The Scalpel and the Silver Bear: The First Navajo Woman Surgeon Combines Western Medicine and Traditional Healing

“From the beginning I knew I had to do a similar thing with the strands of my story—to tell how a girl from a small and remote town on an Indian reservation was able to become a surgeon, able to work in the high-tech realm of a surgical operating room, and combine that with another story, about how ancient tribal ways and philosophies can help a floundering medical system find its way back to its original mission: healing.”

This passage summarizes the two primary purposes of Lori’s autobiography. The first is for her journey to serve as inspiration to minority groups, especially Navajo girls, so that they know they can do anything, even in a career pathway previously closed to minorities. The second is to argue that western medicine needs to integrate elements of Navajo healing practices in order to realign itself with its central purpose: healing. These two strands initially seem like they don’t go together. As Lori notes, “Navajo female” and “surgeon” are not words typically found together. Yet, it is possible for a minority woman to pursue her dream and change the medicine world for the better.

“But from her we saw what it meant always to be slightly outside a culture, somewhere on its margin, in a place where we could not completely belong. We learned what it was like to feel peripheral.”

Lori’s mother was white. While their Navajo neighbors and friends grew to love Lori, there were still cultural and language differences that separated her from the majority Navajo group on the reservation. This challenge extended to Lori and her siblings. They were from two worlds, and because of this, felt like they never truly belonged to either. Lori notes the irony of their situation. They felt peripheral to a group that was itself on the periphery of the broader American culture.