37 pages • 1 hour read
Lori Arviso Alvord, Elizabeth Cohen Van PeltThe Scalpel and the Silver Bear: The First Navajo Woman Surgeon Combines Western Medicine and Traditional Healing
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Introduction-Chapter 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Introduction Summary
In the opening chapter of The Scalpel and the Silver Bear: The First Navajo Woman Surgeon Combines Western Medicine and Traditional Healing, Lori Arviso Alvord reflects on Navajo weavers who blend various strands of wool into a beautiful pattern that “tells a story and has spirit” (1). To the author, this book is similar to Navajo tapestries because it weaves together the various parts of Lori’s life. Lori grew-up in a small town called Crownpoint, New Mexico, which is located on a Navajo reservation. The words “Navajo” and “surgeon” rarely appear together, yet Lori became the first Diné, or Navajo, woman surgeon.
As Lori practiced medicine, she realized that modern medicine was a “one-way system—from physicians to patient” (2). Patients are much less involved in their own treatments. Physicians rarely take time to listen or develop professional relationships with their patients. Rather than treating the whole person (i.e., mind, body, and spirit), physicians only see the body. This scenario has resulted in modern medicine facing a crisis. To Lori, traditional Navajo healing, including the Navajo concept called “Walking in Beauty” (3), can fix this crisis. Walking in Beauty refers to a way of living. Individuals who follow this concept live a balanced and harmonious life and are in touch with all components of themselves and the world around them.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Chantways”
Lori opens this chapter by telling the story of Charlie Nez. Nez was a patient at Lori’s hospital in Gallup, New Mexico. He had advanced cancer, the doctors were treating him with chemotherapy radiation and surgery. This treatment, however, was not the only medicine he was receiving. A medicine man also performed a chantway, which entails different songs to heal different illnesses. Lori notes that as the medicine man was singing to Nez, she witnessed “hope come back into Nez’s eyes” (7). This experience profoundly impacted Lori’s views on Western medicine and Navajo healing. She realized that this duality, or principles from each, were key to healing patients.
The author then recounts her youth. Lori grew up in Crownpoint, New Mexico. Her father was Navajo and her mother was white, or a bilagáana, in Navajo. Like many other Navajo families on the reservation, her family did not have running water or electricity. Her shínálí, or Navajo grandmother, taught her and her siblings the stories of their clan and people. Being Navajo is a source of great pride for Lori, but also great sadness. Native Americans have endured centuries of policies and practices in the United States that have marginalized them from the larger American society. Lori never dreamed of becoming a doctor. While her parents encouraged her and her sisters to get an education, there were no Navajo doctors in her youth. Rather, most of the doctors she knew were bilagáana and male. Living between two worlds allowed Lori to learn from both. She notes that the scalpel is her tool, as are all new surgical technologies, but she receives guidance from her “Silver Bear” (16), or her Navajo beliefs and culture.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Walking the Path Between Worlds”
In this chapter, Lori discusses how she learned “to negotiate a path between cultures” (18). This negotiation first began in her youth on the elementary school playground. Her family had not encouraged her and her sisters to learn Navajo. Thus, it made playing with other Navajo girls who did speak the language difficult. Lori was also hesitant to play with the white children, whose parents were social workers, reservation doctors, or Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) employees. In both cases, Lori felt she did not belong to either group.
Another example is when Lori decides to go to Dartmouth. Leaving the Navajo nation was a frightening prospect. The Navajo people believe they are safe within the four sacred mountains—Mount Taylor, San Francisco Peak, Blanca Peak, and La Plata Range—which bound the reservation. These mountains are central in Navajo creation stories. By leaving this place, individuals were inviting imbalance and leaving the Walk of Beauty.
At Dartmouth, Lori experienced culture shock. One example of this was class participation. Navajo parents teach their children to not draw attention to themselves; thus, they do not raise their hands in class. Professors in college settings, however, see lack of hand raising as disinterest and disengagement. While at Dartmouth, Lori was part of the Native American program. It was here where she was able to connect with other Native American students. Lori realized that being part of a community and tribe is central to one’s health. Her and the other Native American students held their own ceremonies, where they would sing and dance. These songs helped to melt her grief and loneliness.
Lori also provides insight into the Navajo society and her clan. The Navajo society is a matriarchal society, meaning women rule the tribe. Traditional female Navajo names always refer to war. The origins of this custom are unknown since men are the ones who go to war. To Lori, this custom might be due to women being the ones who hold the families, clan, and Navajo society together. A Navajo’s main clan is that of their mother’s. Lori is a “Tsi’naajinii, a black-streaked-wood person, from one of the bear clans” (23). Members of this clan keep bear fetishes. Lori wears a necklace with a small silver bear fetish. She notes that the bear spirit has always given her courage and strength, especially during times when she felt like she did not belong.
Introduction-Chapter 2 Analysis
These early chapters of The Scalpel and the Silver Bear, taken together, serve as an important overview for Lori’s argument. The Introduction provides the backstory: Modern medicine is facing a crisis. It has forgotten some of the elements that heal people best, including how people live their lives, their relationships, and their sense of belonging and wholeness. To Lori, physicians have forgotten how to listen to their patients. Instead, they simply talk at them. Patients are no longer involved in their own care, although many desire to be. Lori’s book deals heavily in personal anecdotes. However, the heart of the story is to convince readers to support her central claim that Western medicine can find its way by looking to Navajo healing practices. Navajo healing practices are not a one-way system, but multidimensional. At the heart of this philosophy is a concept called “Walking in Beauty,” which means living in balance and harmony with yourself and the world around you. Healing focuses on the person as a whole (mind, body, and spirit) and their relationships with family, community, and the natural world. This book documents Lori’s journey to realizing that Western medicine and Navajo healing practices can learn from each other.
To that end, Chapters 1 and 2 detail Lori’s childhood and undergraduate years. Part of her reasoning for doing so is to show minority women, especially Navajo girls, that they can do anything. She grew up in a poor Navajo community in a rural part of New Mexico. As a young girl, she had never met a Native American physician and did not have plans to go to medical school. The small rural high school she attended did not prepare her for science courses at Dartmouth. After receiving her only D grade in her entire life in a calculus class, she retreated from taking other science classes. Yet Lori would go on to become the first Navajo female certified board surgeon.
Throughout the book, Lori reiterates that an individual’s sense of belonging is key to their health and wellbeing. As a child, Lori struggled with this notion. One of her earliest realizations is that her life revolved around two cultures because she is both Navajo and bilagáana. Lori poignantly describes this struggle when she discusses her experiences on the playground. She did not feel like she could play with either the Navajo girls or the white children, because she did not know where she belonged. Her shínálí understood her struggle because she too was a product of two worlds: One grandfather was a medicine man and the other a Spaniard. From her shínálí, Lori learned how to navigate her two worlds. In fact, being from these two worlds is ultimately what made Lori a better physician. Because she could look at the world through two sets of cultural eyes, Lori was able to see the value of bringing together Western medicine and Navajo healing practices.
This is not to say, however, that Lori did not struggle as she learned to navigate these two worlds. Many of the tasks that she had to do in medical school and as a surgeon went against the very foundations of Navajo tradition and beliefs. In fact, writing her autobiography goes against the teachings of her people. The Navajo strongly discourage individuals from talking about their accomplishments and instead teach humbleness. To Lori, it was important for others to read her story not so she could brag about her accomplishments, but so she could demonstrate to other Navajo girls that they can dream big and that Western medicine could learn from Navajo healing practices.
