion of it and washes himself from the feet up, then drinks and vomits. The Singer takes a brush made of wing and tail feathers from an eagle and an owl feather that fell out while the bird was flying, and brushes the patient, the others and then the whole hogan, making motions that sweep evil toward the door. It is the thought that evil is especially afraid of eagle feathers because one of the gods adopted eagle children and brought them up to help the Navajo. The ends of the pokers are warmed and applied to the patient's body by the Singer. Then the others apply them to themselves, rubbing the warm wood on any part that hurts. The patient and the other participants walk around the fire sunwise, stepping over the pokers. Evil cannot cross the pokers, and thus they leave evil behind. Then in succession, everybody jumps over the fire, again with the idea of separating themselves from evil. The live coals represent lightning. Songs and prayers accompany each stage of the ritual. The heat is continuously very intense, and all sweat profusely. At the end, the door blanket is lifted with one of the pokers, the bull roarer is made to thunder, and the patient steps out, followed by the others. After fire, ashes and vomitus have been disposed of, all return. The Singer, using the eagle feathers, sprinkles participants and hogan with a fragrant lotion made of mint, horsemint, wind-odor and pennyroyal, kept in an abalone shell. Glowing coals are placed before each participant, and on these is sprinkled a fumigant made of a plant root, sulphur, cornmeal, down from chickadee, titmouse, woodpecker, bluebird, and yellow warbler. These have been previously ground together by a virgin while the Singer sang special songs. Everyone breathes the fumes and rubs them into his body. After this use, the coals are thrown out the smoke hole, taking evil with them.

This description passes over many details of importance, but even so there is not space to give a similar account of the other movements in the ceremonial. They include the ritual bath for the patient, sacrifices, making sandpaintings, and many more things. With all the ritual performances, the Singer pours out songs that reflect their significance and divine origin.

On the last night, about two hours after supper, the final movement of the ceremonial begins, and continues all night. The hogan is jammed with spectators, the firelight flickers on their faces and makes deep and moving shadows. The Singer and the patient sit on the west side, facing east. All the women present sit on the north and men on the south. The Singer sings a verse and then the crowd takes it up with increasing volume. The more who sing, the sooner the patient will get well. The songs deal with the legends, things the gods have done, the origin of the ceremonial. It is repeated and repeated that the patient is identified with the gods. It is said the Spirit of the mountain, his feet are the patient's feet, the patient walks in his tracks, wears his moccasins. The blue horse spirit belongs to the patient, the turquoise horse with lightning feet, with a mane like distant rain, a black star for an eye and white shells for teeth, the horse spirit who feeds only on the pollen of flowers. There are songs that take up the patient's health directly, saying, "His feet restore for him, his mind restore for him, his voice restore for him." There is also repetition of thoughts that proclaim all is well: thus, "My feet are getting better, my head is feeling better, I am better all over." Finally, it is said over and over again that all is being made beautiful and harmonious. The songs come in groups that form patterned relationships with each other. The effect of repetition, rhythm, and the antiphonal chorus is impressive.

Before the first streak of dawn the Singer smears meal across the faces of the patient, himself and those who have performed well. This is to mark them out so the gods will know them. When dawn begins, the patient walks around the fire four times, preceded by one of the Singer's assistants, who sprinkles the fragrant lotion. The patient goes out alone and faces the dawn. Inside, the Singer closes the ceremonial with a prayer, asking protection from the consequence of any mistake he may have made, then praying for everybody. Outside, the patient stands facing the east, breathing in the dawn four times. A white man who stood beside him would see the yellow day coming up over miles and miles of sage, a copse of piñons, three or four old yellow pines in the soft light, distant blue swells of mountains, with here and there a volcanic cone, and the snowy top of Mount Taylor.

