Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert

My Life Among the Navajo People

De: Erica M. Elliott

Narrado por: Erica Elliott

After her first week teaching at a boarding school on the Navajo Reservation near Canyon de Chelly, young Erica Elliott almost leaves in despair, unable to communicate with the children or understand cultural cues. But once she starts learning the Navajo language, the people begin to trust her, taking her into their homes and ceremonies. As she is drawn deeper into Navajo life, Erica has a series of profound experiences with the people, animals, and spirits of Canyon de Chelly. Fulfilling a Navajo grandmother’s prophecy, she returns years later as a medical doctor to offer her services to Navajo patients.

Endorsements

"Dr. Erica Elliott’s account of her life among the Navajo people is a story of high adventure that surpasses the wildest fiction. Elliott’s willingness to transcend her cultural conditioning and enter another complex society is an act of great courage, and reveals her boundless empathy and compassion. This book is sorely needed at this moment in America, when divisive voices incessantly warn us of the other, the foreigner, those who ‘are not like us.’ [Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert: My Life Among the Navajo People] reveals how diversity, inclusiveness, and tolerance can enrich our own society, which is a lesson on which our future may depend." (Larry Dossey, MD, author of One Mind: How Our Individual Mind Is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why It Matters)

"What a wonderful book! Elliott’s voice mesmerized me. For weeks after, I thought about her time with the Navajos. Such an inspiring, life-affirming, yet tough tale, woven through with a strong drive to realize one’s life path. Beautifully written. Elliott is an exciting new voice." (Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones and Let the Whole Thundering World Come Home)

"Erica Elliott writes fearlessly with an original voice that grabbed me from the first page. Her true adventures on the Navajo Nation as a teacher, a shepherd, an emergency room doctor, and best of all, an open-hearted student immersed in a spiritually rich culture, make a great story. She leaves the reader with something to ponder: The abiding importance of reaching out to others with joy and respect. I love this book." (Anne Hillerman, NY Times best-selling author of the Leaphorn/Chee/Manuelito mystery series)

"This is a powerful and personal book that is about courage and compassion. Reading it, one is drawn into the web of Dr. Elliott’s extraordinary life of service and learning with the Navajo of the American Southwest. We are fortunate to be able to accompany her on her remarkable journey." (Rev. Joan Jiko Halifax, Abbot, Upaya Zen Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico, www.upaya.org)

©2019 Erica Elliott (P)2019 Balboa Press

A fascinating story

Totally loved this story. I can picture this experience. A peak into Navaho life. Ericas life is fascinating.

Inspirational powerful memoir

Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert is a beautifully told story that stays with you. Erica Elliott writes with rare honesty, clarity, and heart. Her experiences living and serving within the Navajo Nation are described with deep respect, offering insight into a world most of us never get to see.

Hearing her voice in the audiobook adds an authenticity that makes the journey even more meaningful. It’s inspiring, eye-opening, and profoundly human.

A remarkable, honest and unforgettable memoir. Highly recommended.

What a great read. Erica is a great story teller with amazing life stories to tell.

My husband and I listened to the book while driving through some of the areas Erica speaks of. Added even more meaning as we imagined experiencing some of things she did.

I recommended the book to many. One of my friends’ book club read it for their monthly group and raved about how kind opening it is.

This is a wonderful memoir

I have not enjoyed a book so much in quite some time. Living in NM and having loved all that our area is, it is wonderful to hear, in Erica’s voice, her journey into the Dine and so much more. She is truly blessed and I am grateful she wrote this. Thank you Erica.

Inspirational Memoir Set in the Navajo Nation

The audiobook Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert, narrated by the author Erica Elliott, tells the story of living with the Navajo people, first as a young teacher, then as a shepherd, and later as a medical doctor. This is full of adventure and insight – heart-warming, personal, surprising, thoroughly engaging.

The book opens with a glimpse of Dr Erica’s first day working as a physician, in 1986 at the understaffed Cuba Health Center, unexpectedly on call handling emergencies all night – the gruesome death of a medicine man, a pregnant Navajo woman undergoing seizures, a Hispanic woman giving birth... and then seeing patients all day. The question arose: how did she know how to speak Navajo? Dr Erica explained that years before she had been a school teacher at Canyon de Chelly. From there, the story goes back to Fall 1971, when Erica started teaching, learning about the language and culture, gaining trust and respect of her students and their parents, surviving an encounter with a mountain lion, interpreted as visit by a spirit animals, being invited into homes and ceremonies, including traditional peyote and puberty ceremonies, being witness to a brutal rape, learning to weave, and growing to love the Diné (the ancestral name for the Navajo people). After two years as a teacher, during the summer of 1973 Erica chose to live the life of a shepherd, tending a large herd of sheep on horseback, accepted by the Tome family, living the Diné way.

After some time back with her family New England, Erica spent two and a half years, 1974-76, in South America, in the Peace Corps, living with Quechua people in Ecuador, compiling a book of Quechua stories, starting a Quechua dictionary, learning to climb mountains, falling in love, and then traveling throughout South America. Back in the States, Erica taught Mountaineering for Outward Bound, entered a Masters program in education, and then went on to complete medical school. Dr Erica returned to the Navajo reservation as a physician In a “medically underserved area” in exchange for forgiveness of her student loan. The story of her life enters a new phase of life back with the Diné, and a parting healing ceremony for peace and happiness, after which she became pregnant, purchased land outside of Santa Fe, began building a home, and got married.

I listened to the book in a single sitting, while on a road trip from New Mexico to California, glad for this story of connection to land, culture, and life meaning. Captivating! This is the first of a series of memoirs by Dr Erica Elliot. In her own words "The grandmother of one of my Navajo friends told me that the mountain lion was my spirit guide and had come to give me 'his courage, strength, and intense focus,' because I would need those for what lay ahead. She said that I would face many obstacles, some big and life-threatening, and if I lived through them, I would have 'a strong heart and powerful medicine to give to the people.'” I especially appreciate the personal touch of hearing the story in the author’s own voice. I await the screenplay. Highly recommended!