Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By John Donnelly
Photographs by Dominic Chavez
Well Being
Well Being
Striving for good health
in tribal communities
By John Donnelly
Photographs by Dominic Chavez
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
Foreword
41
This Is Who I Am
by Robert Redford
44
50
53
Reaching Fathers
16 A Tale of Determination
26
Finding a Balance
30
33
60 An Inner Drive
62 Descendants of Warriors
39
A Timeline
Historic milestones
FOREWORD
by Robert Redford
A Relationship
Built on Trust
RIGHT: Allison Barlow, associate director of the Center for American Indian Health.
But how did one thing lead to the next? How did
a Center at an elite Eastern medical institution
forge close bonds with Native people in the West
who were not immediately trustful of strangers?
What does the Hopkins experience teach other
universities and non-profit groups working in
low-income settings?
Skeptics at first
When the Hopkins people came and said they
wanted to study Apaches, I was not sure, said
Ronnie Lupe, the longtime Chairman of the
White Mountain Apache Tribe. We have a
history of people using us as guinea pigs. But I
could not overlook the fact that so many of our
children were dying from preventable diseases.
So we finally committed to trying out an
arrangement with them. We watched them very
closely.
The Apaches liked what they saw.
10
11
12
13
14
A tale of determination
How one doctor helped Native Americans and the world
WHITERIVER, Ariz. The two men sat facing each other on simple wooden
chairs. One already had a long successful career behind him. The other was 26
years old, and had not yet begun his, perhaps doubting whether he ever would; he
had not finished high school. The elder looked at his hands, took stock of the young
man, and then summoned the ghosts of his past.
Ive got big dreams for you, Dr. Mathuram
Santosham told him. You cant stop here. Youre
a smart kid. Ive known you since you were a
baby.
The young man nodded. He had heard the stories
from his mother, how this doctor helped save
him when he was not yet a year old, when he had
horrible diarrhea, diarrhea that was draining the
life from his body. He had heard how the doctor
gave him a solution of salt and sugar, as he had
given to hundreds of others on the reservation,
and how that had worked. And he had heard
about how his mother felt so thankful that she
asked the doctor if he and his wife would be his
godparents.
This is between you and me, the doctor
told him. Youre my godson. I want to see
you do well. The only thing that will stop
16
17
18
19
TOP: Oliver and Phoebe Nez, left and center, show family photographs to Santosham. BOTTOM: Francene Larzelere-Hinton (left), kisses her daughter, Jeona, 5, as Dr. Mathuram Santosham (right),
hugs Larzelere-Hintons son, Juanito, 2, at the Alchesay Beginnings Child Development Center in White River, Ariz.
20
So many deaths
So many kids were dying of diarrhea,
Santosham said.Those first few months, I saw
so many deaths.
Pat said the situation was extraordinarily difficult
for families. The first summer we were there,
I wept with those families, seeing those little
beautiful Apache babies dead and buried, she
said.
21
An emotional evening
On the evening of Oct. 13, 2009, Santosham
gathered the Centers staff at an inn in Greer,
Ariz., about a 75-minute drive from Whiteriver.
All that day, nearly 60 members of the Center
staff had met to discuss future directions from
infectious diseases, to behavioral interventions,
to higher-education training for American
Indians. The discussions had gone well. New
ideas were aired and debated.
Though, that night in Greer, carried much
meaning for Santosham and his staff. The next
morning, the Centers staff they were expected
to join hundreds of Apache tribal members for
a ceremonial walk and gathering to celebrate
Santoshams 30 years of work on Indian
reservations.
Santosham had spent the past day in Whiteriver,
meeting old friend after old friend, and he was
looking back at three decades of his life.
Today has been full of very emotional
experiences, he told the group. The memories
just choked me up. I was talking with people
I had not interacted with for 20 or 30 years in
some cases.
One of those, he said, was his godson. It
brought home the fact of what were not yet
22
23
TOP: Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Center for American Indian Health in Whiteriver, Ariz. BOTTOM: Dr. Santosham was welcomed by Queenie Nashio during the celebration.
My biggest ambition
is to build capacity
among the young
American Indians.
