News Release

Study examines faith healing in a cell phone age

Grant and Award Announcement

Case Western Reserve University

As a Navajo chanter or traditional medicine man travels Navajoland in his pickup truck, he contacts people in need of healing prayers and ceremonies by his cellular phone.

Where encroachment of western ways has destroyed other cultures, technology enables the Navajos to preserve their traditions in the modern world, says Thomas Csordas, professor of anthropology.

For the past five years, Csordas has been the principal investigator on the Navajo Faith Healing Project, funded by National Institute of Mental Health. The NIMH recently awarded Csordas a three-year, $763,762 grant to follow up on research begun in the past study.

Csordas has examined the interactions among three principal forms of contemporary Navajo religious healing -- traditional Navajo ceremonies or chants, the ritual use of peyote by Native American Church (NAC), and the Pentecostal faith healing.

Collaborating with Navajo and Anglo researchers on the project staff, Csordas will report on the role of faith healing in the lives of the contemporary Navajo for a special issue of Medical Anthropology Quarterly currently under review.

In addition to six articles for Medical Anthropology Quarterly, the Navajo Healing Project has prepared a report for the Navajo Nation Division of Health on the perceptions of the Hantavirsus and articles for Natural History and American Ethnologist.

Approximately 155,000 Navajos live on the reservation, which is about the size of West Virginia. Another 50,000 live in other parts of the country and keep close ties to Navajoland. The reservation is located in the "four corners" region joining New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado and aligns with the compass of four sacred mountains that correspond to the cardinal directions, an important orientation in Navajo culture.

The federal government established this home for the Navajos with a 1868 treaty after the Native Americans were released from four years of captivity near Fort Sumner in eastern New Mexico, following a defeat by Kit Carson that forced them from their homeland. The Long Walk, and later the massive decimation of Navajo livestock by the federal government in the 1930s, remain traumatic events in Navajo history.

The religious forms of healing practiced by the Navajo reach deep into the Native American history and culture. The traditional religious healing is characterized by a medicine man, or hataathli, who performs chants and sandpaintings, and a diagnostician who works by methods such as hand-trembling or crystal-gazing. Blessingway and Lightningway are among dozens of specialized ceremonies undertaken for specific health needs.

Traditional ceremonies take place over one to nine days. Because of the poverty on the reservation, many cannot afford to practice these ceremonies which involve special Navajo artifacts, food to feed the gathering of family, or time away from work.

A road man conducts the healing ceremonies in the Native American Church around a crescent-shaped earthen altar, symbolizing life's path from birth to death. He administers the sacramental peyote to the person in need and the supporters of the sick gathered to help. The ceremony includes prayers, drums, and songs by participants.

Many Native American groups practice this form of religion, once outlawed for its use of the psychedelic drug and driven into secret ceremonies. Approximately one third of the people now practice it openly, reports Csordas.

Christian faith healing through a Pentecostal preacher or the Catholic Charismatic prayer group involves the laying of the hands on people during revival meetings of prayers and songs.

Csordas points out that all ceremonies from the different religious forms involve families, close friends, and extended families concerned for the individual in need of healing. The vast majority of Navajos use a combination of faith healing practices, while the very conservative traditionalists or Christians do not.

While western medicine focuses on remedying physical ailments, Csordas notes that Navajos take a holistic approach in treating the mind and body through the practice of these three religious forms. The traditional way and the NAC in particular focus on different stages of life from infancy through old age in their various ceremonies.

Csordas has educated doctors at the reservation's health clinics during grand rounds. Some Indian Health Service clinics already integrate Navajo practices and have built ceremonial hogans into their facilities.

He also notes that doctors are often receptive to medicine men performing shortened traditional ceremonies or prayers in the hospital. Hospitals also have temporarily released patients to have ceremonies performed for them during their medical treatment.

Csordas' plans for continuing his research with new funding from NIMH include a second round of interviews with the healers, and follow-up among Navajo patients to determine how they have integrated their healing experiences into their overall life.

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