Compare what the Navajo could see looking at the same landscape. The sage-covered earth is Changing Woman, one of the most benevolent of the gods, who grows old and young again with the cycle of each year's seasons. The rising sun is himself a god who, with Changing Woman, produced a warrior that rid the earth of most of its evil forces and who is still using his powers to help people. The first brightness is another god, Dawn-Boy, and to the north, south, east and west the Navajo can see toward the homes of other deities. To the north is bitter, unhappy First Woman, who sends colds and sickness; to the south is the Gila Monster, who helps Diagnosticians reveal the unknown. The cone-shaped mountains have lava on their sides, which is the caked blood of the wicked giant killed by the Sun's warrior offspring, and lies as modern evidence of the truth of Navajo tradition. The white peak of Mount Taylor is the top of Turquoise Mountain, built and decorated by the Hogan God, who later knocked its top off in a rage when he could not name it as he wanted and forbade any living thing to try to reach the top.

This contrast between white and Indian views of the same objects is a sample of what cultural differences mean, and the significance of value. It is true that all human beings have the same "dimensions, senses, affections and passions," but these affections and passions are not all roused by the same things, and therein lie the seeds of misunderstanding and conflict imbedded in culture.

After breathing the dawn four times, the Navajo goes to where the women are cooking and sits quietly. The ceremonial is over, but for the next four days he must observe many restrictions, and in particular keep aloof from others. He has little to do but reflect on the experience he has had, what he has heard, the results that all are expecting, that his feet are walking in the track of the Mountain Spirit, and that the Turquoise horse with the black star eye is his.

SQUAW DANCE PHOTOGRAPHS BY J. H. MC GIBBNEY

It is clear that if we look on the Navajo traditions as witch-doctoring nonsense and try to sweep them away we may start avalanches of social uneasiness we cannot control and which will go hard with the Navajo. What have we to offer from our own traditions that will enable them to live in the desert on an income of one hundred dollars per year with the morale and self-respect they have now? Can we point with pride to the Okies, to the sharecroppers, or to Tobacco Road? Can we teach them how to make fifteen hundred dollars out of sage and jackrabbits so that they can live by white standards? Are we prepared to give them back better land or tax ourselves to support them? Considering our medical practice itself, can we justly claim that it adequately cares for the uneasiness, fear and difficulties of personality that are associated with ill health? Is it true that most physicians realize their duty is to treat the man and not merely the disease? Is our medicine so well adapted to the needs of man and so well harmonized with responsible religion that faith healers, quacks and pseudoscientific magicians find it impossible to make great profits exploiting human fears?

Practical Aspects

If our medicine is to help and not harm the Navajo, we must avoid clean sweeps. We must get them to accept and use our pertinent, practical knowledge without undermining their faith. That faith must grow and adjust also, but it must not be ruthlessly attacked simply because it offers some obstacles to medicine. Instead, white medicine should be expressed to the Navajo in terms of their own culture, in ways that fit into their understanding of the world and their scale of values. The physicians who have contact with the Indians would grow if they knew some of the fundamentals of the Indian's outlook and religion. A good deal can be learned from the anthropological literature but, as in all other depart-ments of medicine, reading needs to be supplemented by plenty of close contact with the living subjects. Of most importance is a curiosity on the part of the physician that leads him to ask the Indian questions. If one wins the friendship of a few Navajo and takes time to listen, he will learn much that will be of practical value when it comes to therapy.

The purpose here is to show the type of thing that can be accomplished, and not to attempt to survey all the possibilities.

Since the Navajo regard the way a procedure is performed as being just as important as what is done, a doctor must give detailed instructions and state positively the exact procedure. If you tell an Indian to take digitalis every day, he will probably munch a few tablets and then forget about them. If you tell him that this green medicine comes from the leaves of the foxglove, that his body must never be without it any more than his mind without a good song, and that he must take it every morning of his life when the first bright-ness of the day is in the east, you stand a much better chance of having your instructions carried out.

If the doctor talks directly about contagion, explaining how evil influences can spread from one sick person to another, and illustrates by pointing out some of the numerous instances in which contagion figures in their magic, the Navajo will get the idea. If, however, the doctor talks about germs and shows him a microscope, a "fresh-from-Missouri" look will creep over the Indian's face. It will be a much harder job to convince him of the practical principles.

Finally, physicians can work in collaboration with, not in opposition to, the religion. Singers can be accorded the rating and respect of chaplains; functional disorders can be referred to them. In the course of time and improved collaboration, those ceremonials which least interfere with medicine can be particularly encouraged.