Words, Wounds, Chasms: Native American Health Care Encounters

Nancy Lande highlights how powers of Western colonial privilege, social status, and use of Standard English often control communications in what can be life and death situations for Native Americans at health care facilities on Montana reserva- tions. By exploring verbal and nonverbal sociolinguistic disparities and cultural differences through personal narratives, the objectifying discourse of Western biomedicine often devalues Native American patients. It is critical to note that even the best efforts of doctor-patient communications are most often ineffective in marginalized settings such as reservations. Health communications must be dramatically changed in order for cultural and linguistic divides to be more clearly defined and bridged, thus allowing for respectful and effective care.WORDS, WOUNDS, CHASMS sounds an alarm that current health communications often collide between doctors and Native American patients.This work is applicable to the general crisis that medicine is facing in its trials to communicate with patients of all cultures.