Humboldt Historian editor’s note: The following story regarding Yurok doctors comes from the book To the American Indian, written by Lucy Thompson, Che-Na-Wah Weitch-Ah-Wah, in 1916. The work has been republished by Heyday Books of Berkeley and features all of the original reminiscences of the Yurok woman in addition to several new photographs.

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Women doctors are made and educated, which comes about in a very peculiar way. They are usually from the daughters of wealthy families. Most of them begin quite young, and often the doctors will take one of her daughters that she selects along with her and begin by teaching her to smoke and help her in her attendance on the sick, and at the right time will commence with her at the sweathouse, while others will have a dream that they are doctors, and then the word will be given out. And in either case along in the late fall all will be made ready, the day being set.

Lucy Thompson, circa 1916. Photo via the Library of Congress. Public domain.

The sweathouse (which is the white man’s name and does not have the same meaning in our language; we call it Ur-girk) being selected, they take her to it, dressed with a heavy skirt that comes down to her ankles and which is made of the inner bark of the maple, with her arms and breast bare. They all go into the sweathouse, there being from fifteen to twenty men and women in number, she having a brother or cousin, sometimes two, that look after her. All begin to sing songs that are used for the occasion, dance jumping up and down, going slowly around the fire and to the right. They keep this up until she is wet with perspiration, as wet as the water could make her, and when she gets so tired that she can stand up no longer, one of her brothers or cousins takes her on his back with her arms around his neck and keeps her going until she is completely exhausted. Then they take her out and into the house. There she is bathed in warm water and then allowed to sleep as long as she wishes, which revives her and gives her hack her strength. On awakening she appears rested and vigorous, with a Beautiful complexion. She can now eat her meal, such as is allowed her.

While she is training for a doctor she is not allowed to drink any water or eat any fresh salmon. All the water she gets is in the acorn mush or in the manzanita berry, pounded to a flour and then mixed with water, made into a sort of mush, and warmed. They are allowed to eat all other kinds of food. These dances are kept up at intervals all through the winter months until late in the spring, when they will take her far back on the high mountains and keep her there all through the summer, never allowing her to drink water, only as mixed with mush, nor eat any fresh salmon. In the fall they bring her back home to the river, when she will go through the same performance in the sweathouse.

Sometimes she will be from three to ten years before being ready for the final graduation exercises, when she will be taken back to some almost inaccessible place on a high peak or on a very high rock where they will smoke, pray and fast for from three to five days. While at this place none eat or drink, and on leaving it the pipes are left secreted so as to be found on the next visit. On this trip there will not be more than three or four with her, and always one of them is an old doctor so as to care for her, and on coming back, after they get down the hill part way to a suitable place, they make a stop and all eat and take a rest.

The young doctor bathes herself, loosens her hair and washes it, then dries it and combs it with a hone knife. These knives of deer horn, about the size of a table knife, have a hole bored through the handle and a string tied through it, and fastens around the wrist; and in carrying it the point of the blade is up and lays against the arm so that a person would hardly know that she carried it. This comb is beautifully carved and checkered with black stripes. She gently strokes the hair with it until it is dry; then she thrusts the point through it, close to the head, gently pressing the blade down through it. She keeps the comb in motion until the hair is perfectly straight and glossy, and then she parts the hair in the middle of the forehead; then takes strips of otter skin and ties it up, letting it hang down on each side of the head and in front of each shoulder.

This girl is a virgin, as perfect in stature and active in movement and health as God can make her. She can hear hardships and punishment without complaint or murmur that would make a bear whine. After all have rested they start for home, which will perhaps take them two or three days to reach, and all the time her health is looked after to see that she is in good spirits and does not become wearied. And on arriving home she is allowed to rest for two, three or four weeks, when all is made ready to give her the final degree, this time preparing one of the large living houses for the purpose by taking off a part of the roof and fixing it so that all can come and get a chance to see the whole performance. The time is set and word is sent all up and down the river, and at the appointed time they will be there, some coming for many miles to see and take part in giving the young doctor her final degree.

