Steelhead fever and health care
San Diego Trout
Accounts of Indians
Interview with Babe Ramos, a Native American of the Juaneno Band of the Acjachemen Nation, who was born in the Aguilar Adobe House (in San Juan Capistrano, CA where the Jack-in-the-Box is presently sited):
We asked Babe to talk about his life and to especially recall his or his brothers’ experiences around the steelhead in both the San Juan Creek and Trabuco Creek.
“In ‘39 there was a big flood on the Trabuco, but lots of steelheads -they caught steelhead into the 1950’s. The last one I remember was in ‘58.”
“I remember back oh, starting at 7 or 8 years old, with my brothers,Julian Junior, Aurelio, and Rudy, we wore uniforms to the Mission school. We weren’t supposed to - well Mother was strict about our uniforms, but one day after school before coming home we followed the creek, and jumped in - jumped in on a 30” fish, a steelhead. We just had our pocket knife, and would jump in to them and bring them home. Mom, she saw us all wet and had that look - we were in for it, but when I took that big steelhead out from behind my back she showed a small, a little smile. They were very good to eat.”
“I guess (at age) 13 or 14 - I needed an operation right away, so my Dad took me to the closest hospital. Yes, my appendix. This was up in Anaheim, and we didn’t have money to pay for the doctor or hospital bill. Well that doctor told my Dad don’t worry about the hospital bill. Mom told me my end of the bargain was to take the doctor a steelhead once a week. Mom made sure to remind me to take that steelhead - which I did! That was in ‘46.”
http://www.sandiegotrout.org/indians.html
Comment: What on earth is steelhead doing in a health policy message? Well,
first of all, steelhead fever is a life-long disorder that, unlike other diseases, dramatically improves quality of life. Any person reading this who has steelhead fever knows he or she has it and knows that the condition cannot be adequately explained to those people who don’t. It also seems to be a familial disorder since my sons have it as well.
That said, the plight of the steelhead in San Juan Capistrano exemplifies some of the dramatic changes resulting from ecological factors, especially in human ecology.
I arrived in San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente in July, 1966, the same month that Medicare and Medicaid provided coverage to many with health care
needs who could not otherwise afford to pay for it. The decimated steelhead
population could no longer serve as a source of payment for health care services, and other sources of barter were totally inadequate. Medicare
and Medicaid were a great advance forward in ensuring affordable access to
health care.
37 years later, what further advances have we made? Universality? Sustained
comprehensive coverage? Affordability? Accessibility? It seems that the dynamics of human ecology have not been very kind. We do have the resources. We do have the health policy knowledge on how to improve utilization of our resources. But we seem to lack solidarity and egalitarianism. Does it really have to remain that way?
Although a few steelhead have been spotted in Orange County in the past decade, sadly, human ecological factors will prevail. And what fate does human ecology hold for native Americans, for descendents of more recent European arrivals, and for all of the rest of us in the mix of the great American melting pot?
Maybe it’s time to turn to the sociologists to show us how to apply human ecology for the betterment of mankind, at least as it applies to health care. We can certainly continue to try to use what we have also learned from the economists, political scientists and others who have attempted to show us the light. There must be a solution. Steelhead bartering certainly won’t do it anymore.