37 pages • 1 hour read
Lori Arviso Alvord, Elizabeth Cohen Van PeltThe Scalpel and the Silver Bear: The First Navajo Woman Surgeon Combines Western Medicine and Traditional Healing
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “Two Weddings”
After witnessing both the hantavirus scare and other rare medical conditions at the Gallup Indian Medical Center, Lori was learning “to relax and be open” (128) to the unexpected. One such event changed her life forever in 1993. While she was performing a routine appendectomy, a young man named Jon, who was in the Army Special Forces medic training group, assisted her. For most of Lori’s life she only considered other Native Americans for serious relationships, mainly because she was proud of her people. However, her and Jon turned out to be a good fit. They married the following year twice, with traditional American-style wedding and traditional Navajo wedding ceremonies. It was at the latter ceremony where Lori notes that her two parallels worlds combined for a few moments. Given that the Gallup Indian Medical Center had been important for her spiritual, cultural, and professional growth, she is unsurprised that she also met her husband there.
Chapter 10 Summary: “At the Big Medicine Space”
In this chapter, Lori describes one incident at the Gallup Indian Medical Center where modern medicine and Navajo beliefs and concepts collided. A Navajo family brought their young daughter named Melanie Begay to the hospital. Lori recognized that she needed an immediate appendectomy or else Melanie would die. Unfortunately, Melanie’s grandmother overheard the white doctors talking about Melanie’s case and reacted strongly. The grandmother, who clearly was the decision-maker, did not want her granddaughter cut open. Like many other Navajo, Melanie’s grandmother was wary of non-Native Americans, largely because of the history between the two groups. Lori saw both sides. On the one hand, she understood Melanie was gravely ill. For Melanie to survive, the source causing her physical disharmony needed immediate removal. As a Navajo, however, she also understood the sacredness of the body and how all the parts comprised one harmonious system. Lori knew that Melanie’s family needed to agree to the surgery. While some of the hospital administrators were trying to get a court order to save the girl’s life, Lori recognized that path would be a “cultural disaster” (146). The family did eventually allow the operation, saving Melanie’s life.
Chapters 9-10 Analysis
Chapter 9 details Lori meeting and eventually marrying her husband Jon. Originally, Lori was nervous about their relationship, in part because of the age gap. However, she recognized that her belief was based on social gender stereotypes. If Jon had been the older one, no one could question the age gap. This example further illustrates how negative sexist attitudes can potentially impact women. As one of the first Navajo female surgeons, Lori has had to deal with these sexist attitudes head-on for most of her life and career.
Chapters 9 and 10 also demonstrate Lori’s two parallel worlds both combined and at odds with one another. At the traditional Navajo wedding ceremony, Lori notes that “for a few moments my two parallel worlds combined” (135), after seeing her husband’s silver bear fetish necklace, which she gifted to him as a wedding present, flash in the night and their families dancing together.
Chapter 10, in contrast, documents her two worlds colliding. Part of this collision is again due to how historic trauma has impacted Navajo people’s sense of identity. Melanie’s grandmother did not trust hospitals or white doctors. She also did not want her granddaughter to be cut-open, which violates Navajo peoples’ view of harmony and balance. Yet, if Melanie did not get the surgery, she would die. Lori was conflicted about this situation. On the one hand, she knew Melanie desperately needed the surgery.
On the other hand, she also understood how interfering in the family decision could be seen as inappropriate from the Navajo standpoint. Lori also “could see the sacredness of that body, how all its many parts are one harmonic system” (144). Lori knew that the family had to make the decision. If they took the girl away from her family through a court order, it would not only be a cultural disaster but could increase the odds that Melanie experienced complications during the surgery. Lori did potentially push the family to decide to operate via her interaction with Melanie’s father. Lori was blunt with him when he asked how his daughter was doing. If Melanie’s father did intervene, he would have been going against the Navajo matriarchal ways in which the women make the decisions. While Lori does not know who made the decision, she was able to save Melanie’s life by removing her appendix.