At sundown the fire is made in the center of the living room, and at the commencement of the hour of darkness she is brought in, goes through the door and down into the basement, takes her place, when the others that are to help her take their places, forming a circle around the fire, and all start singing in a low and monotonous voice, jumping up and down, the young doctor taking care of herself at first and taking instructions from the old doctor who sits close by but takes no part other than to instruct her. After keeping this up for two to four hours, the young doctor becomes very warm and fatigued, and they keep close watch of her until the time comes, when one of the men takes hold of her and holds her up and helps her to stand, still wearing her down, until two men take hold of her by each arm and in this way keep her dancing until she is helpless and so limp that she can no longer go on. Then they lay her up and out of the way, still keeping on with the ceremony until daylight in the morning, when all repair to their places to sleep for a few hours, then arise, go forth, bathe and eat and go back to their homes. The young doctor does not always go through this ordeal and come out safely, as sometimes she became so warm that she would never recover from the effects of the severe punishment, but this seldom happens.

After going through this, she is pronounced a doctor and can begin practicing her profession. She is now allowed to get married if she so desires, and the most of them do and raise large families and live to be very old. They wield a big influence among the tribe if they are successful as doctors, and some of them are very successful as doctors, while others are of the ordinary class. These women doctors are seers, as when they are called to doctor the sick, they claim to tell what is the cause of the sickness and what will cure it. They suck the body where the pain is located and sing in a sort of chanting way for a while, then suck the body again and keep this up for four or six hours. If it is a serious case there will be two doctors and sometimes three, and in this case they will not agree as to the cause; if the patient gets well, there will be one of them that gets the credit for the greater part of it and sometimes all of it.

When there is a case of sickness, the relatives of the sick one decide on the doctor, and the amount of money or other valuables, or all valuables just as they may; go to the doctor, and lay it before her, at which she will accept or refuse the offer. But if it is satisfactory she will prepare to go with them, and if it is rejected she will demand more; and sometimes she will call for some valuable relic which she knows the family has in their possession, sometimes an article that has in years gone by been in the doctor’s own family, and she will strive to get it back again. If the sick one should die while she is trying to get more, they will make her pay to them all that they have laid down to her, but if she accepts the money and goes and the patient dies, then they make her return all that was given to her. If there was two or three doctors, then they all have to return all that was given to them, and then they will debate among themselves as to which one of the doctors is the best.

Some of the doctors were very successful and hardly ever lost a patient, and accumulated great wealth, owning the best fishing places and large tracts of land where they could gather acorns, hazelnuts and grass seeds, besides many slaves. They were great talkers and always had a ready answer to every question, and were almost habitual smokers, using a large pipe and smoking often. They had a wonderful constitution.

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The story above was originally printed in the Winter 1994 issue of The Humboldt Historian, a journal of the Humboldt County Historical Society, and is reprinted here with permission. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues of The Humboldt Historian at this link.

The pandemic is over and we are moving on!

Even I can’t tell if I’m being sarcastic or serious, and like almost everyone I have mixed feelings about the last three years and what they portend for the future.

No more daily or weekly reminders about what we should be doing, what we should wear, how we should act, what we should take, who we should hang out with — FREEDOM! I’m ready, especially since my job involves being the person who tells you what to do. It’s not my natural temperament and really, you’d hope that most people are good and will make responsible choices.

She wears a cross, but you wouldn’t cross her! Pictured is the prototypical modern nurse — slightly world-weary, sexy as hell, endlessly bemused at the myriad variations on the theme of “being human” she encounters on the daily. Before this lady the nurses all dressed like nuns and slapped you with a ruler. Photo: Public domain, via the National Library of Medicine.  

And we have reason to still be hopeful for that. The pandemic made huge changes in our society - we are all a little different. While hindsight is 20/20, there are some clear needs for the next time we face a similar crisis: knowledge, credible information, critical thinking, no jumping to conclusions, and kindness.

