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By NEIL ZAWICKI
Pamplin Media Group
I
n Native American culture, a person
does not exist until they are given a
name. For this reason, it was big medi-
cine when an Apache healer gave San-
dy resident Nancy Summer her Indian
name.
Summer is a licensed practical nurse, mas-
sage therapist and owner of White Star Mas-
sage Therapy and Weight Loss Center in San-
dy. The White Star name was given to her by
the healer, Willie Two Feather.
Summer says she decided to become a
nurse at age 12, when she had her tonsils re-
moved. She laughs relating the story about a
nun at the hospital who was stealing her can-
dy.
“There was candy in the green clown, and
then there wasn’t any,” she said. “But that
made me want to get into nursing. (Despite
the candy thief) the care the nuns gave at
McAuley Hospital in Coos Bay was the kind I
wanted to give. A lot of people are in it for the
money, but I am certainly in it for the care.”
Summer went on to earn a nursing degree
and work for Kaiser Permanente for 13 years,
becoming a massage therapist in 1997.
“In the midst of my career I moved to Ari-
zona in 2001 and worked as a nurse at Nava-
pache Regional Medical Center in Show
Low,” she said. “I met one of the medicine
men from the Apache tribe, and he eventually
asked if I wanted to study tribal medicine.”
The invitation, she said, was not immediate.
“Amedicine man will not look at you, and
you never look a medicine man in the eye,”
she said. “But I would give him tobacco all the
time.”
Tobacco is a strong ceremonial element in
the Native American cultural and belief sys-
tem.
“When I gave him peach tobacco he finally
looked me in the eye and asked me if I would
like to study tribal medicine.”
More than just the peach tobacco, Summer
thinks it was whenWillie Two Feather
watched her going out of her way to care for
a woman whose
husband had had
a heart attack.
“That’s when I
think he saw that
I was in it for the
care,” she said.
Two Feather
began to mentor
Summer and in-
troduced her to
another native
healer named Ea-
gle Soaring. She
said it was power-
ful to be taken in
and taught by
them.
“It was a very
transitional part
of my life,” she
said. “I learned so
much being down
there and learned
to look at people
differently and to
understand peo-
ple for who they
are.”
After two years
in Arizona with
native healers,
Summer returned
to Sandy to open
White Star. These days, she also cares for her
83-year-old mother.
“I’m the only daughter in a family of four,
and the boys don’t know how to do medicine,”
she said. “I do all her medications and do all
her shopping. She took care of me for a lot of
years. Now it’s her turn.”
Finding a name:
A caregiver’s journey
■
Apache healer gave Sandy woman tools to help others
PHOTO by NEIL ZAWICKI
Nancy Summer keeps a painting in her massage therapy room that was a gift
from Apache medicine man Willie Two Feather and is a dedication to her
Native self.
what battles to fight and what ones to let slide,
like the kids will survive if their shoes are on
the wrong feet.
She also pecks away at chores around the
house to avoid being overwhelmed by them.
“Keeping things tidy makes me feel like things
are not out of control,” she says.
In Rasmussen’s very precious spare time,
she serves on the Gresham-Barlow School Dis-
trict’s advisory council, created by the school
board to foster effective communication be-
tween the board and the community, and was
on the district’s bond steering committee that
recommended the district place a local bond
measure on the November ballot. Rasmussen
considers the meetings for each commitment
a break from her routine. “It’s a chance to fo-
cus on broader issues and topic,” she says.
Rasmussen also volunteers with her chil-
dren’s grade school Parent Teacher Club, vol-
unteers in their first- and third-grade class-
rooms about twice a month and is active in the
family’s church, the River of Life Lutheran
Church in Troutdale, where she is part of a
team of children’s church teachers.
Hearing all of her activities said out loud
seems to jar Rasmussen ever so slightly. It’s as
if what everyone’s been telling her — that she
does so much — suddenly rings true.
After a moment, she shakes it off. “I have a
lot of friends who are a lot busier with older
kids,” she says what with sporting events and
other activities taking up weekends.
Her family tries to stick to one activity per
child at a time.
So, what will she do when all four of her
children are in school? Will she return to the
work-outside-the-home-force?
Probably not. “I can’t imagine returning to
work in an office,” she says. Besides, it’s just as
important for a parent to be home when the
children are teens as when they’re young.
“Even then, I think it’s equally as important to
know where they are and who they’re with. I
see the neighborhood kids at home and ...
things happen.”
When asked how she copes with the pres-
sure and craziness of being a stay-at-home
mother, she has no real answer.
Other than the occasional girl’s night out,
she doesn’t rely on any particular outlet.
No the-kids-are-finally-in-bed glass of wine.
No mom’s club.
“I don’t know what I’d balance it with,” she
says. “I’m just kid-focused. I’m just really hap-
py that I’m able to be home.”