Erica M. Elliott - Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert: My Life Among the Navajo People

This book is dedicated to the Din, who invited me into their homes and into their hearts and showed me a whole different way of living that powerfully transformed my life.

MEDICINE AND MIRACLES IN THE HIGH DESERT

Erica gives a perspective on the Navajo people that could not be authentic without her having taken a deep dive into our way of life. Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert is a recounting of experiences and everyday life in the beginning of tribal self-determination. She delves into the mindset as Navajos reach to the surface of a fresh new start. Erica captures the period with accuracy and detail. Her story is now a permanent part of the historical annals of the Navajo people.

DESWOOD TOME, BUSINESS CONSULTANT AND MEMBER OF THE NAVAJO NATION

Dr. Erica Elliotts account of her life among the Navajo people is a story of high adventure that surpasses the wildest fiction. Elliotts willingness to transcend her cultural conditioning and enter another complex society is an act of great courageone that reveals her boundless empathy and compassion. This book is sorely needed at this moment in America, when divisive voices incessantly warn us of the other, the foreigner, those who are not like us. Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert: My Life among the Navajo People reveals how diversity and inclusiveness can enrich our own societya lesson on which our future may depend.

LARRY DOSSEY, M.D.,AUTHOR OF ONE MIND: HOW OUR INDIVIDUAL MIND IS PART OF A GREATER CONSCIOUSNESS AND WHY IT MATTERS

What a wonderful book! Elliotts voice mesmerized me. For weeks after I read this, I thought about her time with the Navajos. Such an inspiring, lifeaffirming, yet tough tale, woven through with a strong drive to realize her life path. Beautifully written. Elliott is an exciting new voice.

NATALIE GOLDBERG, AUTHOR OFWRITING DOWN THE BONESAND LET THE WHOLE THUNDERING WORLD COME HOME

Erica Elliott writes fearlessly, with an original voice that grabbed me from the first page. Her true adventures on the Navajo Nation as a teacher, a shepherd, an emergency room doctorand best of all, an open-hearted student immersed in a spiritually rich culturemake a great story. She leaves the reader with something to ponder: the abiding importance of reaching out to others with joy and respect. I love this book.

ANNE HILLERMAN, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE LEAPHORN, CHEE, AND MANUELITO MYSTERY SERIES

This is a powerful and personal book about courage and compassion. Reading it, we are drawn into the web of Dr. Elliotts extraordinary life of service and learning with the Navajo people of the American Southwest. We are fortunate for the chance to accompany her on her remarkable journey.

REV. JOAN JIKO HALIFAX, PH.D., ABBOT OF UPAYA ZEN CENTER AND AUTHOR OF STANDING AT THE EDGE

Acknowledgments

W hen I first shared the diary, photos, and cassette tapes documenting my time with the Navajo people, my friends and family urged me to turn this story into a book. I was so busy living my life that it took me over forty years to act on their encouragement.

When I finally resolved to start writing, I went on a retreat with Natalie Goldberg. She is famous for helping budding writers get over their self-doubts and turn off their inner critic. I learned to internalize Natalies unfiltered words to her students, Shut up and write. I stopped making excuses and started writing.

I took two writing workshops with Anne Hillerman, daughter of Tony Hillerman, best known for his detective series involving two Navajo policemen. Anne gave me the inspiration to believe that I could turn my diaries into a book.

Still a bit intimidated by the idea of writing books, I started blogging as a way to slowly immerse myself into the world of writing. My blog posts are a mixture of medical topics and memoir. With a few revisions, some of the standalone memoir posts eventually became chapters in this book.

My friend John Kadlecek helped me to take the posts about my time with the Navajo people and turn them into a cohesive narrative.

My neighbor and editor, Kristin Barendsen, worked with me to copyedit the manuscript, catching typos as well as larger issues with her eagle eye. She stood by me as my ally, helping me make final content and design decisions.

I am grateful to my sistersVreni Merriam, Jacqueline Paskow, and Veet Dehafor their many valuable suggestions. And to all the friends, family members, and patients who never gave up in their encouragement and support of my writinga big, heartfelt thank you.

And thank you to my Navajo friends who read the manuscript and gave their thumbs up.

As you can see, a whole tribe of friends and family helped me take this book into the light of day.

Foreword

By Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.

I want to tell you a story about the author of this enchanted tale, Erica Elliott, M.D., before I introduce you to her memoir.

Several months before this book was to be published, Erica and I were walking together companionably on a clear summers day. The wide azure sky of New Mexico stretched endlessly above us, and a dry riverbed carpeted with rocks and sand meandered below. Feet clad in sturdy hiking shoes, I picked my way along gingerly, wary of the ubiquitous cactus thorns and whatever desert denizens might have emerged to sunbathe. Erica, herself a denizen of the high desert, gamboled along the arroyo barefoot and as carefree as anyone could be while awaiting hip surgery.

I was amazed. But thats how you always feel when youre with Erica. Shes so humble that its easy to be blindsided by her accomplishmentswhether its hearing her speak Navajo or one of the other half-dozen or so languages she has picked up, or discussing the fine points of science and medicine, or marveling at her strength and easy athleticism. A skier, rafter, and climber, Erica led an all-womens expedition to the top of Denali, aka Mount McKinley, in 1980. Four years before, she had become the first American woman to climb Aconcagua in Argentina, the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere.

Believe me, this woman has grit.

Walking along, stopping often to face each other in delight, we discussed which of the several books that Erica is planning to write should come first. Perhaps the story of how she became seriously ill after prolonged exposure to chemicals in the clinic where she was practicing mainstream medicine?

Back then, in the early 1990s, awareness of environmental sensitivities was in its infancy. All too often, physicians told patients like Erica, Its all in your head, or Try to relaxyoure just stressed out.

I know firsthand what it was like in those days, since I was the director of a mind-body clinic at one of Harvard Medical Schools teaching hospitals. When docs couldnt help environmentally sensitive patients, they sent them to me. I never believed that the variety of symptoms such patients experiencedfrom fatigue and brain fog to respiratory problems, nausea, headache, autoimmune conditions, and neurological problems, to name a fewwere all psychosomatic. Without question, our environment was becoming more toxic by the day.