Martina Lauterbach, Transcript Section 1

Community Health Aide Program Project Jukebox

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KAREN: -- introduction, that this is Karen Brewster and today is November 9th, 2005, and I'm here in Anchorage with Martina Lauterbach -- is that how you say it?

MARTINA: Uh-hum (affirmative).

KAREN: Okay. -- for the Community Health Aides Project Jukebox. And we're here in the offices. Why don't you tell me the offices here.

MARTINA: Department of Community Health Services.

KAREN: And it's for the Tribal Health Consortium? Is that what you're part of?

MARTINA: Yes, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

KAREN: Well, great. Well, thank you for being interested in this project and willing to be interviewed.

MARTINA: Uh-hum (affirmative).

KAREN: Why don't you start by telling me a little bit about you and when and where you were born, where you're from, a little bit about your background.

MARTINA: Okay. My name's Martina Lauterbach. My maiden name is Redfox.

I was born in Kwiguk, Alaska, which is like two miles from Emmonak, upriver from Emmonak. And I've lived in Emmonak, or I lived in Emmonak most of my life until I left for high school and college. And I went to Chemuit, Oregon, for high school. Graduated in '69 from high school, and went home.

And I had plans on, you know, going into LPN, you know, training after I graduated from high school, but that was not possible, so I got into being a health aide when the Emmonak Village Council asked if I was interested. And that's how I got into that, into being a health aide in my village for three years, from 1969 to 1972.

And I went to the Bachelor of Science Nursing Program at Alaska Methodist University, now Alaska Pacific University. And that's, I guess, my history.

KAREN: And when did you go to the nursing program? That was after you were a health aide?

MARTINA: After I was a health aide. I was a health aide for three years, from '69 to '72. And then I went to the nursing program from '72 to 1976.

KAREN: Okay. And so were you the first health aide in Emmonak?

MARTINA: No, I wasn't. There was several, you know, before myself. And I guess you know about Axel and Pearlie Johnson.

KAREN: I've heard of them.

MARTINA: Yes. They were the health -- medical aides, I guess they used to call them. I'm not sure exactly. But I think they were called medical aides at the time. And then after them, there was Ursula Kizofnikof that used to be a health aide before myself.

And then there was two other that I can remember. Russell Lamonte and Ambrose Shirley were the two that I worked with when I started as a health aide.

KAREN: Uh-hum. Yeah, because the Health Aide Program officially started in 1968.

MARTINA: Uh-hum (affirmative).

KAREN: So that's why I was wondering. But it looks like maybe a lot of them worked before they got paid?

MARTINA: Yes. Axel and Pearlie, I think, were never paid, and Ursula might not have been paid also. I mean, if she got paid, it might have been from the village.

KAREN: Yeah.

MARTINA: And it was not very much.

KAREN: No.

MARTINA: Russell and Ambrose Shirley, when I came on, you know, were getting a little bit of money.

KAREN: Yeah.

MARTINA: And the -- I think it was the village that was paying us at the time and we were getting -- well, I was getting, like, 150 a month.

KAREN: Oh, my gosh.

MARTINA: And that was for -- until I went into, you know, training, then my pay did go up a little bit.

And then by the time I was done working as a health aide, I was getting, like, 500 a month, I think, from Alaska Village. No -- Alaska Village Council -- no, what is it?

KAREN: AVCP.

MARTINA: AVCP, Association of Village Council Presidents in Bethel.

KAREN: So --

MARTINA: Yes.

KAREN: -- Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation didn't exist yet?

MARTINA: No. I think it started probably about the time that I started working as a health aide. Because I wasn't even aware there was a YKHC, you know, at the time.

KAREN: Yeah.

MARTINA: And I think I -- who did I hear it from. Robert Wainwright was -- you know, I think I heard it from him.

KAREN: -- yeah.

MARTINA: And then there was Phillip Nice that, you know, came, my -- probably in '72, somewhere in that area, you know, he came into the village and, you know, he mentioned, you know, the YKHC. And that's when we were training.

You know, we had like -- our first phase of training was, like, two weeks in Bethel. And then we went to our second phase of health aide training, and it was here in Anchorage. And that would be, like, for three weeks.

And then the third phase of training was in Bethel for two weeks. And then our last training, Phase 4, was here in Anchorage for three weeks.

And that was enough then. And I think they have -- I'm not sure what their program is right now.

KAREN: Uh-hum. Now, was that training you did all at the beginning or you did -- that was throughout a year or?

MARTINA: Yeah, that was in the beginning. That was, I think, in two years of me working as a health aide is when I got all my trainings.

KAREN: Uh-hum.