‘T’áá íiyisíí Ahxéhee’’ : Inscription House’s Dr. Thomas retires after 36 years of service to Diné

TSÉ YAA’Á-TS’AHBIIKIN, Ariz. – Jim-Bob Black’s horse stepped in a badger hole and went over, falling on his ankle.

Jimmie Kee Black, Jim-Bob’s father, and a handful of others on the trail ride carried him out of the woods and took him to Dr. James E. Thomas Jr. at the Inscription House clinic.

Thomas, a new family doctor then, tended to Jim-Bob’s injury.
“Dr. Thomas was my son’s first doctor,” Jimmie said. “My son––I think he was one of the first patients (of Thomas).”

Thomas said he remembers Jim-Bob’s injury about 36 years ago. Thomas, who’s Nahiłii, retired from medicine on Aug. 31, 2023. The members of his community, Ts’ahbiikin, celebrated his retirement at the end of October. His relatives – the Diné he served – gifted him with two dootł’izhii yoo’, a bouquet of yellow roses, and a book (“Native Roads” by Fran Kosik), among other small gifts.

“I don’t think we’ve given Dr. Thomas a name yet, but we did a lot of good things together,” Jimmie said. “We’ve had Dr. Thomas for a long time. Thank you for being among the Navajo people, the Hopi, and in different areas around this area.”

Arriving in Diné Bikéyah

Dr. James Thomas, aka Chip, came to the Navajo Nation shortly after finishing medical school (Meharry Medical College’s School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee). He graduated with honors in 1983.

Thomas, a Raleigh, North Carolina, native, moved to the Nation in 1987 to fulfill a four-year obligation to work in a health shortage area for medical school. That year, he altered a sign that read “Welcome to Pepsi Country” to “Welcome to Diabetes Country” to draw attention to the diabetes epidemic in the Navajo Nation. Because of the people and appreciation for Diné culture, he stayed.

Thomas isn’t only a family physician. He’s also a photographer and muralist who goes by “Jetsonorama” in the art world. Living in the Navajo Nation, he was interested in documenting the lives of Diné.

Photographer Eugene Richards in 1991 encouraged him to take advantage of his location and tell human interest stories about the Diné, whose voices weren’t quite heard in the mainstream media.

John Laughter from Shą́ą́’tóhí, Arizona, said one day he noticed Thomas and a Diné man petitioning health officials for a clinic in the Inscription House area. Laughter doesn’t remember what year that was.

“I didn’t know (Thomas) was a doctor,” Laughter said. “After that, I found out he was a doctor. He was a young guy back then. That’s how I got to know him.”

Cross Roads, Arizona, resident Lena Manheimer, 76, the former Ts’ahbiikin Chapter president and a former Navajo Nation Council delegate (when it had 88 members), said people around Western Navajo know Thomas.

“He’s one of us,” Manheimer said. “I always call him my son, and (Dr. Ben Henderson, who also served the people at the Ts’ahbiikin clinic). We’re used to him, Dr. Thomas. He’s the doctor we look to. We’re sure going to miss him.”

Manheimer remembers Thomas’ dreadlocks when he moved here. People would touch his hair. She said she didn’t get to touch his hair, but she knows people who did.
“We all watched,” Manheimer said and laughed.

Thomas shared a photo with his retirement party organizers an image of Naatsis’áán, Utah, elders Anna Yazzie Graymountain and Sue Fatt touching his hair at the Navajo Mountain satellite clinic when the Inscription House Health Center team would give medical care to patients there. Thomas said IHHC doesn’t do that anymore.

Taking care of people

Local Freddie Hunt Jr. said he’s thankful for Dr. James Thomas, who’s taken care of him and his family.

“It’s been a pleasure,” Hunt said. “We’re very grateful for you––helping us and mending us back to health. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”

Jimmie Black added that it was a pleasure to have Thomas around the area, where he’s taken him on long trail rides around the Navajo National Monument.

“You’ll always be Dr. Thomas,” Black said. “We have a lot of respect for you because you’ve respect for our people here.”

Black and John Laughter honored and celebrated Thomas with a trail ride from the south windmill to Tsé Yaa’á, where Thomas’ retirement party took place on a chilly Saturday morning. Laughter said it was a different way of appreciating Thomas’s service to the Diné.

“He helped a lot of Navajos––a lot of Navajos in the surrounding area,” Laughter added.

Manheimer added, “He took care of us. Whenever we were in pain, he fixed us. And thank you so much. You healed us. T’áá íiyisíí Ahxéhee’.”

Many of his former colleagues, former patients, and friends like Jacqueline Yazzie (who worked with Thomas at the Ts’ahbiikin clinic), Ella Ruth, 95, of Shonto, and Gina Blake, respectively, attended the party.

“You’ve been a blessing to the community, and I thank you for that on behalf of the (Paul) Begay and the Blake families,” Gina Blake said.

“We wish you a good retirement,” Yazzie said.

Thomas, who said his first clan is Dibé Łizhiní, is now living in Kinłání-Dook’o’oosłííd – not far from Ts’ahbiikin, his “home.” Thomas has a son, Jamaal Thomas, who graduated from Page High in 2015.

“Ahxéhee’,” Thomas said.

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