Charlo returns from Alaska to work at THHS pharmacy

By B.L. Azure

Pharmacists Joe Don Charlo and Mike Hertz, and pharmacist technician Shawn Matt man the St. Ignatius THHS Clinic pharmacy and are ready to serve. (B.L. Azure photo)

ST. IGNATIUS — The call of the wild beckons Joe Don Charlo but so does the call of family. Dr. Charlo, a pharmacist, recently left the wilds of Alaska to return home to the Flathead Indian Reservation to work at the Tribal Health and Human Services pharmacy at St. Ignatius.

It is in part a professional move as well as a personal one; the latter was the biggest tug. He wanted to be back on the Rez near his parents, mother Juanita Deda Adams and stepfather Neil Adams.

Joe Don Charlo, a 1990 graduate of Arlee High School and the University of Montana School of Pharmacy in 2000, has spent the last seven years working in Alaska.

Following high school graduation he worked for the Tribes. It was then that Charlo made the decision to pursue a doctorate in pharmacy at the University of Montana.

Charlo admitted to feeling like a bit over his head with the pursuit of a pharmacy doctorate. But after he attended a summer session at UM to find out about the pharmacy program he got the confidence needed to pursue the grueling classwork endemic at the professional school.

“I was able to meet with the professors, take classes that gave me an overview of what the pharmacy school’s expectations were of its students, what it takes to become a pharmacist,” Charlo said. “I had the opportunity to work for pharmacy here in Mission. I felt I could do it. I just had to keep that drive going for six years. In the end it all went by fast.”

Still there was a bit of a fish out water feel at the beginning of his post high school education.

“I, coming from the small school in Arlee, was somewhat overwhelmed at first and I felt a some culture shock at UM,” Charlo said. “There were only three other Indian students in my class and it took me awhile to get used to that.”

Get used to it, he did and that smoothed the road to his doctorate degree.

Following graduation from the UM, Charlo spent a year working in Alaska. He returned to Montana in 2001 and worked for the THHS pharmacy in Mission until 2004. That year he returned to Alaska, near Anchorage, where he worked until returning to the Flathead Reservation in 2011.

“Alaska is the perfect place for me,” Charlo said. “I like to camp, I like to fish and I like to hike and Alaska is the place to do that. People say that you either love Alaska or hate it. If you love it, Alaska drives you. I love it.”

Charlo said one of the highlights of his Alaska tenure was catching king salmon for the first time. “That really got me hooked on fishing there,” he said. “It took me about 20 minutes to land a 48 pound king salmon. After that I was just as hooked as that salmon.”

Charlo is married to wife Kim and they have three children, Darian, Laine and Jharen.

“When I talked to my family about moving back to Montana none of them had a problem with that,” Charlo said. “They were all open to moving back home.”

Charlo said the other reason for coming home was to be close to his parents. “It’s good to be back home with them,” he said.

If he had his druthers, Charlo would be spending his summers in Alaska working on a fishing boat.

He said the climate is relatively the same temperature wise. The winters are a bit longer and the winds a tad chillier though. The summers provide the balance.

“The summers are nice, a bit rainy sometimes but the temperatures stay in the mid-70s and it never really gets dark,” Charlo said. “I’m not sure I was ready to leave Alaska. I know Alaska will never leave me.”

Alaska beckons but home is family.