Somehow this story got wrapped up in my mind with a recent This American Life story here that detailed how a Native American tribe in California is slowly kicking out many of its members based on lots of bureaucratic red tape. It was an interesting juxtaposition, and I think added some life to a fantasy story that was otherwise lacking somehow.
I also felt a strong connection between that episode and this story. Maybe that's one reason why I liked this story more? But--oh for a dimensional viewer where we could check this experimentally--I think I still would've liked this story even without that TAL.
I'll admit that, in general, I enjoy the concept of modernizing the mythical; but whereas in many of those stories, the premise comes out as either "damn this modern red tape" or "look at how primitive our myths are," I felt this story hit a very pleasant third-way. That is, the drift boat may be easier to handle than the cedar canoe (point to modernity), but there are still past medicines to help the elder's back. So we can have medicine rituals while also using lists (not traditional) or mugs that say "World's Best Elder."
Now, just from the title alone we can pretty much tell that this isn't going to be a big event piece. Our medicine woman isn't about to save the sun from one of Coyote's crack-brained plan. This story is going to be quieter, smaller--no one lives or dies depending on the medicine woman's actions, only people's lives get better or worse, often in very small ways. But I'm fine with that: a piece that focuses on themes of modernity and tradition at least has that focus.
So far, this might be my favorite story this week (of catching up with podcasts).