Culture, Community, and Communication:
An Interview with Nancy Bill
From Summer 1994Volume I, Number 2
Nancy Bill, IHS Injury Prevention Specialist for the Navajo Area, spoke with Building Bridges about how cultural considerations must be brought to bear on traffic safety programs if they are to be effective in Native American communities. Here are some excerpts from that interview.
There are over 100 different tribal groups. Each has different beliefs. The Navajo, for example, have strong cultural beliefs that will impact the success of a program. In Western society, you can tell people that if they don't use seat belts and are in a crash, they might be injured. In the Navajo way, if you saw something like that to people directly, it's like you are wishing that event on them. You have to be careful not to m ake any statement that directly points your finger at an individual or a group. We focus on positive outcomes--on people who were in a crash and survived because they were wearing seat belts.
One well-intentioned person wanted to put a vehicle that had been in a collision in front of a mall before graduation night. He wanted to use a vehicle in which someone was actually killed or injured. We had to explain to him that, in Navajo culture, this would be like putting the injured person on public display. It would be disrespectful. So we found a vehicle that had been in a crash in which the occupants survived--agian, focusing on the positive and showing that people walked away from this crash because of seat belts.
It is important to respect other peoples' cultures when you come to work in Native communities. Navajo culture is not aggressive. It involves a lot of non-verbal communication. People come to the reservation and do a lot of talking. If no one responds verbally, they think, "No one is listening. They don't care." They don't understand that this is part of the culture. People listen and observe. They don't immediately respond verbally. They articulate in a respectful manner. They don't use sarcasm. That's one thing we do have in common with other tribal groups.
Navajo culture is based on spirituality. We use traditional spiritual leaders to do blessings prior to any event we have. That is the Navajo way. It helps to show people that a program is truly for the Navajo.
[Nancy also addressed some of the jurisdictional complications that arise because of the differences between state and tribal laws.]
In some situations, Navajo Nation laws do not govern those who are not members of the tribe. For example, the Navajo police can't arrest an individual who is not a member of the tribe for violating a tribal DUI law. They must call the nearest highway patrol or sheriff's department and wait with the individual until the other public safety office arrives.
A tribal court cannot revoke a state driver's license. This is a big problem. We are working with the state on this.
Our safety restraint law is primary and the state's [Arizona's] is secondary. When a person who is not a member of the tribe is cited for not using a seat belt, they have the option of going to state court or tribal court. If they go to state court they may not be convicted because of the difference in the laws. And if they are convicted, they usually pay a smaller fine than they would under Navajo law.
It is important to have the tribal community involved in injury prevention programs. People who are not familiar with tribal culture and laws will develop a program that never gets off the ground. And they don't know why. But to a member of that tribe or someone familiar with that culture, the reason will be obvious.
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