A History of Epidemics

Chapters on Sickness
Memory in Athens
A History of Epidemics
Colonization
Scientific Modeling

Part 1

Navajos survived many epidemics using traditional healing

By Donovan Quintero
Navajo Times

WINDOW ROCK — Hataałii adéíst’į́į́' ííł’ínígíí said a deadly and unseen sickness known as ch’osh doo yit’iinii, or ha’t’ííshíí na’ałniihi, was born from the ashes of the mammals and reptiles that burned in the Australian fires in 2019.

The hataałii, who asked to remain anonymous, said the ashes of the animals rose into the air and it weakened the ozone enough for cosmic rays to shoot an entity into the ocean that caused the earth to open up and release an energy that impacted fish and other marine life before reaching the surface.

Humans caught marine life and they ate them. Other mammals ate the fish, and in turn, other animals ate those animals. Soon the entity formed into a virus that first affected the mammal and reptile kingdoms before transforming to infect the human species, the hataałi said.

The first person to be infected by the virus became sick and soon died. The virus then took on a new form. It became a ghost, Navajo practitioners said.
The ghost-virus then began its journey infecting the world, hiding in the darkness, and making it very difficult for people to see.

The Centers for Disease Control gave the ghost-virus a name: SARS-CoV2, better known as COVID-19. Navajo Nation leaders named it Dikos Nitsaaígíí Náhást’éíts’áadah.
Influenza pandemics have affected the human race with fatal consequences for many centuries. The CDC added the influenza virus adapted, capable of switching between humans and animals like birds, pigs, horses, and bats, and killed untold populations of people.

Greek philosopher Hippocrates called it febris catarrhalis epidemia, which roughly translates to “a great fever that to flows out of the nose.”

The CDC said scientists only began understanding the influenza virus in the late 1800s. It was not until after the 1918 “Spanish” flu that killed more than 3,000 Navajos, or 24% of the population, and an estimated 50 million people worldwide, that scientists began to study the deadly and unknown killer.

Sicknesses are not new to the Navajo people. Some are well documented, specifically between 1864 and 1868. Mostly, traders, agents and school superintendents have anecdotally documented the illnesses of the past from a first-person perspective.
Overall, traditional Navajo people have chosen not to speak of the sicknesses because to mention them would invite them back.

Before Hwééldi, the Navajo people focused on their inner energy and avoided thoughts that provoked negativity. To them, negativity eventually turned into evil, which then turned into an ailment or a consequence that harmed family members.

To avoid evil, the Navajos channeled their thoughts into positive action, the hataałii said.
They said prayers every day and then turned to their daily chores. For boys, it was herding the family’s flock of churros. For the girls, it was weaving a rug with their mothers. The men went on hunting trips or gathered herbs for ceremonies.

In the evening, grandfathers would share their knowledge, passed down from their grandfathers. Morality, thankfulness, humility and wisdom were some of the teachings they gave to the young children, as well as the importance of ceremonies, the hataałi said.
Even with the 1830-1833 influenza outbreak, the CDC stated, that swept across Europe and North America, Navajos honed their energies to keep them healthy in mind and body. Though there is no evidence to suggest the pandemic ever reached the Navajos, people who caught the influenza and survived it built an immunity against it.

Despite occasional raids from the Noodá’í, Dziłghą́'í, and the Naakai Dine’é, as well as bouts of drought that often lasted for years, those energies were quickly dealt with, the hataałii continued, through various ceremonies that usually brought balance back into the people.

Children were taught not to question nature even as drought occasionally devastated their way of life, the hataałii added, because the Diyin Diné’é made it. So, they lived accordingly.

In 1844, a comet, along with a meteor shower, was seen in the sky across Navajo country. Both celestial events were seen as omens that told the Navajos that bad things were in the future.

In 1847, the CDC stated, another influenza outbreak swept through Europe that killed thousands. Again, the sickness did not reach the Navajo people.

Four years later, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo of 1848, between the U.S. and Mexico, was signed. The treaty was about to alter Navajo lives forever. No longer would it be easy for a Navajo hataałii to correct negative energy in their patients.

In August of 1849, Narbona was killed after negotiating a treaty with Col. John M. Washington on the east side of the Chuska Mountains. His death reinforced what the omens foretold five years earlier.

Eight years later, in 1857, the CDC stated, the fifth influenza pandemic of the century did not reach the Navajo people, but by this time, they were in the midst of another war, this time with the U.S.

