"I was cleaning out some old files and happened upon one that took me way back. It was a folder labeled "Navajo Ways" that contained papers from my first job out of college as a nutrition professional with Navajo Head Start - a federally funded preschool program for 3- to 5-year-old children.
How hard can that be? I remember thinking after I got over the initial shock of being hired to live on the largest Indian reservation in the United States - an area of 25,000 square miles that includes parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. I was young and a native of New Mexico ... used to wide open spaces. So I packed up and moved to Fort Defiance, a "suburb" of Window Rock - capital of the Navajo nation.
From my first day on the job, I realized how my college education only showed me how much I needed to learn. And years later, as I look again at these papers on Navajo foods and nutrition, I realize the lessons that endured:
Seek to understand. My straight-out-of-school vision of families with refrigerators stocked with fresh milk for their kiddos was dashed when I learned that many households did not have electricity. Not many ovens either ... a lesson in why most food was boiled or fried ... or cooked directly over coals.
Don't panic. I learned some basic words in Navajo such as "ya-ta-eeh" (hello) and "Ee-hyeh-heh" ("thank you). But there was no word for "nutrition." Food was what you ate when you were hungry. And health was not being sick. To eat food to not be sick ... that was a new concept.
Be creative. I drove a pick-up truck, as did most Navajo families. And we all knew that vehicles need gas and oil and water to run smoothly. It was one analogy I would use over and over to teach the basics of nutrition.
Be flexible. Even though I was not particularly fond of mutton stew (heavy on the old sheep and light on the vegetables), it was the staple dish at most parent and staff meetings. Thanks to the fried bread that accompanied it, I adjusted.
Try new foods. I did fall in love with Navajo tacos. These rings of "fry" bread (I know, I know) topped with pinto beans, green chile, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes represented all major food groups to my mind.
Sometimes it's OK to say no. Like the day my co-worker brought a green chile stuffed roasted prairie dog for lunch. She offered me a bite. I respectfully declined.
Keep learning. I still have an article (circa 1976) from "Organic Gardening and Farming" which describes the common practice of "cooking with ash" - sprinkling wood ashes into the water used to cook corn. Turns out this practice increased the nutrient value (especially calcium, iron and magnesium) of this staple food.
Today as I understand, young Navajo children - like other American children - are falling short on their intake of calcium and iron-rich foods while over-doing sugar-sweetened drinks and high fat snacks. It's a reminder that there are many ways to meet nutritional goals, but we still need to be reminded what we need to learn."
No electricity? No ovens? Sounds like an off-the-grid Nirvana to me. Speaking of off-the-grid, hasn't much ado been created over going off the grid and "greening"--especially when you compare the lives of people who were never ON the grid to those who wish to go OFF the grid? Again, we're taking the expensive route--spending money for alternatives these people never had, and will never have access to.
These people make the Amish look like oil barons!
Here's what our greenie-weenies have done in emulating the traditional Hogan house:
There were REASONS why the original hogans had no windows and no electricity--tradition for one, no availability for another, and the weather in Navajo country can be brutal in both summer and winter, necessitating the need for sun shelter (no windows) and winter insulation (thick walls). Some cultures live their lives outside the home while only sleeping and not much more happening INSIDE the home, as opposed to we Americans who live almost our entire lives inside homes and buildings of some sort, expecting those buildings to have all the comforts we desire.
When you hear of Obama and his green-power investments, these are the people most likely to see results from it--Obama funds the company, and the company goes out to off-the-grid places (like reservations) to use them as living laboratories for their products--all in the guise of "improving their lives."
When it comes to introducing such amenities to a culture, Navajos and the Amish have this in common: a cultural authority (the trial leader or the church) makes the decision whether or not to approve the use of such items by evaluating the effects on the culture (both short- and long-term), and how they may serve to either strengthen the community or drive members away in search of more modernity. In other words, how will the item(s) in question will serve THEM and not the other way around.
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