Ramah Navajo tribe social services Director Loretta Martinez says it's important to consider traditional views as well as modern ones. Photo: Marc Piscotty
Loretta Martinez is social services director for the Ramah Navajo tribe, two hours west of Albuquerque. In that role, she works within her own community, overseeing services for 4,000. Her responsibilities include financial, support staff, foster care, child welfare and meeting with stakeholders. While doing all that, she remembers her GSSW professors talking about how important it is to abide by ethical standards.
“They really pushed that on us.”
There are a variety of concerns in her community. For teens, it’s pregnancy and high school truancy. For adults, it’s lack of education, skills and employment coupled with transportation issues. The elderly need in-home care, but because the community is so remote, nursing services are limited. Martinez and her agency are available to help directly and provide referrals to other agencies.
She says it’s important to consider traditional views as well as modern ones, and Navajo tribal leaders suggest that service providers utilize the Dine’ Fundamental Law — a traditional, holistic approach to living — as a form of intervention.
“Some things I have learned coming from the Western view don’t work with Ramah because they have a different worldview,” Martinez says.