Dr. Mathuram Santosham
24
Finding a balance
LEFT: Beverly Gorman, who has worked for 15 years in the Center for American Indian Healths infectious disease programs, and who enrolled five of her children in vaccine trials.
26
Finding a balance
27
28
ROCKVILLE, Md. Dr. Phillip Smith, a Navajo Indian, remembers when he first
learned of Johns Hopkins University public health researchers work in Native American
communities. He was a family medicine physician in Tuba City, Ariz., and had a busy
practice of tending to the well-being of several thousand patients.
LEFT: Dr. Phillip Smith, Director of Planning, Evaluation and Research for the Indian Health Service.
30
31
CRYSTAL, N.M. At first, the young woman didnt want anything to do with
Brandii Cowboy, a family health educator at John Hopkins Center for American
Indian Health. She wouldnt even answer the door.
But gradually, over a period of months, Shannon
Johnson began to look forward to Cowboys
visits and her lessons on being a good mother.
Cowboy taught her a variety of approaches for
raising her children, and when the young mother
started seeing improvements in her relationship
with her young girl, she started feeling much
happier.
33
RIGHT: Brandii Cowboy, a family health educator at the Center for American Indian Health.
35
36
37
38
Early 1980s
Early 1990s
Mid 1990s
1995
1996
1998
Late 1990s
2001
2004
2009
2010
This is who I am
41
ABOVE: Francene Larzelene-Hinton, director of the Native American Research Center for Health.
42
Saving teenagers,
one by one
44
45
46
47
ABOVE: Novalene Goklish stands next to a stream on the White Mountain Apache reservation.
48
LEFT: Clark Gaines, assistant executive director at the NFL Players Association.
50
51
52
Reaching Fathers
Engaging men in raising their children
53
RIGHT: Kirk Massey Jr., a family health educator at the Center for American Indian Health.
55
TOP: Kirk Massey and his two sons Michael (left) and Marcus (front) at the East Fork Lutheran School in East Fork, Ariz.
BOTTOM: Students play during recess at the school.
56
57
An Inner Drive
Excitement in Baltimore
But he was a bundle of nerves that morning,
if incredibly happy. He had decided to start the
classes for a variety of reasons. One was because
of his personal medical issues; he wanted to gain
a better appreciation of health in general in hopes
of helping himself. Another was that he had
harbored an interest in learning more about how
to incorporate public health into journalism, and
how that could better serve his tribe.
LEFT: Sky Nez, editor of the Fort Apache Scout Newspaper.
60
61
Descendant of warriors
An interview with Rochelle Lacapa
64
65
A level of fearlessness
needs to be reclaimed by
the Apache people.
Rochelle Lacapa
66
TUBA CITY, Ariz. When Thomas Hatathli was no more than six years old, he
was herding sheep one day and came across an abandoned hogan a traditional
Navajo home. In the grass, he found an old horses bridle.
I picked it up, he remembered. After walking
about a mile, I threw it away. A day or two
after, I was running in the early dawn with my
brothers. It was pitch dark. I saw a horse running
our way. As it was getting closer, I didnt hear the
pounding of the horse hoofs. I panicked. I yelled.
I cried. I ran away from it. I dont remember
much after that. I was brought before one of my
grandfathers and I told him what I did.
He scolded me, he was mad at me. He told
me it came from a man who lived there, who
died there. It was a taboo. The family took his
favorite horse and put a bullet through its head,
and killed the horse. Thats how they do it in the
old Traditional Navajo way. You kill a horse for a
journey into the spiritual world. My grandfather
said you messed with that spirit by picking up the
bridle, thats why the horse came back to you.
After that, my dad kept me close. He said I had
67
RIGHT: Thomas Hatathli mental health specialist with the Indian Health Service at Tuba City Hospital.
Bridging cultures
For Hatathli, 52, a competitive marathon
runner who coaches and runs alongside high
school athletes in Tuba City, the blending of the
traditional ways of the Navajo and the ways of
an established Eastern U.S. academic institution
have come fairly easily. He sees value in both
approaches on the reservation. He sees each
working toward the same goals better health for
all Native Americans.
I really appreciate that they are trying to
incorporate spirituality into their healing
system, he said. I feel comfortable with
them.
69
We look to him
as someone who
provides wisdom
for our work.
Thomas Hatathli