THINKING OF THE INDIAN ELDERS I WAS FORTUNATE TO MEET. FRANK SANACHE OF THE MESKWAKIA

 I received a video about Navajo code talkers who helped US Marines secure Iwo Jima in the Pacific theatre of Second World War.

watching this video, a solitary tear dribbled down my cheek.

I would turn into the Meskwakia settlement, past the trees standing as sentinels to welcome me and the first cabin on the right belonged to an old beloved couple, The Sanaches, Frank and Bernice. I always stopped there and paid my respects. Before I left the settlement where I had come to serve them as an Endocrinologist (usually after about 5 days), once again I would drop by. I was always welcome. I can seem them sitting on the porch.

Frank Sanache was the last of the Meskwaki code talkers. Recognition came very late to them, they were all awarded medals posthumously. 

I looked through the names, even though the last names among the tribes are the same few, I could definitely say that I knew at least 2 of the 8 code talkers: Frank Sanache and Judy Wayne Wabaunsee. 

I had certainly met sons and daughters and granddaughters of these men, that is for sure. They were the first ever Indian tribe that I worked with and my relationship lasted at least 10 years but I was quite immersed in the culture during my week long stays with them. They are private and live in an isolated part of the central part of  USA, and only rarely that I had ran across them in the recent years.

Few days after arriving at the Settlement for my first stay of one month, a group of elders led by Donald Wanatee came to see me and said: If you stay with us, we will change your destiny and if you do not like the idea, you are welcome to leave tomorrow!

I cannot put in paper what all they have taught me over the years but one thing is clear. They changed the life direction of an Australian post graduate doctor who was eager to go home to Australia, and I became involved in the health of the Indigenous peoples.

Many gifts have arrived in my life: and I can even list them in a certain order, and my contact with the Meskwakia and their influence upon me rank very high on the list of gifts in my life.

As my teacher, "Dr" Brown, used to make fun of me, as she lit her slim long cigarettes: What a pity, you are not intelligent enough for us to teach you everything !

It was Meskwakia that made an Anthropologist out of me. After a few visits to Meskwakia I realized that what all I had studied in Medical school and the sacred halls of the university hospitals would not be enough to help Indigenous people (and many other deserving groups of culturally distinct people), I returned to London to study Anthropology. (what a wonderful stay it was in London and how much I learned!!)

Thank you my dear Meskwakia friends and teachers..