Meeting the Medicine Men
Journals and memoirs, Indigenous peoples, Travelogues, United States travel and geography
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Summary
A chance meeting with a young Navajo Indian propels an English traveler out of his middle-class London life and into the world of the North American Indian Medicine Men, where people believe that witchcraft can bring ruin and even death.… Only the Medicine Men have the knowledge to do battle with witches, lift curses and restore the sick to health. The larger-than-life Blue Horse is one of a dwindling band of Medicine Men traveling the vast Navajo reservation of New Mexico and Arizona, ministering to the victims of evil spirits. Charles Langley, former London newspaper editor, finds himself serving as Blue Horse's bag carrier and chauffeur, eventually becoming his apprentice. He sees Blue Horse perform incredible feats - predicting the future, uncovering the past, curing the sick and communicating with spirits. At first bemused by what he sees, Langley attributes Blue Horse's successes to luck or fraud. But logical explanations soon fall short. In Meeting the Medicine Men, Langley studies the accumulating evidence that Navajo Medicine Men really can cure the sick, change history and foretell the future and explores a culture that has endured since the Ice Age but is now cracking under the pressure of the modern world.