Beulah Allen is at a crossroads of two cultures. A Navajo raised in tribal traditions, she is also a doctor trained in modern medicine, treating a baffling illness that is killing her people.
Allen, 56, said she welcomes both tribal and Western medical traditions in dealing with the frighteningly rapid disease that has killed 13 people."We in medicine tend to look at patients like pieces or parts. We neglect their souls and their minds," she said at the Fort Defiance Indian Health Service Hospital, where she is a specialist in internal medicine. "The advantage of Navajo medicine is that it views a patient as a complete human being."
But Navajo taboos and traditions have also complicated the work of the medical investigators.
Navajo President Peterson Zah pleaded with his people this week to cooperate with the investigators and said Navajo victims' families will break the taboo against speaking of the dead. Allen said doctors also have encountered resistance when asking families for permission to do autopsies.
"They do not understand why a body needs to be cut up and explored after a person has died," she said. "It's dishonoring to the person who has died."
Scientists have been trying for weeks to find out what is causing the flu-like respiratory illness whose 20 confirmed victims have mainly been people with ties to the Navajo reservation in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.
Now, the tribe has asked its three to four dozen medicine men to join the search.
"Western medicine has its limitations," Zah said Wednesday.
Zah gave no specifics on what the medicine men will do. It is taboo in Navajo culture to discuss their work. Traditionally, medicine men are tribal elders who perform ceremonies, such as making sand paintings, to cleanse and heal the spirit.
A Navajo medicine man was also expected to perform a purification rite Thursday at a state park near Gallup, N.M., where a 13-year-old girl collapsed Friday. She died Saturday, the most recent victim. Navajos have refused to set foot in the park for fear of evil spirits.
Allen said taboos may not be the only reason Navajos might be reluctant to to discuss the illness: The stigma it carries could explain their reticence. Health officials have complained that news reports identifyingthe victims by name have hindered efforts to gather information.
Zah already has urged his people, through broadcast messages in Navajo and English, to get medical attention if they have symptoms that include aching muscles, fever, coughs, eye inflammation and difficulty breathing.
Disc jockey Martha Pino has helped spread the word with particular passion: Her cousin's fiance died a week ago. "I'm not afraid to say I'm scared," she said. "I'm terrified. We don't know what we're dealing with."
At least four hospitals in the Four Corners area, where New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah meet, have reported increased caseloads and telephone calls.
About 175,000 people live on the 17-million-acre Navajo reservation, which encircles a 631,000-acre Hopi reservation where about 12,000 live.