The Wilmington morning star., 1947-07-27
INDIANS TAKE
TO ADVANCES
A:
Navajo Tribes Now Sup
pert White Mans
Hospital.
BY MURRA Y. SINCLAIR

BY MURRA Y. SINCLAIR
GANADO, Ariz., July rs -(P)-
superstitious medicine men a c
modern medical science are work
Zig hand-in-hand to cure ills o.
the Navajos, North Americas
largest and fastest growing Indian
tribe.
The man who has largely
brought this about is DR.. Clarence
G. Salisbury, head of the Presby.
terian Sage Memorial hospital
here, 60 miles from railroad OF
town.
. Salisbury says it is true some
Navajo medicine men still prac'
,tice the weird rites handed down
for generations and trown upon
white man medicine.
It also is true that than
.oace four or five medicine men
have been patients in Dr.. Sals-
bury's hospital at the same time.
Tribal healers have played an
LIDO tdltl pd4t La thS ooSSOA -
surgeons life at Ganado.
Shortly after the Presbyterian
board Of national missions office
in New York sent him on a temp
orary assignment to this remote
hospital in 1927, Salisbury was
threatened with lynching because
a Navajo child under his care had
died.
ut was Red Point, a medicine
man, who saved the situtation,' he
says. He told the indians to go
.hcme, that even medicine men
made Mistakes" Within a few
days DR.. Salisbury had added Red
Point to his hospital staff.
At that time the only hospital
ON the 16, 000, 900 acre reservation
was a small building with II beds.
1t served so, 900 Navajos.
Sage Memorial is still the only
hospital on the reservation. But it
is rated one Of the best Indian
hospitals on the continent: mas
.reputedly the finest nursing school
for Indians in the world: and the
20O-acres that make up Ganado
contain more than so buildings.
In the 20 years DR.. Salisbury
has been at Canada q, 1000 patients
have passed through the hospital.
Not one of them suffered from
scarlet fever White children on
the reservation would come down
with the disease, but v the
-Navajos. DR.. Salisbury cannot ex-
plain why they ale immune.
Only five patients had diabetes.
For some reason, possibly diet,
the sugar content Of Navajos
blood is far less than whites.
A small proportion of Navajos
suffer from cancer, but DR.. Sal
soury has known of only one case
of cancer of the breast, and that
in 4 man.
1t has taken years Of work 10
correct some Of the strange Nava-
10 beliefs.
According to tradition, a dead
person must not be looked upon
except by the burial party. A
hogan in which death has taken
place must be abandoned forever.
"a few years ago one of our
field nurses found a Navajo chile
that had been tossed upon a SAND
heap" DR.. Salisbury explains.
THE mother was sure the
youngster could not 0 and
in order not to oontaminate the
hogan had left him to die.
1.-THE nurse brought him to the
hospital and we were able to save
. his life. His mother was overjoy-
; &c and amazed when he was re-
turned in good health"
Once DR.. Salisbury was sick. A
q, group Of medicine men gathered
, in his hospital room and e
, through a chant fer his recovery.
. AS the hospital grew and his
/, work became known, DR.. Salisbury
: was asked to speak at medical
; meetings and conventions. He was
also anxious to co postgraduate
p work.
= 1T was hard to get away from
. Canada, so 1 brought a POSTCARD
cate school here he says in eX'
planning the Harlow Brooks Nava'
10 Clinical conference that will be
. held for the eighth time this Au,
gust.
Some of the top medical mer
. Of the country travel long dis
. tances to deliver papers at the
!. conference which cover the WHOLE
. field o: American medicine and
: surgery. "They seem glad to dc
: it." DR.. Salisbury says.
/. The conference indirectly caus
, ed a tribal meeting a few weeks
= ago. The hospital has its airplane
landing strip. A trader. with
q. plane Of his own, thought the strip
=. too short for the planes that viii
: be landing.
/. The Navajos, always suspicious
. refused to sell or give ground witt
: which to lengthen the strip.
, DR.. Salisbury talked to them. HI
]. said the white doctors Travelled
. many miles to treat and study
: Indian ailments. They gave time
/. white people wanted! and woule
MODEST