In the Beginning ...
The Navajo Healing Project traces its roots back to 2016 with a chance meeting between the former Chief Justice of the Navajo Nation, Robert Yazzie and Berkeley based practitioner of Chinese Medicine, Thuy Nguyen of Berkeley Community Acupuncture. An initial resonance and then deep friendship was forged through mutual understanding and sharing of healing and peacekeeping. As Thuy visited Navajo Lands and developed more friendships and kinship with Diné sisters and brothers, she had an idea to introduce Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to Navajo Lands. In 2018, with the help and support of donations and volunteers, a two day pop-up clinic was set up in a traditional dwelling in a remote canyon location near Gallup, New Mexico. The free clinic offered acupuncture and massage and more than 60 people made the long trek to receive these services. Receiving repeated requests to return and seeing the need of the people, Thuy dedicated herself to setting up more pop-up clinics. There has since been 7 full service pop-up clinics in Gallup, Window Rock and Shiprock offering acupuncture, massage, herbs, nutrition and education. Despite the great numbers that show up, Thuy realized the need for medicine that is local, sustainable, dependable and Diné. Thuy began to imagine what would become the NHP internship program.
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After the first pop-up clinic, the seed for a teaching program had been planted but it took several more visits to take root. After a pop-up clinic in April 2021, the second clinic during the pandemic, two dedicated Diné interns—Kaene and Christa—agreed to a one year training program in Traditional Chinese Medicine. In California, Rosie Ueng agreed to the same one year commitment to help the project as part of her ongoing tutorial program in TCM. The Navajo Healing Project’s intern program was thus born. All 3 interns completed the program in May of 2022, making them the first Healing Practitioners of the Navajo Healing Project.
NHP Now
Both Kaene and Christa are now hosting clinics at various Flea Market locations in the Navajo Nation near Window Rock, in addition to offering limited house calls.
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The aim of the Navajo Healing Project is to make the powerful and adaptable tools of TCM available to the Diné community. Interns are taught TCM through rooting them in TCM’s ancient worldview highlighting aspects of the medicine that reflect Indigenous wisdom and adapting the tools to the needs of the community. What emerges is a discovery and restoration of Nature / Spirit wisdom that guides the healing and clinical application of TCM techniques. Interns receive instructions from TCM practitioners through hands-on clinic practice both on Navajo lands and the San Francisco Bay Area along with interim instructions on TCM and Indigenous knowledge via Zoom with Thuy and Robert.
NHP is now set to begin a 3rd group of interns beginning in the Spring of 2024 with all previous cohorts of interns continuing along-side.
The Future of NHP
We envision a traditional healing center on Navajo Lands that can serve the community through Native Medicine and TCM with trained Diné practitioners of TCM healing methods. We envision the practitioners and healing centers supporting and restoring Hózhó—strength, integrity and beauty—to the Diné community. Over time, we envision the adaptation of TCM to Navajo Lands in an empowering, and beautiful way that can support the health and integrity of the Diné Community. Let it be so.
