Dr. Walt Hollow:
A Pioneer on the Frontlines of Native American Medicine

This was in 1965, and Dr. Hollow has been at the University of Washington, either as a student or member of the medical faculty member ever since. It was not a time when many Native Americans attended college, and certainly not because they wanted to practice medicine. He ran into the expected barriers – the stereotypes and the prejudice, but decided they would not let it keep him from doing what he wanted to do.

"There was one person who counseled all college students who wanted to go to medical school," he says, "and it was a lady who was probably, she looked like she was eighty years old. I had long hair and I was dressed in some of my Indian gear and I went in and told her that I was interested in medicine. And she basically said, 'You can't do that,' and implied that I wasn't smart enough to do that. And, quite frankly, it made me angry. And I walked out of there with the intention, 'Well, I'll show you that I can do it.' And so I buckled down and worked really hard and got all of the required courses to apply to medical school."

First he decided to get a masters degree in biochemistry. Then, with no one to help guide him, he started applying to medical schools. "I didn't have anyone to tell me how to do it and what you needed to be aware of," he says. "I just got all the applications and filled them out."

Dr. Hollow was accepted to the University of Washington Medical School and entered the M.D. and Ph.D. programs in pathology and biochemistry. He thought he might like to do research, but what he knew for sure was that he wanted to work in some area of Native American health.

"I knew that I wanted to help raise the health status of American Indians," he says, "and my vision, at that point in time, was that I probably would work in the Indian Health Service, and probably back on my home reservation."

When it was time to take his Family Medicine clerkship, he took it in Omak, Washington, near the Colville Indian reservation. His six-week work with the Colville tribe convinced him that family medicine was his calling rather than research.

"That reawakened my realization that, 'Gee, I think I want to be a clinician and not a researcher stuck in a laboratory somewhere, so I'm going to change my major in medical school. I'm going to drop out of the Ph.D. program and I'm going to go into Family Medicine.' And so, that's what I did."