And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: via MarthaET >From Victor's pechanga.net NAVAJO NATION STRUGGLES TO PRESERVE MEDICINE-MAN TRADITION Mar. 14, 1999 | 7:09 p.m. By BILL DONOVAN c.1999 The Arizona Republic WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. -- For more than 30 years, Jack Jackson has warned the Navajo Nation that the number of medicine men on the nation's largest reservation is dwindling. Some ceremonies, he says, are in danger of being lost forever. Now the tribe is in the midst of a pilot program that attracted more than 300 applicants and provides stipends for young Navajos who want to train to be traditional healers. But Jackson and others are wondering if it's too little, too late. ``I understand that we once had some 300 ceremonies and now that has gone down to just 29, and many of these are in danger of being lost,'' said Jackson, a state senator representing the Arizona portion of the Navajo Reservation. When Jackson was working for the now defunct Navajo Health Authority back in the 1970s, he began pushing the Navajo Nation Council to address problems about the declining number of medicine men. During the first half of this century, almost every family on the reservation had at least one member who was a ``hatathli,''``'' who supervised ceremonies and knew the chants and stories. But by the 1970s, when more and more jobs became available on the reservation, fewer and fewer young Navajos approached older medicine men to become their apprentices and learn the various ceremonies. Officials for the Dine Spiritual and Cultural Society, which is composed of many of the reservation's medicine men, said there were a number of reasons for this trend. One is that being a medicine man is hard work. Another is that the pay, which averages about $15,000 annually for a full-time medicine man, wasn't that great. Much of it came in the form of sheep or jewelry which had to be resold. Many young Navajos also objected to the lengthy training period -- up to 10 years for some of the longer ceremonies. Tribal traditions prohibit the taping of ceremonies or taking notes, so the learning process is the same today as it was hundreds of years ago -- listening to the complicated chants over and over again until they are memorized. ``We approached the Tribal Council in the early 1980s to charter the medicine men's association but they refused, saying that Navajo ceremonies were a religion and it wouldn't be proper to mix religion and state,'' Jackson said. But Jackson and others argued that the ceremonies were not a religion but a bona fide healing system comparable to the Anglo medical system. Ed Tso, who took over Jackson's cause a few years ago when he joined the tribe's Dine Language and Cultural Office, was finally able to change enough minds to get a $180,000 grant in 1997 to establish the first apprenticeship program to train young Navajos in the traditional healing arts. The program, which finally got underway in December, attracted more than 300 applicants. Seven were chosen to take part in the pilot project. ``We decided to concentrate on those ceremonies that are in danger of being lost forever because those who know it are now in their 60s or 70s,'' Tso said. The program provides $350 to medicine men who agree to give up to 24 hours of training a month; the apprentices receive $300 a month. The big question now is whether the tribal program can turn things around. Harry Walters, chairman for Dine studies at Dine College in Tsaile and one of the most respected traditionalists on the reservation, said he sees does see a situation where there are fewer and fewer medicine men serving more and more Navajos. ``That's inevitable because of the population explosion,'' he said. Bill Donovan can be reached at bdonovan(at)cia-g.com via e-mail. http://web3.stlnet.com/postnet/news/wires.nsf/National/630C49A6752F74A18 62567350004D49C?OpenDocument &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
