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Transcript: A. Paul Ortega

You cannot declare yourself a medicine man; it is passed down through one’s family

[Ortega:]
My mother’s side is where the medicine come in. We learn, and it’s done by blood. It’s not something you declare. If you do declare, you generally try to become an assistant to someone to help them out. That’s what you generally do, but never really declare that you’re a medicine man, because it comes with a family, and that’s generally from my mother’s side. That’s how you get to learn. I learn since I was five years old.