Baby Trail?

I went with Elsie, a Navajo nurse, and about 10 other nurses and doctors down Baby Trail, one of the many "trails" that go down Canyon De Chelly.  Trail is much too mild a word for Baby Trail as it descends 1000 feet down a series of ropes and ladders.  The trail is not for the faint of heart and although "Baby" may make it sound easy it could me Evil Knevil swoon.

The trail is called "Baby Trail" because a native woman was trying to escape the roundup of Navajo in the canyon by soldiers over 150 years ago. She had a baby on her back and was caught against the wall of a seemingly unclimbable cliff. She took the baby off her back, attached the baby to a board and climbed up the canyon pulling the baby by rope until she made it to the safety of the top of the canyon.

The trail is now a bit easier because of a few strategically placed ladders and ropes. It still is a challenge with the potential to slip and meet ones doom. My body and mind were saying with every bit of common sense I could muster "Turn Back" but as my wife knows, I have little common sense so I was able to press on and complete the down and up trip.

Teenage Drivers

Of the many surprises I have encountered here are the number of teenage drivers ( and sometimes pre-teen) drivers.  The need for teenagers to drive is due the need to arrive at a bus stop early in the morning, the need to follow sheep and cattle as they roam over the dessert, and sometimes to act as an emergency driver when a parent or grandparent is incapacitated due to illness or drug and alcohol use.  It is not legal of course and I have interviewed 10 year old children who can drive and do so on an almost regular basis.

Unfortunately one of the more common reasons for the teenagers to drive is that a parent/relative is too drunk to drive. There are no taxis out here and it is an accepted fact of life that teens will drive when the parents cannot.  Most of the time the teenagers try to stay off the state highways and keep to local roads but now and then there are accidents involving teenagers without a license.  Is it better to have a sober teen driving illegally or have a parent who is incapacitated driving? Of course the best thing would be for the family group not to be driving at all.

This has given me pause when I drive here at night and makes me reluctant to drive the roads after darkness. The driver coming my way may be drunk, inexperienced,  a teen under 16 , or all three combined. It is abusive of the teenagers to expect them to drive before they are ready but it is a fact of life here.  There are many wonderful aspects of the extended family here, unfortunately the burden placed on teenagers is not one of them.

Two Weeks Left

I have two more weeks working in Chinle before heading  back to Portland.  I could stay longer but I need a conjugal (spousal) visit as well as a doctor and dentist visit. I hope to stay in Portland at least a month and God willing much longer if I can land a job in Portland.  I will miss being here but know I can always come back. I will miss the horses and cows eating my front lawn in the morning, the feral horses on the roads, the incredible thunderstorms almost every afternoon, and especially miss my patients.  I love how accepting the Navajo are of children with disabilities and how the loving extended family is always pitching in.  I love the spectacular sunsets and the quiet. It will all be missed.

I ran another 10K race today and it was what I have come to call " A survival race".  As the race began you could see the rattlesnakes scatter in all directions from their morning sun bath.  The race climbed only about 600 feet but the path was mostly sand which made for slow footing. The sun was beating down and the race temp was 75o at the start and about 85o at the finish.  The lizards that line the path have a good time running along with you as the snakes have all crawled away for cover. The fastest time was 47 minutes which is unbelievably slow for 10 K races but about par for a "Navajo 10K".  It was fun nonetheless and I had the distinction of being the "oldest" runner.  This is something I am not exactly proud about. 

Lone Ranger Rides Again

Last weekend I went to Farmington NM and on the way I stopped by for the filming of "The Lone Ranger" at Shiprock.  This is a 225 million dollar production that has been filmed around here for the past year.  The security was tight to get on the set and since I did look like one the extras (Native American on horseback) I knew it would be hard to enter the set. I used my Sklar chutzpah and put on my doctor clothes with my official Public Health Service ID.

When the security people looked at me I said, "I'm Dr. Sklar from the Public Health Service and I need to inspect the set." It was not a lie but I was stretching things a bit.  It got me in and a front row seat to see Johny Depp riding around with a bunch of others.   What impressed me was all the "stuff" they had there.  The had on full size truck trailer that was an air conditioned kitchen.   They had another trailer that was a large dining hall with all kinds of food and drink. This was not cheep food but New York restaurant quality food.
They had cranes to carry camera men for those high aerial shots and cameras on tank like vehicles. There were makeup and costume people running every which way while most people were sipping water to keep from getting sunstroke. I had a great time watching the filming and left after a few hours of "A public health inspection".

Unfortunately there was no need for extras to play short Jewish doctors so once again I was out of luck to get into the movie.  Someday somebody has to make a movie featuring aging doctors and my luck will change and I will be ready.

Shiprock

 Maybe if I went to Israel I would have better luck getting into films.  I heard about a great film that took place there called "Torah, Torah, Torah".......... or was that about World War II?

Apache County

This weekend I drove to Farmington, New Mexico, a city of about 20,000 two hours from Chinle.  I went through the communities of Round Rock, Tsaile, and Lukachuki on my way to and from Farmington. These communities are some of the poorest in the state as well as the nation in terms of per capita income.  The county where I live, Apache County, is ranked 10th poorest in the nation.  It  is also one the largest in terms of area and includes a good chunk of the Navajo Nation as well as an Apache Reservation.

