KAREN:  Today is March 15th, 2005, and this is Karen Brewster, here with Beverly Hugo.  And we're in Fairbanks, although Beverly is from Barrow.  And this is for the Community Health Aide Project. 

Beverly, thank you for agreeing to participate. 

BEVERLY:  Thank you.  I was born in Fairbanks.  I'm the daughter of Charlie and Mary Edwardsen.  And I -- there was 11 siblings.  I was born in Fairbanks but raised in Barrow. 

KAREN:  And when were you born? 

BEVERLY:  1953.  Along the Chena River.  And -- and I was raised in Barrow, and then I went to boarding school in Mount Edgecombe when I was 16.  And -- and that's where I met my future husband.  My present husband, Patrick Hugo, of Anaktuvuk Pass. 

We got married in '73.  And I moved to his village, Anaktuvuk Pass, in 1973. 

And then the following year, we had our oldest boy, Jeffrey (Native name) Hugo, and he was a pretty healthy boy, you know.  And it wasn't until he got sick, maybe he was about almost two years old, this is when I find out that what do these people do when they are sick in Anaktuvuk Pass. 

There was no electricity, there was a small 207 and a mail run once a week, and no phones, no -- pretty much, really, you know, Third World.  There was no running water.  There was no electricity.  There was no phones. 

That's when I -- when my boy got sick, I took it upon myself in order to be a good mother, and I had planned, you know, my intentions are to do mothering well, and then we have to find answers of how you can keep your child healthy and, you know, try and be a good mother.  You know. 

In Barrow, when you live in Barrow, you go to the hospital when you're sick.  But when you're sick out in Anaktuvuk Pass, I found out that, you know, they -- there wasn't much. 

And so I had to just recall what my mother would do when we were sick, you know.  I had a thermometer, check his temperature, and he had a fever and we would give him Bayer Aspirin, then.  And then -- but I had to make a decision then that in order to be a good mom, I have to find, you know, ways to keep my child healthy. 

So this was in June of '76, I became the alternate health aide.  And I was hired June of '76, then I went to training July of '76, and every 200 hours after field work, I went to training. 

My supervisor was Sonya Levitt from Barrow.  And she was an excellent supervisor.  She got me through training quite -- you know, I think I had Session 1, 2 and 3, like, within 18 months. 

KAREN:  Wow. 

BEVERLY:  And this is when I -- when I first got back from training, they gave me a black leather bag.  It had a blood pressure cuff, otoscope, and tongue blades, and thermometers, and a hemoglobinometer, and a reflex hammer.  Those were pretty much our basic tools and that's what I had to work with. 

But I found out that, you know, that's one thing, but there was no means of communication.  So I had to try to find a way of communicating. 
So at that time, the state operated -- the school was operated by the State of Alaska, and they had a ham radio in the school, and that's when I started to use it. 

And took to -- you know, when somebody became ill or there was an accident, I would go and crank up that ham radio.  It was kind of like hand powered, you know, but that's all we had.  So it used to work out. 

And many times different people from all over the world would, you know, come to our -- they would contact Tanana Hospital.  That's where we went, then.  Anaktuvuk Pass folks went to Tanana Hospital, you know, since '76 through, I believe, 1980, we would go to Tanana Hospital for our care.