Wow! eBook
Meeting the Medicine Men: An Englishman's Travels Among the Navajo
Author(s): Charles Langley (Author)
- Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
- Publication Date: 10 July 2008
- Language: English
- Print length: 272 pages
- ISBN-10: 1857885074
- ISBN-13: 9781857885071
Book Description
In this fascinating real-life adventure, a chance meeting with a young Navajo Indian propels an English traveler out of his middle-class London life and into the world of North American Indian Medicine Men. Here, people firmly believe that witchcraft can bring ruin, even death, and only Medicine Men have the knowledge to do battle with evil, lift curses and restore the sick to health. Blue Horse is one of a dwindling band of Medicine Men traveling the vast Navajo nation of New Mexico and Arizona. Charles Langley, a former London newspaper executive, becomes his “bag carrier” and chauffeur and eventually his trainee. He sees the Medicine Man perform feats: foretelling the future, uncovering the hidden past and communicating with spirits. Vowing not to leave his brains at the teepee door, Langley studies the accumulating evidence that Medicine Men really can cure the sick, change events of long ago and influence the future. Across the breathtaking Southwest landscape and along the fabled Route 66, he meets startling characters and gains rare access into ancient healing traditions.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Langley penetrates the Indian reservations of New Mexico and Arizona to investigate the mythic power of the Navajo medicine men, taking part in traditional healing ceremonies and rituals. Travel writing with an MBS twist. –The Bookseller, 4 April 2008
Langley’s book is an almost perfect blend of memoir, Navajo culture and travelogue. The Tuscon Citizen –The Tuscon Citizen
About the Author
Charles Langley has spent a large part of the last three years living among the Navajo Indians on their reservation in New Mexico and Arizona, studying traditional healing ceremonies and rituals. Now a student of anthropology at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, Langley is a former night news editor of the Evening Standard newspaper in London.
