Patterns of Health and Disease Among the Navahos

Abstract

Community patterns of our Indian citizens range from ordinary American communities to ways of life more comparable with those seen in parts of Asia or South America. In each type the disease picture can be expected to be different and the ways of dealing with it must necessarily be somewhat dif ferent. The Navaho tribe is the largest Indian tribe, a group whose ways of life perhaps differ the most from the rest of the United States. The broad principles revealed in an analysis of Navaho health are applicable to other tribes, although the particular health situation of another tribe would depend on the circumstances of its tribal life.