Conversations About the Unspeakable

In Tuesday’s Science Times, Dr. Ben Diaz describes a unique effort to help elderly Navajos in northeastern Arizona come to grips with a complex and culturally fraught issue: end-of-life medical care.

In Navajo culture, talking about death is thought to bring it about, so it is not discussed. A dead person’s name is never spoken. Only designated tribal members are permitted to touch and bury the dead.
So it is up to [Mitzi] Begay and her colleagues to find ways to teach people (many with little or no English) about things like living wills, durable powers of attorney, do-not-resuscitate orders, electroencephalograms, feeding tubes and ventilators. In spite of the taboos, they are trying to find a comfortable way to begin a conversation with patients and their families about death and dying.

Read the full story, “With Poem, Broaching the Topic of Death,”

NEW  YORK TIMES


Navajo People
The Navajo (also spelled Navaho; in Navajo: Diné, meaning "the people"), or Diné, of the Southwestern United States are the second largest Native American tribe of Northern America. In the 2000 U.S. census, 298,197 people claimed to be fully or partly of Navajo ancestry. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the Four Corners area of the United States. The traditional Navajo language is still largely spoken throughout the region, although most Navajo speak English as well.

WIKIPEDIA