Move Over Monday
Join Clayson Benally as he shares the importance of Medicine Men within Navajo culture and explains the complexity of their practice in this video.
The medicine man plays a dominant role in the Navajo culture…
In the headlong march for progress today, in the forward thrust into uncertainty, amid the continuous cry for self-determination, very few men are left who have a tie to the past—a tie to The People’s history, legends, and myths that are slowly fading away as the old die. The medicine man is the holder of truth about the Navajo way of life. Through his mouth, principles of goodness and prosperity are taught to the people. Thus, he is a man of great significance, not just because he is a healer or has knowledge of herbal medicine, but because he preserves the traditions and beliefs of the Navajo.
When a medicine man is called to perform a ‘sing’, or healing ceremony, he comes not only prepared to heal but to tell the story of the people and their beginning from the first world to their emergence into the fourth world.
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