If we keep looking at public health issues in the right way, and kindly bring the stragglers along, we’ll be much better prepared next time, right? RIGHT??? To my readers, keep up the excellent work.

With the end of the official COVID pandemic, this will be my last column on LoCO — for now. If things heat back up, information is hard to find, or some other virus rears it’s head, I’ll come back and politely remind you to wash your hands.

So for now, I want to leave you with a grab bag of resources to guide you as the official journey ends, and we each begin our own individual health adventures, ready or not.

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Numbers of COVID-19 vaccinations, cases, hospitalizations, and deaths that have been reported in the U.S. are available here for anyone who wants to keep up with the information. The map of the U.S. gives an idea of transmission rates in each state or region, and you can also use the tracker to see trends in your community. The community-level information is updated weekly, while other data is updated daily.

Prevent, prevent, prevent! Vaccines are still high on the list of preventative measures against COVID-19. Aside from that, avoiding people who are sick with a viral illness, improving ventilation and taking activities outside if possible while community transmission is high are all effective strategies to stay healthy. Try to keep your body strong by moving every day, eating right, staying hydrated, and getting plenty of sleep.

Because not everything that “happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” you may want to get tested for COVID if you start feeling “off.” If you are tired or have a sore throat, chest congestion, runny nose or fever, please stay home from work and get tested.

Where can you get tested? Now that the community testing that has been available for years has closed, there are some other options for testing that I was able to find (click here). Rapid tests are available through public health departments, or free tests can be mailed to you (click here).

If you do test positive, it is recommended that you get medical attention and consider a treatment option. Don’t use the emergency department unless you are having trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, new confusion, inability to stay awake or bluish lips or face. Know when to go.

If you do not have a provider you can use this service to see a provider and get prescribed appropriate treatment.

What is the appropriate treatment? The National Institutes of Health have a website with updated treatment guidelines; the FDA has some information here and the CDC have some information here.

Have we seen the last of COVID? Well, no, no we haven’t. Check the tracker for that info, but even if COVID was gone, pandemics happen, and we need to be prepared for the future. Emerging infectious diseases have been discovered over the last several years worldwide, including Ebola, Zika, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and Chikungunya, in addition to COVID-19. Being prepared means having the plans, resources, and capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to any infectious disease threats. What have people been saying about preparing for the next one?

• Strengthen the healthcare systems - infrastructure, supplies, workforce
• Technology - investing in research and development of tests and vaccines; streamlining regulatory processes; building manufacturing capacity; ensuring equitable access; encouraging international collaboration and cooperation
• Public awareness and education-providing accurate and timely information in culturally appropriate ways; encouraging behavior change; empowering communities; increasing access to mental health resources; investing in health literacy

Here is a reputable place to keep up with COVID news and information.

One last thing. Oh, I shouldn’t do it, but I’m gonna. What about those masks??? Some people heard that “masks don’t work.” I am leaving you with the resources to do what you want, but I do want people to know that after working in healthcare for over 40 years (yes, I was 16 when I started working in healthcare), a lot has happened in the world of personal protective equipment and recommendations for healthcare workers to protect themselves. Just know that if I see you in public, also wearing your mask, I’ll give you a big warm smize.

(Link, link, link.)

Take care of yourselves and each other. Wash your hands. Be safe!

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Michelle Lewis-Lusso (she/her) is an Infection Prevention and Control nurse at United Indian Health Services, serving the 11,000+ clients and staff at their seven area clinics. She will be wearing her mask and getting some exercise, and encourages you to do the same.

Mapuana Jessica Alyce Zuleger née Arioli peacefully passed away at the age of 94 at home with her family at her side on February 24, 2023.

She was born to Mary Madaline and Walter Peter Arioli in Honolulu Territory of Hawaii on January 6, 1929.

