A Doctor among the Oglala Sioux Tribe: The Letters of Robert H. Ruby, 1953-1954

Ten. May 1954

Ten. May 1954 Yesterday, the last Friday of the month, a community services meeting was held with Mr. Reifel. He is conducting the meetings now with each department head taking a session and presenting what he thinks a reservation program ought to consist of. Mr. Pyles, head of Education, presented what he thought a reservation program ought to be. He set up a representative community, spending considerable time telling about the kids, in and out of school,the adults,married and unmarried,the elders,those on relief,and so on. Then he set up a method of attack, a long-range and a short-range plan. What was his program, its objectives, its goals? God only knows. May 1, 1954 Yesterday, the last Friday of the month, a community services meeting was held with Mr. Reifel. He is conducting the meetings now with each department head taking a session and presenting what he thinks a reservation program ought to consist of. Mr. Pyles, head of Education ,presented what he thought a reservation program ought to be.He set up a representative community, spending considerable time telling about the kids, in and out of school, the adults, married and unmarried , the elders, those on relief, and so on. Then he explained a method of attack, a long-range and a short-range plan.What was his program, its objectives, its goals? God only knows. Sometime ago, a couple weeks ago, the community of Slim Buttes was making great efforts to get a family into the Sioux Sanitarium. As part of that effort, those with tuberculosis and the others in the family 175 were moved to Pine Ridge to live in a tent until the whole family was examined. In a memorandum to Mr. Reifel, I told him I’d finally gotten one member of the family to the Sioux Sanitarium, and I was impressed by the community of Slim Buttes in getting the family to medical attention since they have no car. Then a day later, Mrs. Forshey, reading this memorandum that I wrote and that Mr. Reifel circulated, typed me a note stating the real motivations of the people from Slim Buttes. This was an excuse to get rid of the family.The community had kicked the family out once before. The family went to Chadron to live this time. Then Chadron evicted them.And they got back to Slim Buttes, which was trying to get rid of them again. They say the family stinks.Well, after I informed Mr. Reifel of the real motives of the people of Slim Buttes, I noticed that the next week in his news sheet he mentioned the fine spirit of the people of Slim Buttes to be so interested in this family and to help them get to the hospital. Along the same line, I send him reports of all people from the Sioux Sanitarium who left against medical advice. I once sent down the name of a patient who had gone to the sanitarium and left. But Dr. Carmine A. Celilla from up there wrote asking that we get back this guy, who lives in Allen. The patient returned, and after completing an examination of him, Dr. Celilla wrote back saying the boy did not have tuberculosis. So I wrote Mr. Reifel a memorandum stating that the patient went to the sanitarium and was found to be free of tuberculosis. So a couple days later this past week, Mr. Reifel wrote about the patient who had gone back and was found to be cured of tuberculosis . Mr. Reifel said it was fine that the man can live among his community, and applauded how happy his family must feel. I liked what Mr. Reifel had to say yesterday morning in conference. In dealing with people and making a program there is no place for romanticism or emotion. The man from Oglala who was hit on the head with an ax several weeks ago and who is a peyote eater was in the clinic yesterday. He told May 1954 176 me they were having a birthday meeting at Wounded Knee the following day. These are Half Moons; their main chief is Levi Sitting Hawk. I wish that I could go with Wilson Brady, a Cheyenne Sioux who is going. But I have to go to the darn ochs Junior-Senior prom. Wilson told me the altar in Half Moon is made in...