Dr. Bill James, Part 1, Transcript Section 5

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Dr. Bill James, Part 1
Transcript Section 5

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DR. JAMES: Congress passed the Indian Self-Determination Act, which gave Native tribes or organizations the right to contract with the government to provide any services that the government was doing. So the Tanana Chiefs contracted to provide the health care. And named the clinic the Chief Andrew Isaac clinic.

KAREN: That's interesting. I didn't know about the Indian Self-Determination Act. I always thought it had to do with the Native Claims Settlement Act.

DR. JAMES: With what?

KAREN: With the Native Claims Settlement Act. I -- that's why --

DR. JAMES: No.

KAREN: I'd never heard of the Native Self-Determination Act. That's interesting.

DR. JAMES: So a lot of the BIA work was contracted by the Native groups. And the health care. A lot of the social service type things.

KAREN: So what is it about private practice that you didn't like?

DR. JAMES: Oh, it's not so much that I didn't like private practice. It was that I enjoyed the Indian Health Service more. I enjoyed being in private practice. It's just that I enjoyed working in the Indian Health Service more.

KAREN: I guess so what -- what did you like about the Indian Health Service?

DR. JAMES: I guess the people and the travel and so forth.

So I rejoined the Public Health Service in 1973, and then the day school was out in '76, we moved to Tanana, again, and we stayed there until the day before school started in '78, then we moved back.

If it hadn't been for the kids in school, we -- I probably would have stayed.

But when we went to Tanana, they pushed all our kids up a grade. And they were still behind what they were in Fairbanks. And then when we came back, they just went back into their regular grade again.

KAREN: So they did a couple rounds of the same grade?

DR. JAMES: Yeah. So like someone may have -- they just finished first, third, fifth, seventh, and ninth grade in Fairbanks. And so they went into the third, fifth --

KAREN: So they were extra good, they did it twice.

DR. JAMES: So they skipped a grade and they repeated a grade when they came back.

KAREN: That's funny.

DR. JAMES: But we just rented out our house, so they came back to the same school and same classmates and everything.

KAREN: That's good.

DR. JAMES: My kids -- my daughter didn't -- my daughter was a good student and she was high school then. She would have been in tenth grade, I guess. And there were a couple kids that were good students in Tanana, but most of them she felt were goof-offs and weren't there to learn anything, and she was very glad to get back to high school here at Lathrop.

KAREN: And then did your wife work, as well, in Tanana?

DR. JAMES: No. She took care of the kids. That's -- you know.

KAREN: Six kids are a full-time job.

DR. JAMES: That's a big job.

KAREN: Yeah. Definitely. It's interesting that she really -- she preferred Tanana over Fairbanks.

DR. JAMES: My first wife was from Fort Yukon.

KAREN: Okay.

DR. JAMES: She was a Native gal. I met her. She worked for Wien. And so we got married in Tanana and she knew village life. But my other kids very much enjoyed Tanana.

KAREN: Yeah. I think -- I don't know about nowadays, but in some ways, the villages are really good places for kids, in some ways. In some ways not. That's for sure.

DR. JAMES: I remember all my kids were good swimmers. I remember one day this woman came running in the hospital, Dr. James, Dr. James, your kids are out in the river, they are going to drown.

And what they would do, they would go clear up a mile or two upriver and push driftwood and stuff into the river, and we had a little raft, and they will just hang on to the driftwood and float past town and swim in, the downriver end of town. And I guess it was dangerous but I was never worried about it.

We had three little Skidoos while we were there. And my youngest kid couldn't -- they were all pull starts, and I guess he was in second grade that winter, and couldn't start it.

And he would ride down to the store or something or ride around to a friend's house, and when it was time to come home, he would wait until someone came by and they would start it for him, and then he would drive it home.

We had a little pickup. My boy was in ninth grade, he'd drive it all around. And you know, 14 years old or so.