Fifteen years after Narbona’s murder, in 1864, the Navajo people were forced to move to Fort Sumner.
“That was when we gave up our weapons, like bows and arrows,” Friday Kinlicheenie told David Brugge in 1972, while talking about Hwéeldi. “It was taken from us and we committed never to fight again.”

There, the kind of diseases they’d encounter put their skills as herbalists, and mastery of sacred songs and prayers for health and prosperity, to the test. Traditional practitioners had not yet diagnosed and performed ceremonies to remedy those deadly contagions.
In addition, the Navajo people with the evil spirit of war in their hearts complicated their relationship with those who did not. According to handwritten documents stored at the Fort Sumner Historic Site/Bosque Redondo Memorial, the military doctors stationed at Fort Sumner said the Navajos had a much difficult time living while at Hwéeldi during their captivity.

According to the medical statements, the Navajos suffered diseases that ranged from the mumps, parotitis, rheumatic fever, pneumonia, measles, bronchitis, typho-malarial fever, chronic diarrhea, and constipation.

The most common disease they were diagnosed with, however, was syphilis. Having no cure to battle these new diseases impacted their inner energy.

They were also not allowed to properly mourn, nor properly send their loved ones off to the spirit world, which compounded the hardships of their imprisonment.

The Navajos believed the 1844 omens were punishments they were given because they were no longer living according to what Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehí instructed them to live by. As punishment, they were led away from their sacred mountains to suffer.

For many, the evil energy the war leaders harbored within their hearts was why the Diyin Diné’é were punishing them.

To see this article in the Navajo Times, click here

The second in a two-part series by Navajo Times reporter Donovan Quintero. This story originally ran in the Navajo Times on April 23rd, 2020. The images in this story did not run in the original article but were added later for this exhibition.

Part 2

A History of Epidemics A history of epidemics: Diné avoid epidemics, but fall victim to flu

By Donovan Quintero
Navajo Times

After Hwééldi, the Navajos returned to the safety of the Four Sacred Mountains. They brought back four years worth of beatings, death, rapes, and kidnappings.

For the Navajos who never let the evil spirit of war leave them, according to T’iis Yazhi, who was interviewed in 1973 by David Brugge, the abuses their families and clan relatives endured fell on the shoulders of the leaders who chose to surrender, rather than fight to the death.

They also brought back newly learned ceremonies they learned from the Chiricahua and Mescalero Apaches, and their white captors, according to Charlotte J. Frisbie’s Temporal Change in Navajo Religion: 1868-1990 paper.

The Diné binahagha’ would no longer be the same, despite the practice of positive energy continuing to be at the center of all the ceremonies that were practiced prior to Hwééldi.

Frisbie wrote, no longer were just Navajo ceremonies like Hochxǫ́'íjí, Hózhǫ́ǫ́jí, 'Anaa'jí, 'Iináájí, Na'at'oliijí, Béeshjí, Tł'éé'jí, and Diné biníłch'ijí Dziłlátahjí being practiced. Navajo ceremonies were being combined with Apache ceremonies like Chíshíjí and Ats’ǫ́ǫ́sjí.

The Náhwiiłbįįhí Yoodlání also began taking shape. The name would eventually be changed to Diné Oodlání, or Navajo Christian.

In 1872, the CDC stated, what would become known as the Great Epizootic infected and killed horses in the U.S. and Canada. The infected horses developed hacking coughs and fatigue caused by an equine influenza.

The horse sickness eventually reached the Southwest where the U.S. Cavalry and the Chiricahua Apaches fought some of their battles on foot because their horses died or became incapacitated from the sickness.

That same year, the CDC stated, as the equine pandemic raged throughout the country, the equine influenza jumped into the avian population, creating an avian influenza outbreak that exploded in chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys.

The epizootic avian event swept across the country with fatal results. Eventually the avian influenza transitioned into people, which started the 1873-74 human influenza outbreaks that became known as the “epizooty,” or “zooty,” the CDC stated.

The Navajos continued to avoid a major influenza outbreak in the 1800s, but that was about to change.

According to NASA, two solar eclipses occurred on July 29, 1878, and Jan. 1, 1889. Even after the eclipses, T’iis Yazhi said, most Navajos continued practicing the importance of channeling their inner energies towards positivity, the scars of Hwéeldi, and the heavy influence of the Treaty of 1868, were now more noticeable.

Some Navajos began questioning the ceremonies their grandparents and great grandparents lived by, Yazhi added.