In this county which is 80% Navajo ethnically, we have some unusual statistical aberrations.  It is one of the few counties where neither English nor Spanish is the most common language spoken at home.  It has the highest fertility rate as well as family size in the state.  About 25% of the homes have no running water and a slightly smaller percentage have no electricity.  To say the roots and burden of poverty runs deep here is an understatement.

The implications on public health are great.   Rare is a child I see without dental carries (cavities), their own bed to sleep on, or clothes that are new.  One can never be sure if a child will return for follow up of a medical problem as things such as clocks are not found in many homes.  However, the immunization rate for children is almost 100% for those about to attend school, thanks to a very strong program supported by tribal leadership and the public health service.  We monitor, audit, and check every child's record once a year and is  there are any deficiencies we get them in to the clinic quickly.

Canyon De Chelly has great rainbows!

One final tidbit for those statisticians in the crowd.  The poorest town in the United States is Kiryas Joel, a Chasidic Jewish community of 20,000 in New York. Go figure?

Skin Walkers and Witches

The skin walkers are evil witches that many Navajo believe can assume the shape and body of animal.  Some call them "shape shifters" in English. After assuming the shape of an animal the witches can cast spells and harm humans.   These witches are known when in human form to have eyes that glow in the dark like an animal but lose that glow when in the shape of an animal.   The witches pray on the weak and the young who are judged to more easily affected by the witches power. The most common animal they assume is the coyote and great is the fear when one sees a coyote after dark.  Because of the power of these witches Navajo avoid the skins of dead animals unlike my other Native American groups.

This year a bus full of teenagers was traveling after an athletic event at night when a few students felt they saw a skin walker.  There was mass hysteria on the bus and the driver immediately headed for the hospital.

White House Ruin and Rainbow

Thankfully we have traditional healers "medicine men" on our staff who were able to quickly assess the situation and begin a healing ceremony.  It was not until after the ceremony that the teenagers calmed down so that we were able to send them home.  Any physician who discounts the power of traditional healers in the Navajo Nation will have great difficulty in helping those sick of both mind and body.

Feral Horses

There are many things different about Chinle.  There is no New York Times, no local paper, and not even USA today.  There is only one FM station (Country Music uggh!) and one AM station (Navajo).  There are few trees and nothing resembling a planned community. What really separates Chinle from many other small are the feral horses that roam the streets and highways.  These are somewhat wild horses that are one or two generations away from being domestic riding horses.  There is one herd that is always hanging out in the center of town feeding on what little grass there is and the leftover hay from daily hay sale lot. I do not know where they get water as there is no running water anywhere. There are other feral animal around town also such as dogs, cats, goats, and sheep but it is the horses that one sees most often. Apparently people try to do something about them after a horse encounters a car with both side losing. However, after a while things return to normal and the horses roam freely.

Part of the problem is the love that Navajo about animals and a desire to let animals be.  People like the fact that animals can roam free and not possessed by anyone. Navajo are traditional herders and have always lived among animals so the presence of animals is a comfort to them.  If you drive to Chinle, slow down as you approach town and watch out Seabiscuit, National Velvet,  and Trigger. 

The Judge

I spent the 4th of July with one of the local judges, Victor Clyde, at his family's ranch up in the Chuska Mountains.  This was about at the 7500 foot level and much cooler than Chinle at 5500 feet.  There was a stream running through the property and lots of Ponderosa pine trees.  While there I learned that the judges here have to be well versed in criminal law, civil law, and tribal law.  Tribal law disputes mostly deal with grazing and property issues as although the land is held in common by the entire tribe, the right to use the land is passed down from one generation to the next.  Up until recently the land was passed down maternally which made the Navajo Nation one of the few with maternal rights of inheritance. Land use is now passed down from family member to family member regardless of sex.  However, because of large families there are often disagreements over who gets to use which house or graze a specific plot of land. If the family cannot work out some agreement they end up in tribal court where judges like Victor have to use the wisdom of Solomon to decide who gets what. Victor also acts as justice of the peace and in a community with few church weddings he is quite busy. He also has to be elected every four years which helps to make him responsive to the community needs.

Tsaile Creek in the Chuska Mountains

It rained the night of 4th of July. Although it put a damper on the celebration I still have all my fingers and eardrums from not being able to set off fireworks.  I guess there is always New Years Eve.

Narbona Pass

I just finished a 10K race that started and finished at 8500 foot level Narbona Pass, about 75 miles east of Chinle as the crow flies. The race was what I now call "Navajo Tough" meaning very steep with lots of sand and rocks on the trail  The course rose to 9500 feet at mile three with great views for a hundred miles in each direction. It was the largest of the Navajo Nation races to date with 400 in the 5K and 300 in the 10K.

Narbona Pass runs through the Chuska Mountains and is named for a Navajo Chief who defeated the Spanish coming through the pass about 1820.  Up until 20 years ago it was named "Washington Pass" which was named for a US Army major who came through the area in the mid 19th century and killed and enslaved many Navajo.  For the Navajo it was like the Israelis having a major street named after Adolf Hitler.  Thankfully the state of New Mexico gave the Navajo permission to rename the pass so that now on all official maps it is "Narbona Pass".   The pass is very scenic with alpine meadows and lots of Pondorosa Pine trees and a nice picnic are by the side of the road.  It is a popular place for the Navajo on the 4th of July but the rest of the year there are few people. It is usually 15 to 20 degrees cooler than the valley below which was over 100o today.