Chapter Two, Walking the Path between Worlds Summary and Analysis

When the Navajo grow sick, they often wonder which local ritual or norm they broke. If they do not heal, the medicine man must help them. This image of life is not how Indians are presented in the Western media. Alvord and her sisters never thought the Indians had anything to do with them. As a child, Alvord often had to choose between playing with whites or Navajo. Her grandmother Grace understood the conflict, as one of her grandfathers was a medicine man and the other, Jesus Arviso, was a Spaniard translator adopted into the tribe. Grace's life contained many distinct cultural experiences. She married an Irishman and gave birth to Alvord's father, though later it was revealed that her paternal grandfather was a Navajo man.

Women have a...