Martina Lauterbach, Transcript Section 8

Community Health Aide Program Project Jukebox

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KAREN: I'm just looking at some of my questions here to see what we've talked about and haven't talked about.

One thing I was thinking about is the -- if you've -- say something about how the community of Emmonak responded to having the Health Aide Program set up and how much it -- you know, was it traditional medicine going on before there were health aides, or would --

MARTINA: I think they've always used traditional medicine, I mean, even though there was health aides. And I think they still do nowadays.

And you know, they took it very well, you know, for having health aides. I mean, it was some -- you know, somebody that they respected. And you know, somebody that took care of them, you know, if they were needing medical help. And I mean, they still use traditional medicine.

KAREN: Did you ever incorporate any traditional medicine when you were a health aide?

MARTINA: No. I never did. I mean, you know, there's some herbs and that kind of stuff that, you know, I encouraged, you know, for them to use, but I didn't really know too much, I guess. Because I wasn't in the village very much when I was -- I, I guess, because you know, I went to Oregon for high school and I was gone for four winters, you know.

KAREN: Right. But it's interesting to note the combination of traditional.

MARTINA: Uh-hum (affirmative).

KAREN: So was there a traditional healer in town that people --

MARTINA: Not when I was growing up.

KAREN: When you were a health aide, were there?

MARTINA: No. Those were way older. I might have been an infant when they had one, you know, in the village, but you know, they were gone by the time I was grown up.

KAREN: Can you think of some of those herbs that you encouraged people to use?

MARTINA: Just Caiggluk, I guess you've heard of that, I'm sure.

KAREN: Yeah.

MARTINA: And then, you know, like for boils and stuff, they'd use the tobacco leaves.

KAREN: Oh?

MARTINA: You know, to draw out the -- you know, I guess the infection.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

MARTINA: I think that was pretty much.

KAREN: Is Caiggluk stinkweed in English, do you know?

MARTINA: I think so. We have to -- Caiggluk, it's from a certain type of tree or bush. And you know, you boil that. No, it's not even a bush. It's more like a plant, you know.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

MARTINA: And green. And, you know, you boil those or --

KAREN: You take the leaves?

MARTINA: Take the leaves and boil. And drink that. And they used that a lot for colds.

KAREN: Yeah.

MARTINA: Sore throats. And even for sores, you know, if they have open sores and that kind of stuff.

KAREN: What, they would make a --

MARTINA: Yeah.

KAREN: Like a --

MARTINA: Like a leaf. Yeah.

KAREN: Yeah, I think it might be stinkweed. Big leaf that's kind of -- I don't know how to describe it.

MARTINA: Yeah.

KAREN: Since we're not on video, I don't know how to do it.

I had something else I was just going to -- oh, I was going to ask you about tuberculosis. Were you having to deal with a lot of tuberculosis still?

MARTINA: No. Not that time period. Tuberculosis around my village or in my village was, like, from 1954 to '58 maybe. Yeah. And then, you know, it was a lot of the TB patients went to the, you know, hospitals, like here in Anchorage and Mt. Edgecumbe. And some went to Seattle --

KAREN: Right.

MARTINA: -- you know, for their TB.

KAREN: So that's what Pearlie and Axel were doing with TB?

MARTINA: Yeah. They would be the ones to ask -- or not Axel but Pearlie.

KAREN: Pearlie, yeah.

MARTINA: Pearlie would be the one to ask about the TB because she would know.

KAREN: She was the one at that time period.
MARTINA: Yeah, she was -- yeah, at that time period, yeah.

KAREN: Yeah. Because Walter Johnson has talked a lot about TB in the Delta region and treatment and all that.

MARTINA: I remember Walter Johnson, when I was little, I was maybe about five years old, he used to come to -- he came to Kwiguk for -- as a doctor at the time. And those doctors, you know, those older doctors and stuff, they were everything pretty much, dental, and they pull out teeth and stuff like that. And he was -- he pulled one of my tooth out. I remember.

And just kind of like when I was in nursing school or I had -- yeah, I think I was in nursing school when I ran into him at the Alaska Native Medical Center, he was in the emergency room, and I think he was doing health aides, teaching health aides at the time. And he recognized me, you know. And I was, you know, an adult at the time. I was kind of surprised.

He remembers a lot of people. I mean, you know, he's really -- he's got a good memory for faces and names.

KAREN: Yeah. And I know that Axel and Pearlie were very important to him.

MARTINA: Yeah.

KAREN: He spent a lot of time up in Emmonak.