Health crisis in Navajo community

 
Written by Soh Wah
 




 

I pick the Navajo peoples and the health issue that they are facing in their community. The health issue is the biggest problems for them and they are living everywhere in America. “The reservation, the largest in the country, is a 27,000-square-mile swath of high plains and desert in New Mexico, southern Utah and Arizona — an area as large as the state of West of Virginia. It is home to roughly 250,000 residents” (Linn). I find the Navajo people that locate in New Mexico and the articles that I read and research that I find are telling me how much these people have to go through in the past and they are still struggling today. The health problem that they are facing are starting a long time ago, but they are working hard to survive in their life. The health problem is not the only one, but also losing land and places that they love are involving too.

            This issue impact on their culture and society because first they are losing their land, and now they are facing a health issue in society. The research shows that “only 51 percent of Native Americans in the class of 2010 graduated high school.” The education system is failing for Native people and that’s why most of them don’t have a high education to come back and help their people. Navajo are living in a poor housing area where it jobless and don’t make a lot of income to support themselves and their family. They are also living in a bad environment and it is easy to get sick in those kinds of areas. Health is a big problem in the Navajo community and society because their income is low and most of them don’t have a lot of hospitals in their community at all.

            The impact that I see in their community is that they have to build their own school and hospitals. They are working hard to educate their children and send them to school so they can come back and help their peoples in the future. They have to work hard to build a hospital for their people and also find a good doctor. Navajo are living different parts of areas in New Mexico and some of them don’t have a hospital at all. They are living in poor areas but somehow they don’t want to move even though they know that they need healthcare. They don’t want to move because they love their land and place where they were born, and they don’t want to leave their home and place that they love. They don’t have healthcare because they are poor and can’t afford to pay the bills if they are sick and go to a hospital.

            The issue has been solved slowly because now they are building a school and send a lot of their children to be educated. Some of the Navajo do have a hospital in their community because they are working hard to build it and make sure they can take care of their people. “The Navajo health care system includes an urban health program in Flagstaff, Arizona, the Navajo Department of Health (NDOH), and five Tribal health care corporations. Native Americans for Community Action, Inc. (NACA), founded in 1971, is one of 34 Urban Indian health programs in the United States. NACA provides outpatient, behavioral health, health promotion, and other services to the population in and around Flagstaff, Arizona.” Even though they have hospitals a long time ago some of them still have a problem with health because they don’t want to leave their home and land. Moreover, many of Navajo are separate around the U.S. because they are losing their land and kicked out. The issue starts to solve slowly because these people start to take care of each other more because they don’t want to lose their language and culture anymore. They want to live happily and make sure their people are safe and healthy. In the “Healthy Gardens” article, I find that it is really interesting because these people actually find a way to stop a health problem like diabetes and Cancer. I think it is interesting because they are growing food that keeps them healthy and since the generation is growing up, they also have a lot of children and people in their community that go to college.

            When it comes to cultural relativism, there is a good thing and also a bad thing that relates to it. what I find interesting that most Navajo peoples are want to live with their own people and don’t want to bother others at all. They also live in a private place where strangers can’t enter their place at all because I saw the sign when I went to New Mexico. So in my opinion, I suggest that it will be hard to bring doctors that are not Natives because they will only consider them as strangers. That is why they are sending their children to college to make sure they can come back and help their people one day. It’s good for them to send their children to school to be educated because they hope and know that their children will be back and take care of their people. they put their trust and have faith in their future generation because they don’t want to lose more of their people like the past.

            In the end, I believe the Navajo peoples will be better soon or later because the generation is growing and they have a lot of hope for their future children. I think it is good to see that they put their faith for the generation because they know they can’t do that anymore. Moreover, I believe that the future generation will do an amazing job by helping their people and take care of their peoples. I think most of Navajo community will be really good in the future since they have children that grow up and see the problems that their parents have to face in their life and it will make them want to change those kinds of problems. I have a strong feeling that soon or later they will all take care of each other’s and make their parents and people proud for sure. 

 

 

 
 
 
 

Works Cited

<https://www.centerforhealthjournalism.org/2018/07/08/forgotten-health-crisis-navajo-lands>.
 
"Indian Health Service (IHS)." Navajo Area. 23 Mar. 2019 https://www.ihs.gov/navajo/.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Lombard, Kevin A., et al. “Healthy Gardens/Healthy Lives: Navajo Perceptions of Growing Food Locally to Prevent Diabetes and Cancer.” Health Promotion Practice, vol. 15, no. 2, Mar. 2014, pp. 223–231. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/1524839913492328.
 
Linn, Amy. "A forgotten health crisis in Navajo lands." Center for Health Journalism. 24 July 2018. 23 Mar. 2019
 NoiseCat, Julian Brave. "13 Issues Facing Native People Beyond Mascots And Casinos." The Huffington Post. 31 Aug. 2015. TheHuffingtonPost.com. 23 Mar. 2019 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/13-native-american-issues_us_55b7d801e4b0074ba5a6869c.
 


 
 

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