US Naval Era: Health

The first US Naval Hospital in Guam was established in Hagåtña in August 1899 by Surgeon Philip Leach. Since many Chamorros at the time consulted with suruhånu/suruhånas (traditional healers) for medical concerns, the hospital was the only source of modern western medicine on the island.

Because of a shortage of personnel Navy Medical Officers began teaching local women to be health care workers. The first class offered, in 1901, was in midwifery (local women delivered 325 babies that year) beginning a long tradition of the staff of the Naval Hospital teaching local people to be health care providers using Western medical practices.

From 1899 to 1941 US Marines given the title “Insular Patrolman” were selected to live in Guam’s villages and maintain order. Among their many duties was to enforce the island’s sanitary and public health regulations as dictated by the US Navy administration.

In the first decade of the 20th century, the US Navy embarked on a policy of forcibly segregating Chamorros suspected of having Hansen’s disease (leprosy) from the rest of Guam’s population, and sending them to live in leper colonies such as the one established at Ypao, Tumon or as far away as on the island of Culion in the Philippines.

Spanish built first leprosarium. As early as the 1600s, Western explorers documented seeing Chamorros of the Mariana Islands afflicted with apparent Hansen’s disease, or leprosy. Still, it wasn’t until hundreds of years later that a government-sanctioned policy of seclusion and confinement of Hansen’s patients gained a foothold in Guam.

The first medical facilities and dispensaries of the US Naval Era (1898 – 1941) were established shortly after the Spanish American War in 1898, recorded as early as 1899. In this first year, Naval officials estimated that 1,141 indigenous CHamorus received medical care. Since roads remained under developed and hazardous, the Navy also provided a portable clinic that traveled to and from different points around the island.

The CHamoru women who were trained as nurse-midwives by the US Navy assisted with home births in Guam from approximately 1910 to 1967. CHamorus born on the island during this period were most likely to have been delivered by one of these nurse-midwives. These women, known in Guam as pattera, play a unique role in Guam’s history and culture.