Antibiotics in the Stone Age...
Compassion for a primitive race...
Mercy missions by airplane to a wild and ancient land ...

These are ingredients in the amazing story, still continuing to unfold, in the one-man campaign of a San Diego surgeon to aid in saving the lives of afflicted Tarahumare Iindians in a cold, remote, and savage spot in the vicinity of the celebrated Barranca de Cobre in southwestern Chihuahua ...
Dr. John Steelquist, MD, has aroused so much interest in the plight of the Tarahumares whose 56,000 population is said to make up the second largest Indian tribe on the continent, next to the Navajos- that he is receiving assistance for them from Mercy Hospital here, drug firms, the Rotarians, and individuals... Dr. Steelquist has just flown to the Tarahumare country this past weekend to deliver hundreds of pounds of drugs and medical equipment...
I talked to him just before he left with his friend, Dean Holt of this city, to fly to Sisoguichi. Chihuahua. a village of perhaps 500 residents at 7,000 ft. elevation, via Hermosillo and over the incredibly rugged 4,500-ft. deep Barranca de Cobre, “the Grand Canyon of Mexico” ...

Continuing Journeys

This is the 12th trip of its kind by Dr. Steelquist and Holt since July, 1959 . . . They have fought thunderstorms and turbulence to reach their objective in the Beechcraft Bonanza owned by Holt . . . Another companion on occasion has been E. D. Baring-Gould, an Englishman who is fascinated by the Tarahumares, literally Stone Age human beings, considered to be the most extraordinarily stalwart race in North America, capable of unbelievable feats of running — sometimes hundreds of miles . . . Sisoguichi is the site of an old Jesuit mission believed to date to about 1630 . . .
At a small hospital built through the generosity of medical interns from Monterrey, Mex., who had served in Sisoguichi, Dr. Steelquist encountered a dedicated hard-working physician, Dr. Jesus Diego Clouthier of French background . . . This great man was laboring 16 to 18 hours a day with the assistance of the nuns to relieve some of the suffering of the Indians, who have been particularly hard hit by typhoid and tuberculccis . . .
Dr. Steelquist told me that the greatest need in the Tarahumare counry is for wholesale amounts of drugs to permit proper treatment, rather than the mere samples which hitherto have been available . . . Some of this need, in addition to the mercy missions of Dr. Steelquist himself, is being met by a group of Denver ostecpaths who have been flying down with medical supplies, a dentist and an opthalinologist for cataract operations . . .
On occasion, Dr. Steelquist, despite his specialty as a surgeon, has treated 75 or 80 patients a week with maladies of all kinds; any specialist necessarily becomes a general practitioner amid the unceasing demand of his patients in Sisoguichi . . .
Getting into Sisoguichi, if you go other than by a air, is not easy . . .  On his last trip before the one just concluded, Dr. Steelquist took with him his two sons, Peter, 13, and Jim, 14 . . . They flew from Tijuana to Hermosillo, and then to Los Mochis, and then took the train on a 10-hour journey to Creel, near the Barranca de Cobre. . .  At Creel they were met by the Jesuits with a carry-all to transport them the rest of the way . . .
Dr. Steelquist's amhition is to have a San Diego group to help in raising money for the mercy missions . . . And he seems well on the way to getting it . . . I’m going to tell you more of this . . .

[The follow-up article appeared in the following day's newspaper]

Aboriginal Dances Can Be Viewed

Would you believe that within a few hours of Southern California, by private plane, you can be in an aboriginal land witnessing a goatskin drum dance lasting four days, with the dancers in weird costumes remindful of the African jungle?
John Steelquist, MD, of this city, staff physician at Mercy Hospital, about whose humanitarian medical journeys I was telling you Monday, can testify that this is the case...
In his trips to Sisoguichi, home of the primitive Stone Age Indians, the Tarahumares of southwestern Chihuahua, Mex., Dr. Steelquist has witnessed and photographed the fantastic rites...
The Tarahumares of Sisoguichi, like so many Indians, have maintained their long-existing primeval dances and combined them with a vestige of Christian symbolism so there is a remarkable fusion of paganism and church doctrine . . . The village of Sisoguichi at 7,000-ft. elevation near the Barranca de Cobre (Canyon of Copper, the “Grand Canyon” of Mexico) is the home of a Jesuit mission dating back some 300 years . . .

Increasing Assistance

Dr. Steelquist who, as I told you, flew down to the Tarahumare country and back this last weekend, is receiving more and more practical assistance here in his endeavor to provide medicines and laboratory supplies for the isolated little hospital at Sisoguichi . . . 
A new organization headed by Richard Shey, vice president of the First Federal Savings & Loan Assn. here, is co-operating in the raising of funds for the project . . . Sister Mary Eucharia, executive head of Mercy Hospital, has provided invaluable assistance . . .  Dean Holt, who flies the plane for Dr. Steelquist, donates his time on the aerial trips via Hermosillo, Sonora, which at times are pretty rugged... The Tarahumares never cease to be a marvel to Dr. Steelquist from the standpoint of stamina and physical aptitude . . . They play a rival-team running game, for instance, kicking a rock for long distances and sometimes continuing night and day without rest . . .
Dr. Steelquist in 1959 met a Mayo Indian packer, Brigido Ramirez, born in the Barranca de Cobre, who speaks Tarahumara and lives in the Barranca area. Later, Dr. Steelquist gave him a small amount of money and commissioned him to collect some aboriginal items for the Museum of Man here in Balboa Park . . .

Just a Casual Load

When he flew down to check on the material, he and the pilot of the plane dropped a message in a weighted handkerchief at the isolated home of the packer, asking him to come in with the articles he had gathered . . . In a day or two Brigido showed up with the stuff all in one load on his back — 180 lb. of it . . . He had walked to the depths of a 4,200-ft. canyon on the way and up the other side . . .
With him he brought swords, pots, ceremonial costumes and all sorts of things ideally suited for the mueum display. . .
Some of the Tarahumares are cave-dwellers, and after seeing some of Dr. Steelquist’s colored motion picture film I can testify they have some of the finest scenery in the world (I’ve flown over the area in a private plane, too) . . . The doctor has taken about 11,000 ft. of film and reduced it to a 1,100-ft. show to demonstrate the medical work being done...
It is one of the most remarkable ventures I have ever chronicled . . . The Tarahumara children are tremendously appealing, and the ailing adults who are helped by the flying medical man are among the proudest people on earth...

I hope they all get the kind of help they deserve.