Appendix B: Navajo Nation

 

This appendix provides information about the Navajo Nation, Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Facility, and Diné College. It also includes specific information about interviews conducted at these facilities as well as in Albuquerque and Denver.

Figure B-1: Monument Valley, Navajo Nation.
Source: Leslie Hsu, 1998

Figure B-1: Monument Valley, Navajo Nation.

Breathtaking mesas, canyons, forests, and deserts swept by red sand offer a different perspective on reservation-based American Indians. The largest reservation encompasses more than 25,516 square miles in northern Arizona, western New Mexico, and southern Utah, with three satellite communities in central New Mexico.

The Navajo Area Indian Health Service (IHS) Office, located in Window Rock, Arizona, administers numerous clinics, health centers, and hospitals, providing health care to 201,583 members of the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Area Office coordinates with both the Phoenix and Albuquerque IHS Area Offices for the delivery of health services to the Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni reservations because these reservations are close to each other.

Comprehensive health care is provided to the Navajo people through inpatient, outpatient, contract, and community health programs centered in 6 hospitals, 7 health centers, and 12 health stations. School clinics and Navajo tribal health programs also serve the community. The 6 hospitals range in size from 39 beds in Crownpoint, New Mexico, to 112 beds at the Gallup Indian Medical Center in Gallup, New Mexico. Health centers operate full-time clinics, some of which provide emergency services. Some smaller communities have health stations that operate only part-time.

A major portion of the Navajo Nation healthcare delivery system is sponsored by the Navajo Tribe itself, which operates the Navajo Division of Health (NDOH) in Window Rock, Arizona. The NDOH, created in 1977, has the mission of ensuring that quality and culturally acceptable health care is available and accessible to the Navajo people through coordination, regulation, and, where necessary, direct service delivery. The NDOH also provides a variety of health-related services in the areas of nutrition, aging, substance abuse, community health representatives (e.g., outreach), and emergency medical services (e.g., ambulance service).

Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Facility

Located near Canyon de Chelley National Monument, a sacred place for Navajo peoples, Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Facility (CCHCF) is a 60-bed hospital that serves as the healthcare hub for the region. The medical staff includes family physicians, internists, pediatricians, general surgeons, obstetrician/gynecologists, anesthesiologists, and a psychiatrist. Healthcare services are provided to approximately 37,000 active users.

Respect for Navajo cultural traditions shapes most of the programs at this facility. There is a hogan and a ceremonial room on the grounds, and an Office of Native Medicine enables Native practitioners and Western doctors to collaborate.

One-hour interviews at CCHCF

  • Ursula Knoki-Wilson, CNM, is the Director of Midwifery Services.
  • Marie Nelson is the Health Promotion Coordinator.
  • Johnson Dennison is Coordinator of the Office of Native Medicine and a traditional Navajo healer.
  • Lucinda Hogner is a public health nurse.
  • Geraldine Yazzne is an office automation assistant in the Public Health Nursing Department.
  • Karen Thomas is a public health nurse.

Diné College

Of 33 American Indian Higher Education Consortium member tribal colleges and universities, Diné College was the first college established by American Indians for American Indians. It remains the largest and oldest. This college serves the entire Navajo Nation, with an annual student enrollment of nearly 2,000 and 8 campuses. The Tsaile campus is designed to reflect the strength and dignity of Navajo culture and heritage, combining Navajo education with Navajo ceremonial life.

Fifteen-minute interviews at Diné College

A total of 21 Navajo students were interviewed at Diné College Library on the Tsaile campus, in a private room with a computer connected to the Internet. There were 8 male students and 13 females. All were Navajo.

One-hour interview in Albuquerque
  • Chief Phil Crazy Bull is a Lakota medicine man.

One-hour interviews in Denver

  • Judy Gobert is Director of Salish Kootenai College.
  • Lena Belcourt is a legislative analyst at Rocky Boy’s Reservation.
  • Jerry Pardilla is Executive Director of the National Tribal Environmental Council.
  • Dr. Laura Williams is a member of the Juaneno-Acjachamen Nation and Project Director of the Association of American Indian Physicians.
  • Mervin Savoy is Chairwoman of the Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes, Inc., of Maryland.

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