Chapter Five, Rez Dogs and Crow Dreams Summary and Analysis

Chapter five opens with accounts of patient histories. Alvord always found these descriptions dehumanizing and unharmonious. Further, many of the maladies she encountered were due to alcohol, something Native Americans, particularly men, were especially vulnerable towards. Gallup had fifty bars for fifty thousand people and drunk driving arrests exceeding ten thousand a year. Sometimes Alvord saw alcohol as a 'lubricant of domination' that allowed Europeans to dominate non-Europeans. The leading cause of death among the Navajo was motor vehicle accidents. Alvord recounted some cases of alcohol-related incidents. Even Alvord's father had an alcohol problem and she came to see it as a disease.

Robert Cupp, Alvord's father, was by any account an extraordinary human being; he knew everyone, every animal and every geographical location in the area. He understood...