An immersive reading of excerpts from the short story ‘Iron Routine’ by Zitkála-Šá with reflection on healthcare disparities, authority and antagonists.
Excerpts
‘Iron Routine’ by Zitkála-Šá
A paleface woman, with a yellow-covered roll book open on her arm and a gnawed pencil in her hand, appeared at the door. Her small, tired face was coldly lighted with a pair of large gray eyes.
She stood still in a halo of authority, while over the rim of her spectacles her eyes pried nervously about the room. Having glanced at her long list of names and called out the first one, she tossed up her chin and peered through the crystals of her spectacles to make sure of the answer "Here."
Relentlessly her pencil black-marked our daily records if we were not present to respond to our names, and no chum of ours had done it successfully for us. No matter if a dull headache or the painful cough of slow consumption had delayed the absentee, there was only time enough to mark the tardiness. It was next to impossible to leave the iron routine after the civilizing machine had once begun its day's buzzing; and as it was inbred in me to suffer in silence rather than to appeal to the ears of one whose open eyes could not see my pain, I have many times trudged in the day's harness heavy-footed, like a dumb sick brute.
Once I lost a dear classmate. I remember well how she used to mope along at my side, until one morning she could not raise her head from her pillow. At her deathbed I stood weeping, as the paleface woman sat near her moistening the dry lips. Among the folds of the bedclothes I saw the open pages of the white man's Bible. The dying Indian girl talked disconnectedly of Jesus the Christ and the paleface who was cooling her swollen hands and feet.
I grew bitter, and censured the woman for cruel neglect of our physical ills. I despised the pencils that moved automatically, and the one teaspoon which dealt out, from a large bottle, healing to a row of variously ailing Indian children. I blamed the hard-working, well-meaning, ignorant woman who was inculcating in our hearts her superstitious ideas.
Reference
American Indian Stories: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10376
Thierry J, Brenneman G, Rhoades E, Chilton L. History, law, and policy as a foundation for health care delivery for American Indian and Alaska native children. Pediatr Clin North Am. 2009 Dec;56(6):1539-59.
Rhoades ER, Rhoades DA. The public health foundation of health services for American Indians & Alaska Natives. Am J Public Health. 2014 Jun;104 Suppl 3(Suppl 3):S278-85. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301767. Epub 2014 Apr 23.
https://www.ihs.gov/newsroom/factsheets/disparities/ Accessed 1.17.22
Kovich H. Rural Matters - Coronavirus and the Navajo Nation. N Engl J Med. 2020 Jul 9;383(2):105-107. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2012114. Epub 2020 Apr 24.
