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THE N_A T I O N A L INDIAN ASSOCIATION

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Originated 1879

Incorporated 18S7

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Navajo

Life Saving Station

156 FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YORK

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A X avajo Lite Saving Station.

At Indian Wells on the uplands of north- east Arizona stands the Good Samaritan Hospital and Dispensary erected by The National Indian Association. No other medical station is within reach of huge numbers of these Navajo Indians and they come long distances to the hospital for help. Dr. C. J. K. Moore, the resident phy- sician, also visits their camps, gives emer- gency treatment and brings to the wards cases needing hospital care. In the two ,'eais since the hospital was opened nearly :U0° treatments have been given and more than one hundred patients have been cared lor in the wards.

The Navajos are very superstitious and tor generations have been under the influ- ence of their medicine men. A Navajo mother brought her child to the hospital.

It was suffering from a heavy bronchial cold, was given constant treatment during the nigld, and in the morning there was marked improvement in its condition. Dur- ing the day the father came in a state of agitation and fear. He said that before the child was born a sister of its mother was bitten by a snake and died, and that was

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the cause of the child’s illness. He was sure, he said, "the white man’s medicine would not do any good.” The superintend- ent talked with him. but he insisted upon taking the child away to have a “sing" over it. A Navajo man was found who could “sing” the snake song, so they took the baby to a hogan about a mile distant, where they “sang” over it continuously that night and all the following day. Th<- man returned to the hospital about mid- night and said the child was dead.

Though the success of the hospital has been so marked that the influence of the medicine men has been considerably les- sened. yet superstitious practices in the treatment of the sick still prevail. Recent- ly Dr. Moore went to see a sick child in a camp about ten miles distant. After two hours’ riding he reached the hogan, a sin- gle structure about fifteen feet square. Preparations were on foot to have a “big sing” over the child. Four sheep had b°en killed, which the women were dressing for the feast, for a Navajo family giving a “sing” must feed all who come to it. The sick child, two years old. was in its moth- er’s arms and had no clothing on it. though the day was bitterly cold and the case one of bronchia] pneumonia. In the hogan were three other women and sixteen chil- dren, all under the age of twelve, and all

very scantily clad. This was the family of one Navajo man.

Trachoma, a scourge of the Indian tribes, spreads very quickly among the Navajos, owing to their habits and the unsanitary conditions under which large families are crowded together in one-roomed hogans. with the bare earth for a floor. Notwith- standing this, t ho disease is being success- fully combatted at the hospital and efforts are being put forth by the physician, with some measure of success, to remedy the evil conditions under which these Indians live. About two thousand treatments hare been given jor trachoma, but there are other cases each day needing surgical skill and medical attention. Patients have been treated jor tuberculosis, rheumatism, sores on head and body, swollen knee joints, car and throat diseases, bronchitis, fever, ulcerated teeth, broken and fractured limbs, dislocated joints, abscesses, grippe, severe cuts and burns, concussion of the brain, and many minor ailments.

Those who live in cities where medical skill abounds and hospitals and other insti- tutions for the relief of suffering are numer- ous, can but imperfectly realize the condi- tions existing in places where no such re- lief is at hand and where the superstitious customs of the Indians add to the suffering of the sick. The hospital has no endow-

ment and the future of the work depends entirely upon the money contributed for its support. The sum of *5,000 is needed to maintain it for twelve months, and we ur- gently appeal for your help. Your contri- bution. whatever the amount, will greatly aid at this time and will go direetlv toward the support of this medical work for a much-neglected tribe of Indians. Cheques may be made payable to Miss Anna Ben- nett, Treasurer, and sent to her. or to John W . Clark. Executive Secretary of The Na- tional Indian Association, 156 Fifth Avenue. New York.

April, 1915.

The National Indian Association Annual Membership Fee § 1 00

Honorary “ - 50.00

Pat ions are made such by the payment ot $25.00 within the year.

The Indian’s Friend, now in its twenty- eighth year, is published by the Association bi-monthly. Price 50 cents a year.

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Officers for 1915

// o nor ary P resid en I ,

Mrs. Amelia Stone Quinton, Syracuse, N. Y.

President,

Mrs. Otto Heinicke,

Bay Ridge, N. Y.

A orthern \ ice-President,

Mrs. Edward M. Wistar, Philadelphia, Pa.

Eastern Vice-President,

Mrs. Sara T. Kinney, Hartford, Conn.

Southern Vice- President ,

Mrs. Cato Sells, Washington, D. C.

Western Vice-President,

Mrs. John Bidwei.l,

Chico. Cal.

'orresponding ami Executive Secretary, John W. Clark,

156. Fifth Avenue, New York City. lie cording Secretary,

Miss Sarah I. Buckley, Morristown, N. .1.

Treasurer,

Miss Anna Bennett,

156 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

Auditor.

Mrs. William H. Laird,

New York City.

A Navajo Hogan