Book
White man's medicine: government doctors and the Navajo, 1863-1955
University of New Mexico Press • Albuquerque, N. M. • Published In 1998 • Pages:
By: Trennert, Robert A..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This document is focused primarily on the efforts of the doctors and nurses of the Indian Service (known later as the Bureau of Indian Affairs) to bring medical care to the reservation Navajo. The primary focus of the study is on the period of 1863-1955. The account presented here discusses federal Indian policy seen largely from the standpoint of government employees. The text describes how the Navajo accepted some aspects of western medicine, yet fiercely fought against pressure to abandon their own healers as the government wanted them to do. 'The result was a long and complicated period of cultural conflict, bureaucratic bungling, politics, bigotry, and good and bad white doctors molded together to battle an overwhelming array of medical difficulties' (p. 10).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Morbidity
- Mortality
- Acculturation and culture contact
- External relations
- Public welfare
- Hospitals and clinics
- Public health and sanitation
- Magical and mental therapy
- Shamans and psychotherapists
- Medical care
- Missions
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Navajo
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2004
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southwest and Basin
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 2003
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- ca. 1860s-1970s
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Navajo Nation, Arizona, New Mexico, United States
- NotesAdditional notes
- Robert A. Trennert
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-277) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 97036481
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Navajo Indians