Unbroken Spirit: My Life before and after Quadriplegia, 2nd Edition, Revised and Expanded

In 1957, Gilbert John was born to the Navajo People in Gallup, New Mexico. He was named in Navajo Hashke' Yitaaswod -- He ran amongst the warriors. While his family scratched out a living from the arid land, Gilbert struggled to find his own identity. Between the ancient traditions of his grandfather and the unfamiliar standards of boarding school teachers, Gilbert's youth encompassed extremes of freedom, responsibility and constraint that are far beyond the experience of the typical American child then or now. His youth straddled not only two cultures but two eras, for modernization came late to the Navajo reservation. His energy was boundless, his thirst for freedom tempered by devotion to family and a determination to succeed. By age 17, Gilbert had been a top school athlete, gutsy rodeo competitor, self-employed silversmith and manager for the family jewelry business. He was on his way to graduating high school at the top of his class. Then a tragic accident left Gilbert a quadriplegic and changed the course of his life. But it did not crush his will or change the fact that he was a young man coming of age during turbulent times, seeking meaning and purpose. Gilbert would go on to earn his high school diploma and then his bachelor's degree, to create art, to travel, to live independently in a pre-ADA world, and ultimately to become a powerful advocate and role model for people with disabilities on and off the reservation. He has accomplished all of this through many setbacks, frequent hospitalizations, pain, despair, frustration and boredom. Gilbert wrote and published his story despite cultural taboos against such public revelations, because when he needed a story about someone like himself, a Native American who had a spinal cord injury like his, he found none. Now there is one. It is a story of many heroes, a few villains, and a singular personality. Meet Hashke' Yitaaswod -- He ran amongst the warriors.

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