CHEROKEE COUSINS

Our 2011 President of the Cherokee At Large Voters League, Dr. Wade P. McAlister, has an even stronger Tahlequah, OK connection. Dr. Deborah McAlister, who is featured in the following article, is an orthopedic surgeon, as is her Houston cousin. Their grandfathers were brothers. Dr. Deborah has a sister who resides in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land, TX. See the Cherokee Nation article at http://www.cherokee.org/news.aspx?id=3471

Cherokee Surgeon Brings Three Generations of Health Care to Native Americans

Education and proper health care is important to Deborah McAlister—as well it should be. Her great-grandmother, Sue Lawrence-McAlister, was a graduate of the Cherokee National Female Seminary in Tahlequah and later taught there. Her grandfather was a dermatologist and a radiologist and her father was a physiatrist. Now she brings the third generation of health care from her family as a new orthopedic surgeon at Cherokee Nation W.W. Hastings Hospital in Tahlequah.

"I am so excited to be here in Tahlequah and working for the Cherokee Nation at its hospital," McAlister, who is a Cherokee Nation citizen, said. "I think I can bring skills here for us to help our patients at our hospital and eliminate the need for them to travel to larger cities to have the procedures performed."

A graduate of the University of Oklahoma Medical School, McAlister comes to Cherokee Nation after completing her residency at OU and her fellowship studies at the University of Utah Medical School in Salt Lake City. While in medical school, she was active in numerous Native American activities and held many leadership roles, including serving as president of the OU chapter and of the national organization of the Native American Medical Students Association. For the past three years, she has worked in private practice in Shawnee and developed special skills in replacement surgeries, primarily knee and hip replacements.

The role that health care plays in the Cherokee Nation is a passion for McAlister, and she recognizes the importance of providing all aspects of health care services to Native Americans because of the traditions and cultural differences they experience. She also points out there is a cost savings to the tribe by performing specialized services locally in the tribal hospital.

"In the past there has been some hesitancy to perform knee and hip replacement surgery here at Hastings. I want to change that and for us to serve our patients who need these services here in our hospital," she said. "To be a sovereign nation we have to have sustainable health care and maintain all things here. My desire is to bring in new and different ways of treatment—to bring that one small piece of the pie here to help improve our health care."

While she recognizes the importance of the Cherokee trait of leadership, McAlister also notes the importance of another historic Cherokee interest—education. She knows both patients and providers will need to be educated that many of the procedures that have been outsourced through contract health can now be done locally. That is one aspect of her job she hopes to accomplish with her patients and the other providers within the Cherokee Nation and Indian Health Service systems.

"Orthopedics is never going to go away. It will always be needed for everyone from our youth to our elders, and it interacts with all medical needs such as diabetes as well," she said. "What we do changes people’s lives."

In addition, McAlister says it has changed her own life for the better. After all, for her it is a family tradition.