The 1868 Navajo treaty stated Navajo children would be required to attend schools, which were maintained by followers of the Christian faith, who prevented them from learning Navajo traditional ways.

The treaty also created boundaries that Navajo were required to recognize, which cut off traditional grounds where they historically gathered their herbs needed for healing and ceremonial purposes.

From 1890 to 1915, the CDC stated, smallpox ravaged the Navajo people. Navajo ceremonies were no match for it.

The U.S. Department of the Interior often criticized the Navajos and pressured them to discontinue their traditional practices. So much so, the government published a book called, “Indian Babies, How To Keep Them Well.” In it they wrote that the traditional Navajo cradle was not good because it restricted a baby’s movements, implying it was inhumane and cruel.

Another omen appeared to the Navajos on June 8, 1918: another solar eclipse. Another red sky also appeared.

The Navajos felt Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehí was continuing to punish them. The summer that year was noticeably cooler and people were still dealing with the smallpox epidemic.

As the seasons began changing from summer to fall, the first reports, according to “The ‘Flu’ of the Navajos,” by Albert B. Reagan, Navajo deaths caused by the Spanish Flu were reported in the Kayenta and Tuba City areas on Oct. 3, 1918.The CDC stated the effects of avian-caused influenza were vicious. If Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehí was punishing the Navajos, this was proof.

The Marsh Pass Boarding School, the school Reagan was to take charge of, was quickly turned into a makeshift hospital and morgue, as Navajo students and their families, sick or dying with the flu, were taken to the school.

According to the University of New Mexico Digital Repository, the Navajo people living in Window Rock, Fort Defiance, Crystal, and on the east side of the Chuska Mountains were not spared from the flu.

Many families turned to traditional Navajo ceremonies that usually brought them together in celebratory fashion. This time, the influenza quickly infected whole families, including the hataałiis who participated in the ceremonies. Whole churches, doctors, and hospitals were also infected.

The city of Gallup, according to the UNM digital repository, reported its first case of the influenza pandemic on Sept. 28, 1918. By Oct. 12, people had died from it and about 300 people overwhelmed the small community hospital, St. Mary’s.

All public gatherings were prohibited. Schools and churches, restaurants, and movie theaters were ordered closed by the city as the flu exploded within the city limits.

Roadblocks to prevent people from leaving or entering the city were also set up by the police.

The public was urged to avoid crowds, indoors and outdoors, as well as to take in fresh air from outside, stated the UNM digital repository. Physicians suggested people who were not sickened by the flu gargle antiseptics and take laxatives and liver stimulants.

By Oct. 19, 90 people had succumbed to the deadly virus, including a seven-year-old Navajo boy who died at the hospital, according to the UNM digital repository. By Oct. 26, 128 citizens of Gallup, including another Navajo, were dead from the virus.

In Navajo country, Indian agents and Indian traders reported whole families had died from the disease. They also reported hogans across the reservation were filled with “dead bodies.”

As the season turned into winter, temperatures dropped to arctic conditions as low as -80 degrees Fahrenheit.

Family members who had survived the death grip of the virus fled their homes, according to Reagan, and froze to death because their traditional beliefs, as well as the sheer fear of contracting what killed their families.

Not all was bleak though, as many families and hataałiis turned to the herbs that had kept them healthy, Frisbie wrote.

They performed sweat lodge ceremonies and cleansed themselves of evil thoughts and prayed for positive energy. They rode their horses from hogan to hogan and healed many families using Protection Way, Evil Way, Mountain Way, and Blessing Way ceremonies.

Since then several influenzas in 1933, 1957, 1968 and 2009, as well as the 1993 Hantavirus, according to the CDC, have been overcome by the Navajo people.

How the Navajos of the early- to mid-1800s dealt with the diseases of that era is not vastly different from how modern Navajo are dealing with the 2019 coronavirus pandemic. Families have turned to traditional ceremonies and traditional herbs because there is no cure for the virus.

The hataałii adéíst’į́į́' ííł’ínígíí said a number of ceremonies are needed to be performed in order for balance to be restored. If not, the virus will not stop spreading, he said.

NASA scientists say a large piece that broke off of the 1844 comet will be making its way across the skies of the Navajo Nation, which can now be seen in the northern skies. NASA has named it Comet ATLAS.

Two falling star events will also take place this month and in May. Both celestial events are considered omens to the Navajo people.

Click here to see this article in the Navajo Times