Word: nidilniihi
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Following centuries-old tribal custom, the family called in a nidilniihi, a diagnostician who works by hand-trembling-but they fetched her in their own 1953 Chevrolet sedan. Diagnostician Emma Teller squatted at Mary's bedside, dusted corn pollen on her upturned right palm, made the zigzag lightning sign with her left forefinger and crooned a ritual chant. As she passed her hand over Mary's body, it began to tremble. From its motion (ni'dilniih) Emma concluded that Mary had somehow offended the Wind Spirits. Her prescription: a chishiji, a two-day sing...
...physical side of a Navajo's ills, and that his remaining problems are emotional, they agree that he may find help among his own people. In effect, they are referring him to a medicine man. And as mutual understanding improves, they are delighted to find that a nidilniihi, like other native diagnosticians, is more likely to refer patients direct to the clinic, bypassing the chishiji and similar sings. The medicine men, more and more, are admitting themselves to PHS hospitals to get white man's magic for illnesses which, they recognize, they cannot cure themselves. The Many Farms...
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