Celebrating Our People – Meet Fred

Fred Nez-Keams’ career path has had many twists and turns, but it came full circle when he became the inventory specialist at Saint Joseph Jessamine.

It was his second encounter with the Saint Joseph ministry. The first time was 50-some years earlier when, as a young child, he received surgeries and treatment for a cleft palate at a related Saint Joseph hospital in Tempe, Arizona. 

“That’s how far Saint Joseph hospital has been in my life … When I got older, I said, ‘I’m going to give back — whatever I do, I’m going to try to give back,’” he said. “When I got the job at Saint Joe, everything just kind of kicked in.”

Fred is responsible for all supplies coming into his facility and making sure employees have the supplies they need. He said he loves the job and enjoys searching for just the right piece of equipment a patient or doctor needs.

“There’s so much to learn. Every day we’re learning. I love the challenge, too. It makes me happy to come to work. If you know your job and enjoy it, it’s not really work,” he said.

Fred likes the teamwork at Saint Joseph Jessamine. 

“We all rely on one another. I see it as family — our second home. We see each other every day. We come to know each other. When someone is feeling down, or in time of need, we try to be there to help,” he said.

He said he appreciates that his experience is valued: “I like Saint Joseph because they give you the responsibility and [make you feel empowered to succeed].”

Fred did similar work at, among other places, Fort Defiance Indian Health Services, part of Indian Health Service on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, where he was born and raised.

He met his wife, Angie, a home health worker from Kentucky, while he worked there.

They ended up moving back to Kentucky, where he worked as a cook, then in a supply position at the State Laboratory in Frankfort before the couple moved to North Carolina to work at the Cherokee Indian Hospital. Five years ago, they came back to Kentucky and Fred joined Saint Joseph Jessamine.

Fred’s character and the resourcefulness that is important in his job were shaped in part by being sent to a federal Indian boarding school in the late 1970s, where he was not allowed to speak his native language and his culture was erased. 

“It was a lot of discipline but overall it’s just like the military — they break you down and build you back up,” he said. “We learned how to survive, and all that made me who I am today,” he said. 

While he does not provide direct patient care at Saint Joseph Jessamine, Fred said his other vocation — making and playing Native American flutes — can help people.

“Any chance I get to play anywhere I’m asked — a school, funerals, or anything, I’m all there because the Native American flute is good medicine,” he said. “I say it’s good medicine because if it helped me, it helps many others. The sound has a unique frequency that our body picks up. It automatically clears your mind, makes you feel good. It drops all your depression at that moment.”

He made his first flute about 20 years ago. It took him a year to make it — “a lot of trial and error,” he said. His instruments are made under the Yellowknife Navajo Flutes name.

Fred said he loves to play with all kinds of musicians and has performed at many festivals. He has been featured on KET’s “Kentucky Life” series and was commissioned to create the award piece — a storyteller flute — that was presented to each of the 2022 recipients of the Governor’s Award in the Arts.

He donated one of his flutes for the time capsule made for the 250th anniversary celebration of Harrodsburg, where he and Angie live. He has two daughters and together they raised her two sons and two daughters.

The couple also has created the Native Dawn Flute Gathering. “The goal is to educate and say, yes, we are Native Americans but there’s actually 500 different tribes and with 500 different tribes, there are a lot of similarities but we all have our own traditional dances, traditional regalia,” said Fred.

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