American Indian Culture and Research Journal

In September 1999, Martha Manuel Chacon and Pauline Ormego Murillo, two tribal elders from the San Manuel Reservation located near Highland, California, spoke of their experiences with field nurses and doctors contracted by the Office of Indian Affairs. During the course of the conversation, the eighty-seven-year-old Chacon reached into her purse and produced an old photograph from the 1930s depicting images of herself, Dr. John Evans, and field nurse Mabel Cowser. Chacon explained that the people of her tribe thought highly of both of these non-Native health care providers because of their concern for the good health of Native American children. Chacon agreed to talk at length about the relationship between the people at San Manuel and field nurses but at some future time. Unfortunately, shortly after this meeting, she became ill, was hospitalized, and ultimately died. Her remarks about the importance of Western nurses and doctors to the well-being of Indian children of the Mission Indian Agency left a lasting impression. On 30 March 2001, exactly a year after Chacon’s death, the people of San Manuel Reservation held a memorial service honoring Martha Chacon. During the course of that gathering, George Murillo shared that Dr. Evans brought Western medicine, or scientifically based medicine, to the people of San Manuel. Evans was devoted to good health and served the people from roughly 1902 until his death in 1943. When the people of the San Manuel Reservation learned of his death, they felt great sorrow and honored the good physician by assigning six young men from the reservation to serve as pall-bearers. Many Indians in Southern California held public-health doctors and field nurses in high esteem and never forgot their contribution to the health and well-being of Indian children. The work of the Office of Indian Affairs to improve children’s health developed slowly during the first two decades of the twentieth century and accelerated after 1924 with a national investigation into American Indian affairs.