Stella Krumrey,
Transcript Section 6

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KAREN: I know that in Kodiak, there's been a long, strong history of traditional healing and medicines.

STELLA: Uh-hum.

KAREN: Can you talk a little bit about the connection of that and the health aide program.

STELLA: Actually, there isn't really a -- growing up, you know, we had traditional healers.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: I -- we didn't have health aides. Where I grew up in Kaguyak, we didn't have any health aides at all. So we had just a traditional healer --

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: -- that used to take care of us. And she used a lot of herbs, you know, from out the ground, wherever she could find --

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: -- is what she used. I remember growing up, her taking care of me.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: When I was sick with fever or sore throat or, you know, stomachache, things like that.

KAREN: Uh-hum. And --

STELLA: Cuts and sores.

KAREN: Was she also a midwife?

STELLA: Yes. Uh-hum. She was, but then people -- where I grew up, there was a little village, so people would come to Old Harbor to midwives that were really trained as midwives, just the midwives.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: So that's why they went to Old Harbor to deliver. Like my mom, for instance, went to Old Harbor to have me.

KAREN: Uh-hum. And who -- who was the -- what was the name of the healer you were just talking about who helped you when you were a kid?

STELLA: Oh, Julie. We called her Julianna but her name was Julianna Ashouwak.

KAREN: How do you spell Ashouwak?

STELLA: A-S-H-O-U-W-A-K.

KAREN: Okay.

STELLA: And she died in early 80s, I think, or sometime.

KAREN: Uh-hum. And with that --

STELLA: Or her 70s.

KAREN: -- with that history of people using traditional healers and midwives, and then this new system of Western medicine coming in, have people -- were people accepting of this new system and going to community health aides, or was that a difficult transition?

STELLA: No, because during the time we had traditional healers, we had teachers that came in and also would, like, give, you know, immunizations or shots or things that -- that -- and if someone got hurt or broke -- I mean, they always went to the teacher. So that was -- I don't think it was a difficult transition.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: Because they already had some -- someone that knew what they were doing.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: Old Harbor didn't really have a healer, a traditional healer.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: So people from Old Harbor would come to Kaguyak to see Julianna. Uh-hum. I remember those times.

KAREN: Yeah.

STELLA: Uh-hum. People with -- that used to have -- say, that had heart problems would come and see her or high -- high -- it must have been like high blood pressure, probably. I'm not sure.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: But I was never really, you know, around her or watched her do things, but I knew that she --

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: I know that she took care of me when I had fever --

KAREN: Right.

STELLA: -- and when I had sore throat, and gave me some -- some things to drink that I don't even know what was in it, really.

KAREN: Right. Now, are there still traditional healers and midwives practicing in villages?

STELLA: No.

KAREN: No? It's all community health aides?

STELLA: It's all community health aides now. Uh-hum. Growing up knowing, you know, we had -- Old Harbor had quite a few midwives.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: In fact, I had one of my -- one of my -- my second child was born in Old Harbor with a -- by a midwife.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: She was. Uh-hum.

KAREN: And who was -- who was that?

STELLA: Actually, there was two of them, and they are both gone now.

KAREN: Yeah.

STELLA: Irene Shugak and Irene Kapchon, one of my midwifes. Along with your -- with their assistants, they had other, you know, people -- other women that were practicing, so, you know, they let them come and watch.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: And so we had -- up until Lucy Shugak moved out, we had, you know, midwives, but after -- after she moved, we -- nobody is practicing anymore.

KAREN: Nobody's taking up that --