When she was 8 years old, Mapuana lived in Honolulu, Hawaii at Pearl Harbor. She remembers being at the Catholic cathedral when soldiers entered during mass. They went to the priest to tell him we were being bombed and everyone to go home for shelter. The whole family gathered at her grandfather’s house in the cellar with the men outside.

After attending the University of Hawaiii and St Luke’s School of Nursing, she was registered in the State of California, practicing for 41 years first in San Francisco and Oakland hospitals as a surgical nurse, then Blue Lake and McKinleyville as her husband’s nurse.

Mother and father meet in St Luke’s Hospital, where father was a doctor. After they married, they went into the Army, Third Armored Division, for two years. When my parents’ got out of the military, they came back to California to start a practice. In 1958, my father wanted to be a country doctor and Simpson Lumber Company in Korbel invited him up to work here. At the time there were only 24 doctors in this area with Trinity Hospital in Arcata. He was offered the moon and an office in Blue Lake. It worked. Their last two children were born here.

We saw a lot of work in those days. The mill was working 24/7. Dad did house calls and would take patients in to the hospital if they could not make it there themselves. She worked as his nurse and took care of five children. Many of the patients remember her for her patience and her beauty. Years later, several patients confessed they had fallen in love with her. She loved clothes and when she first came up here, she would wear dresses only. Her friend told her she could wear slacks like Jacqueline Kennedy.

In 1964, during the great flood, she stayed at the house with us while father was at the triage center. She had to deal with us and people knocking at the door.

In the 1970s, she decided to open a restaurant, Al Capone’s Pizzeria in Arcata, to keep even more busy. One customer would buy a loaf of bread every day to eat on the way to work.

She loved dark chocolate and would eat it every day if she could. On one of her birthdays, she got 200 pounds of Cherrie Royals from Partrick’s Candy and ate them all. She loved dogs and always had one.

She is survived by her much-loved children Peter and wife Diane, Mary, Jamie and Louise; and sister-in-law Lois Arioli and family of Shawnee, Kansas. She was predeceased by her husband, Doctor Rolf August Zuleger.

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HUMBOLDT TODAY: Aid worker Jeff Woodke is back in Humboldt after over six years in captivity in Northern Africa; a SoHum man is arrested on child sexual abuse charges; plus, your weekend events and weather in today’s newscast with John Kennedy O’Connor.

FURTHER READING:

• ‘I Was Treated Brutally’: McKinleyville’s Jeff Woodke Speaks Publicly For the First Time Since His Release From Six and a Half Years as a Hostage in Africa
• Huffman Announces $10 Million in Federal Funds for SoHum Fire Prevention Efforts
• BUZZIN’ THE 36: Swains Flat Will be Choppered By PG&E Today, as the Utility Surveys Storm Damage
• CONVERSATIONS: How’s That Barge Coming Along? Eureka City Manager Miles Slattery on Downtown Development, the Dismantling of the Lloyd Building and, Yes, the State of the Dorm Barge
• Man Who Shot at Cops During Crazy Police Chase Around Eureka Pleads Guilty to Attempted Murder, Takes 43-Year Sentence
• Briceland Man Arrested Today on Charges on Producing Child Pornography, Sexual Assault on Child Under 10

HUMBOLDT TODAY can be viewed on LoCO’s homepage each night starting at 6 p.m.

Want to LISTEN to HUMBOLDT TODAY? Subscribe to the podcast version here.

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Six years, five months, five days and 12 hours.

That’s how long McKinleyville resident, missionary and aid worker Jeffery Woodke was held captive in Africa after being abducted by militants in Niger in October 2016.

He recited that length of time aloud more than once Friday afternoon as he addressed a roomful of reporters inside Arcata First Baptist Church, making his first public comments since being released from captivity on March 20. 

Wearing an orthopedic boot on his right leg and a knee brace on his left, Woodke walked to the lectern with a cane and a pronounced limp. Standing beside his wife, Els, he thanked God, his family and friends and the United States government for their labors to secure his release.

“My wife and a network of friends and organizations including Crisis Consulting International, this church and YWAM, Youth With A Mission, worked tirelessly for six and a half years to bring me home,” he said.

