The Scalpel and the Silver Bear: The First Navajo Woman Surgeon Combines Western Medicine and Traditional Healing

Alvord Book Review
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Alvord Book Review
Alvord, A. L. (1999). The scalpel and the silver bear: The first Navajo woman surgeon combines Western medicine and traditional healing. New York City, NY: Bantam Books.
In this remarkable book, surgeon Lori Arviso Alvord takes readers on an enthralling journey between 2 worlds. She describes her efforts to bring Western medicine to an indigenous reservation in the town of Gallup, New Mexico. The author encountered a number of challenges, barriers and opportunities in the medical and educational system which impacted her training as a medical doctor. Lori Arviso Alvord is the daughter of an Indian father and a Caucasian mother. She left a grimy reservation in the State of New Mexico for a Medical School and became the very first Navajo female surgeon. She rose above the odds that were presented by the male-dominated world of surgeons and her own culture, and went back to the reservation in New Mexico to encounter a new challenge. In remarkable encounters, she witnessed the power of belief in influencing health.
Ambitious and bright, Alvord initially left New Mexico in order to go to college on a scholarship. As a Native American and a woman, Alvord felt particularly alienated, but she found comfort with the few indigenous classmates at the university – Dartmouth University. The author then learned to overcome the Navajo’s distinctive reserve and reticence, and distinguished herself academically and gained admittance to the prestigious medical school of Stanford University wherein she finished her surgical schooling (Alvord, 1999). Once more, she found herself in the minority – a Native American woman in general surgery – but she proved herself when she managed to become chief resident within a field that is commonly dominated by Caucasian men. When she returned home in Gallup, New Mexico, Alvord committed herself to combining the medical know-how and proficiency of a skilful surgeon with the holistic medicine of a Navajo, Native Ame...