CLARA:  So in 1970, PHS got one of the FAA buildings, Federal Aeronautics Administration buildings to use as a clinic.  And supplied it with a doctor and his wife.  His wife was his -- was his helper.  And I felt I wasn't needed and I -- I didn't go join them or anything.  And kept a little stuff I had at home with me. 

And pretty soon they got a letter from Bethel that I needed to be there and work with them.  So I moved all that stuff back to the clinic and started in 19 -- it was around July, I think, in 1970, started working at the clinic.  They called it the District Clinic.
 
And the doctor was there a couple years, and then they put another doctor there in one year, and then another doctor.  And by 1974, they had a paramedic there, too.  Over at the clinic.
 
When he was leaving, they took all the charts out, sent them to Bethel.  Pretty much closed it as a District Clinic to cover the 13 villages by Aniak. 
And there was an advanced health aide working with me, Nellie Joshua.  So she worked with me from early -- early '75 to about September '76, and left Aniak and left me alone there as a health aide there. 

Later on, they hired other health aides for me to work with or to work with me.  And so that went on for years. 

I picked up a lot from the doctors when they were there, stationed in Aniak.  We'd go out, and the flying services are out of Aniak, the planes used to come and taxi in front of the clinic, bringing patients in or picking me up to go out to a village. 

I flew to some villages in medevacs, pick a patient up, bring them to Aniak, check them there, call Bethel, and then fly them out to Bethel, the charter from Aniak, and then I called and let them know we're on our way down, have somebody, the ambulance come out to -- someone to get their patient.  Ask me a few questions, I tell them, and then I get back on the plane and fly home.  That was really convenient having the flying services in Aniak.  So that was pretty much that. 

And then in 1982, I pretty much had a health problem and got out of it for about 18 months.  And then they wanted me, asking me to go back as a supervisor instructor of health aides with the YKHC. 

So they said part time and -- and part time health aide to work with the new health aides that were for Aniak.  So I did that until -- part time for one year, and then in '83, became a full-time supervisor and got some villages.
 
After I got four villages to travel to, it was just getting harder to work with the health aides there, and not do my work with the supervising through communication with the villages, so all our kids were grown up and our youngest was, oh, about seven or eight years old. 

And so we had an extra room in the house and I asked them if I could use that for an office, had no distractions of little kids around and stuff.  So I did that. 

For 10 years I had an office at my house.  And then they built the Sub-Regional Clinic and made a place available for me there at the Sub-Regional Clinic for about 20 years.  We were trying, Billy and I and other people, to get Sub-Regional Clinic at Aniak, and it just kept falling through, just when things are going to get done. 

So finally they worked through YKHC and the village councils in the 13 villages it covers and we got that clinic. 

KAREN:  Does it cover the villages upriver and around the area? 

CLARA:  Aniak is the hub of these villages.  So I moved my office to the Sub-Regional Clinic. 

And when the clinic was done, they said, what are they going to name it, so they said, well, the best thing is to send out letters to the -- the village councils that the clinic covers.  And have them pick the name for the Sub-Regional Clinic.  And they came back with Clara Morgan Sub-Regional Clinic.  So everybody says you have your clinic.  Well... 

KAREN:  How did that make you feel, having it named after you?
 
CLARA:  It made me feel good.  Uh-hum.  That they appreciated all those years.  And it was good to -- being in the Sub-Regional Clinic, having my office there, because I saw the people that came in from the villages.  And got to know them pretty well travelling for 18 years as a supervisor instructor to the villages. 

And before that is when I was a health aide, problem shooting in villages, I'd go out with whoever came up from YKHC, I'd fly over to a village with them. 
If they had a problem with the council getting a health aide, I and a health aide would go out and help them and interview them and stuff.  So that worked good.