He identified the group that held him as Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), an extremist organization that the Center for Strategic and International Studies describes as a coalition of Salafi-jihadist insurgent groups operating in the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa.

He declined to answer a question about why they took him hostage and why they finally let him go, saying he didn’t want to compromise an ongoing investigation.

“I was treated brutally and with inhumanity during my captivity,” he said. “I was beaten and held continually in chains for 16 hours a day, every day. I was kept in isolation. I suffered injuries and illness which were never medically treated.”

Woodke said his left knee is “blown out” and his right achilles tendon was injured by a blow from a rifle butt. He now suffers from chronic gastro-intestinal problems for which he might have to undergo surgery, and while he’s not sure what caused the stomach issues, he speculated that they’re likely related to the meager diet he was fed, which consisted mostly of unfiltered water, boiled rice and a sand-baked flatbread called taguella. 

Though he declined to describe the details of the mental coping mechanisms he employed to endure his captivity, Woodke said he finally lost hope after the fifth year and embarked on a hunger strike in hopes of improving his treatment and being allowed to speak to his wife and his country.

Seven hostages remain in captivity in the Sahel region, including a German priest, citizens of Romania, Australia and South Africa and an Italian family. Woodke said one of the things he’d like to do now that he’s free is to help secure their release.

“For now, I will limit the information I share and continue to cooperate with authorities to bring these monsters to justice and to help get the other people out — because they’re in hell,” Woodke said.

Asked if she’d ever given up hope, Els Woodke said that she did not.

“I remember when it first happened, I cried out to God, ‘I want my husband home!’ and He did not say ‘no,’” she recalled. “And I believe that God never changed his mind … . He did not say ‘no’ six and a half years ago. He did not say ‘no’ every day, so I kept my faith that Jeff would be home. I lived every day in the faith that he would come home.”

Woodke said he had heard about the pandemic but didn’t know whether his family was alive or da.

Each day since then he’s been noticing little things that are different from the last time he was here. Some of those things are within himself.

“Crowds are a bit difficult for me to handle,” he said, and as an example he described an incident that occurred last week when he and his family visited Pier 39 in San Francisco. “We were sitting there and a child popped a balloon,” he said. “Well, I freaked out.” 

He said he doesn’t have any trouble relating to people one-on-one, though men with big beards freak him out a little bit.

Through it all, Woodke said his family, including his wife, two sons and grandchildren, never stopped working to get him home. “And now it’s time to learn how to be a family again,” he said. “And that’s the journey. We’re on it.”

You can watch video of the full press conference below.

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CORRECTION: This post originally misquoted Woodke regarding how much he’d heard about the COVID-19 pandemic. The Outpost regrets the error.

Press release from the office of Rep. Jared Huffman:

Today, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) shared the news that The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded $8,602,883 in funds to three projects in California’s Second District through the department’s Community Wildfire Defense Grant program. Rep. Huffman helped secure these funds for his district through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Rep. Jared Huffman. 

“We are undeniably in a climate crisis – and one of the starkest impacts for folks on the North Coast are the drought-fueled wildfire seasons that have devastated the region year over year. This crisis isn’t going away, so we need to work to get resources out the door to make our communities more resilient for what’s ahead,” said Rep. Huffman. “Thanks to the hard-fought funding Democrats were able to include in the Infrastructure Law, we’re seeing critical investments in wildfire defense and resilience. I’m glad to see some of this funding going to such great projects in my district that will ensure our communities, especially low-income and tribal ones, have the tools they need to protect our region.”

Project Details:

• Briceland Volunteer Fire Department, Fire Hazard Reduction Project: $205,251 to create a Fire Hazard Reduction Crew, to conduct roadside clearance and improve fuel breaks along otherwise unmaintained roads, creating safer routes for emergency response and evacuation and reducing the chance of roadside ignitions.

