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Native American Pioneer In Medicine Recognized

Dr. Everett Rhoades

The first Native American to head the Indian Health Service was a rarity, one of the earliest Indian doctors in the country, and it was a bit lonely.

“I only knew of two Indian physicians accidentally, the famous Dr. Taylor McKenzie, the late great Navajo leader, Taylor McKenzie and another individual whom I didn't know but knew of, named Thomas St. Germaine Whitecloud, a member of the Lac du Flambeau Chippewas,” Dr. Everett Rhoades said.

“These individuals were so outstanding and I did feel a little bit isolated, that's too strong a word, but isolated in a medical career,” Rhoades said. “A few other students began to appear, a classmate of mine, Dr. Jim Hampton, a member of the Chickasaw tribe and another individual who was Cherokee. And it occurred to me that this was a very very small number.”

Rhoades is a member of the Kiowa Nation and a very active octogenarian. He was the first Kiowa to receive a medical degree, and it may have just been in his blood.

“I did happen to have a grandfather who was a physician. He came from Stamford, Connecticut to the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache reservation in about 1892, and married my Indian grandmother,” Rhoades said.

“We lived with them for quite some time and you would have to assume this had a great influence on me, living with my grandfather down in southwest Oklahoma. I think that must have influenced me. I was always interested in biology and science. It seemed like medicine would be an interesting career to go into. I don't have any more complicated explanation than that about how I wound up where I wound up. I attribute it to fate as much as anything else,” Rhoades said.

Rhoades began medical school in 1951, a time when hardly any natives were in college, let alone medical school. Rhoades met the then director of IHS Dr. Emory Johnson. Both men saw the need for more native physicians.

“We talked about the desirability of having more Indian physicians particularly in the Indian community. And we talked about maybe it was time to try to see if we could locate as many Indian physicians as possible and form some sort of an association primarily for mutual support,” Rhoades said.

The other goal of the association would to recruit more Native Americans into the health field.

“That would have been in 1968 or 1969. We could only locate 14 individuals in the United States who were of Indian descent and were Indians. I think it was in 1970 or 1971 we convened that group here in Oklahoma City and formed the Association of American Indian Physicians,” Rhoades said.

The association, or AAIP, now has 390 members.

During the years of change in the latter half of the 1960’s a young Native American Viet Nam veteran, Cliff Reeder, seeing that Indians in Oklahoma City had no access to medical care, recruited a senior medical student to see patients in one of the Indian churches in Oklahoma City. A Kiowa Methodist minister asked Dr. Rhoades if he could help.

“Mr. Reeder with his heroic efforts and the medical students could not sustain a clinic. It needed more support and more organization,” Rhoades said.

“This coincided with an interest on the part of a group of Methodist Ministers, I think funded by the Methodist Commission on Race and Religion, got a very small amount of funds. They were organized in a thing called the Skyline Ministries in Oklahoma City,” Rhoades said.

“They wanted to foster support for Indians residing in Oklahoma City. I was at the time serving on the Kiowa Business Committee with one of the pastors, Reverend Bob Pinezaddleby, he asked if I would work with that group to form a clinic, which we did,” Rhoades said.

From those small beginnings, the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic now serves 18,000 patients. Rhoades said it was quite an experience to have a building named for him.

“It’s a privilege for me to have my name associated with the activities that will take place there. I truly believe that one of the greatest honors that anyone can get is a recognition by the peers with whom they're working,” Rhoades said.

In recognition of his 40 years of association with the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic, the board dedicated and named the new building in Dr. Rhoades’ honor.

“It’s exhilarating but kind of humbling as well,” Rhoades said.

The three story building will house the Harmon-y Pediatric Clinic and a wellness center.

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