"Respect for Human Life"

Many physicians served the medical needs of the Leech Lake Area, beginning with Maji Gabowi, a documented medicine man of the Ojibwe Tribe. When Henry Schoolcraft led his first expedition in search of the source of the Mississippi, Dr. Houghton accompanied him and helped wipe out the smallpox epidemic in the Leech Lake Area in 1832. Dr. Marclay opened a tuberculosis sanitarium called Ah-Gwah-Ching in 1907, and it was staffed by many doctors, including Dr. Crow and Williams. Dr. Rodwell, also Native American, served the area as an old-fashioned country doctor by horse, buggy, and his little black bag. Dr. Wilcox and Dr. Ringle treated patients in the same manner for 30 and 40 years respectively. The area’s medical needs are now served by two well-equipped clinics, Sanford Health and Essentia Health, staffed by specialists in every phase of modern-day medicine who do their best to abide by their Hippocratic Oath: respect for human life.

Walker, Minnesota · United States