Meeting the Medicine Men: An Englishman's Travels Among the Navajo

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Meeting the Medicine Men

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Meeting the Medicine Men An Englishman’s Travels among the Navajo ppppppppppppppppppp

Charles Langley

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First published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing in 2008. Nicholas Brealey Publishing Nicholas Brealey Publishing 20 Park Plaza, Suite 1115A 3-5 Spafield Street, Clerkenwell Boston, MA 02116, USA London, EC1R 4QB, UK Tel: + 617-523-3801 Tel: +44-(0)-207-239-0360 Fax: + 617-523-3708 Fax: +44-(0)-207-239-0370 www.nicholasbrealey.com © 2008 by Charles Langley All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Printed in the United States of America 12 11 10 09 08

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ISBN: 978-1-85788-507-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Langley, Charles, 1950– Meeting the medicine men: an Englishman's travels among the Navajo / Charles Langley. p. cm. 1. Navajo Indians—Religion. 2.Navajo Indians—Medicine. 3. Shamans—New Mexico. 4. Traditional medicine—New Mexico. 5. New Mexico—Social life and customs. 6. Langley, Charles. I. Title. E99.N3L365 2008 978.9004'9726--dc22 2008002900

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S

OME READERS MAY FIND the events recorded within these pages hard to believe and I certainly would not blame them for that. Nevertheless, these things did happen and for the most part they happened pretty well as I describe. The places I name also exist and so do the people. However, those who allowed me into their homes also trusted me to keep their secrets. With this in mind I have deliberately jumbled people, places, and events so that, while those who were present may occasionally recognise themselves, no one else will. That aside, I believe I have made a true record of at least one small part of the remarkable spiritual life of the Navajo people. In these uncertain times many of us from other nations might also wish we had the wisdom and strength of our Paleolithic ancestors to gird around us.

—Charles Langley

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To all my relations

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Contents Foreword by Emerson Jackson, Sr., Navajo Elder

CHAPTER ONE

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Lucky Day

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“By the time I washed up in the United States, I had reached that stage in life where a man less lucky than me might have found himself slipping towards a graceless old age.”

CHAPTER TWO

The Skin-Walker

29

“For the next two weeks Reuben escorted me to the remoter parts of Navajo territory and displayed me to various Medicine Men.”

CHAPTER THREE

Blue Horse

53

“Whatever it was did not return the next night, nor the night after, and even if it had, in deference to my hosts’ wishes I would have taken no action.” — ix —

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CHAPTER FOUR

Cursed of Suburbia

83

“It was some weeks before Blue Horse agreed to see me again.”

CHAPTER FIVE

The Sweat

101

“When the university term ended in mid-May I decided not to return to England, although for lack of money I would have been well advised to do so.

CHAPTER SIX

Spirit of a Snake

133

“Now began one of the most fascinating and interesting periods of my life. During which, to all intents and purposes, I slipped back into the Stone Age. ”

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Grave

153

“One evening we drove east on Central Avenue in Albuquerque to rendezvous with a man who was due to meet Blue Horse and me in the car park of a twenty-four-hour Walgreen’s chemist and general store.” — x —

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CHAPTER 8

Sacred Sacrament

175

“About this time I had first experience of peyote, the sacred cactus.”

CHAPTER NINE

The Chanter

193

“I had not seen Reuben for a long time when, unexpectedly, I bumped into him at a funeral in Shiprock, a small town on the northeastern edge of the reservation, where I had gone to pay my last respects to Mrs. Yellowhair, an elderly Navajo lady who had befriended me.

CHAPTER TEN

Visions

223

“For some time afterwards I wondered about the strange spiral and the strange things The Chanter had said about it.”

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Foreword

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Y NAME IS EMERSON JACKSON, SR. I am a Navajo full blood, born and raised on the Navajo Indian Reservation in the Four Corners area of the United States. My first language is Navajo, my first name of Nóóda´ yée Binálí is Navajo, my first culture is Navajo, and my English came later. I served the Native American Church of North America for twelve years as its President and for eight years as its executive officer. As president I incorporated and established Native American Church Chapters in the USA, Canada, and Mexico, as well as working with the United States Congress in the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and its 1994 Amendment, which guaranteed forever the right of American Indians to use the sacred peyote in our worship. In this endeavor I led a peaceful march on the United States Supreme Court in Washington DC for the religious freedom of all indigenous peoples. I am a retired tribal employee and worked as an administrator of various social service programs for the Navajo tribe, and I am a former elected official of the Navajo tribal council and legislature. Also I served on many Native American programs throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and as president and a member of school boards in both the U.S. and Mexico. I was chairman of the board of the Migrant Farm Workers of America and strove to improve the working conditions, living conditions, and wages of migrant workers. I attended the University of New Mexico and I am a United States Army veteran. Recently, I was honored by the Maya Indians of Guatemala, Central America, as a “Spiritual Leader of America.” I am a Navajo Medicine Man. <