• Mattole Restoration Council, Prosper Ridge Community Wildfire Resilience Project: $2,175,132 to continue work on private lands that connect to the treatment success on the public lands of northern King Range National Conservation Area. Treatments include roadside fuels reduction for safe ingress and egress, grassland restoration, forest health treatments, prescribed fire and cultural burns. The 450 acres of land on private properties include newly acquired Bear River Band ancestral properties, ranch lands, and rural residential homesteads.

• Resort Improvement District No.1, Shelter Cove Wildfire Resiliency & Community Defense Project: $6,222,500 to provide outreach, coordination & Inspections services and conduct 1,211 acres of Hazardous fuels reduction work over a 5-year period. This project is designed to protect life and property in Shelter Cove by implementing priority actions identified in the 2019 Humboldt County CWPP to reduce wildfire risk, create a fire resilient community, and restore healthy landscapes.

“We have all the ingredients for a major wildfire disaster here in Shelter Cove, but by far the most threatening hazard we face is the large amount of overgrown private parcels adjacent to homes,” said Nick Pape, Shelter Cove Fire Chief. “This funding is a game changer allowing us to create defensible space around every home in the community giving our firefighters the best chance to defend homes!”

“This project will build upon the success of nine years of grassland restoration in the King Range National Conservation Area but will focus on the safety of residents. Lack of periodic fire, both wild and prescribed, have created dense young thickets of encroached Douglas-fir into historic grasslands and a buildup of fuels within forests and residential areas. We are excited to continue treatments that will not only protect our residents but help to build resilience in our grasslands and forests and thereby decrease the risks from wildfire and drought,” said Ali Freedlund, Interim Executive Director of the Mattole Restoration Council.

“The Briceland Volunteer Fire Department covers 40 square miles of densely forested and rugged terrain, with many residents living several miles away from county-maintained roads. Thanks to a generous grant from the USDA, we will be constructing around six miles of shaded fuel break along critical access roads, providing improved emergency access and evacuation routes for hundreds of rural residents. Together with other wildfire defense projects in adjacent districts, we hope to greatly reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire in southern Humboldt County,” said Briceland Volunteer Fire Department Public Information Officer Camilo Stevenson.

Funded by President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Community Wildfire Defense Grant program helps communities, tribes, non-profit organizations, state forestry agencies and Alaska Native corporations plan for and mitigate wildfire risks as the nation faces an ongoing wildfire crisis. USDA’s Forest Service worked with states and tribes through an interagency workgroup to develop the Community Wildfire Defense Grant program, originally announced in June of 2022. Grant proposals underwent a competitive selection process that included review panels made up of state forestry agencies and tribal representatives.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Mattole Road Closed Just West of Weott for the Foreseeable Future Due to Storm Damage

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Press release from California State Parks:

Newly resurfaced Mattole Rd. in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Photo: California State Parks.

California State Parks will reopen the Mattole Road in Humboldt Redwoods State Park on Friday March 31st, at 4pm. A half-mile section of the road had been closed due to a landslide that occurred on January 17th. The closure was located 1.5 miles west of the juncture with Highway 101. Mattole Road runs west from the highway at the confluence of the south fork and main stem of the Eel River, then traverses through Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

California State Parks has been monitoring the slide and its impacts to the road as well as the surrounding landscape. The landslide was roughly 90 acres and extended north of Bull Creek to the top of the adjacent ridge. Multiple old-growth redwood trees toppled as a result of ground subsidence. The road was impassable due to large fissures and buckling of the asphalt.

Over the last several weeks, geoengineers have bored holes deep beneath the road surface and have employed inclinometers to assess the underlying geology. During that period the road has not moved appreciably. Parks will continue to monitor the road and will close it again if warranted.

The area where the road had been impacted is now resurfaced with gravel. Drivers should be aware that there is a 25 mph speed limit and to proceed with caution in the impacted areas due to the abrupt change from asphalt to gravel. The adjacent Rockefeller Loop Trail is currently closed and will be reopened once hazard trees have been assessed.