founded in 2012 by the late Dr. Arlo Starr DOM and Dr. Monica Lucero DOM — two
acupuncturists and traditional healers on Rio Grande in Albuquerque, offering
affordable, culturally rooted medicine to the community.

This is our story...

Red Root's Journey

shared by Dr. Monica

ᎠᏤᏨᏏ ᎤᎦᎶᎦ ᎠᎪᏘ

a-tse-tsv-si u-ga-lo-ga  a-go-ti

Honoring his ancestors, Arlo named this clinic Red Root after one of his favorite Cherokee herbs — a plant that
cleanses and heals the blood. Red Root connects our collective Indigenous
community to the medicines and the peoples this clinic exists to serve. We are
rooted as Indigenous People, to our mother and to our medicines.

Just as red root cleanses the blood,
we are called to cleanse our own blood — of erasure, of intergenerational
trauma, of lateral violence, of every impurity that no longer serves us.

Memory is alive in our blood.

Two hearts, four hands

Arlo and I met in acupuncture school — two HEALpers, we understood we're not to heal people ourselves, but to help them heal. We shared a vision that access to good medicine is deserved by everyone. Traditional medicine should never be commodified, priced so high it becomes unattainable and treated as a "luxury" rather than the preventative care it has always been. In 2011, we fell in love, and our hearts and hands joined forces. Together we dreamed of bridging the gaps in our healthcare system — especially for our underserved Native/ndigenous people, our LGBTQIA, and high-risk, marginalized communities — and of creating medicine that is affordable, informed, accessible, and culturally rooted.

Since 2012, we have put that vision into action from our clinic on Rio Grande in Albuquerque, blending traditional New Mexican, Indigenous, and Chinese medicine. For me, this work began long before
any classroom. I was raised with these medicines — walking in the footsteps of
my grandmothers and Nanas — and have worked with traditional medicines since
early childhood, professionally since 1999. We grow and harvest many of our own
herbs and make our medicines by hand, always remembering those whose hands guided us.

Arlo walked on suddenly in 2020. His spirit lives in every part of Red Root, every remedy, and every act of care
that moves through this clinic. Red Root continues in his honor, and in our mission to be here for community.

Traditional Medicine belongs in community

Red Root is a place made and sustained by community, to help fill the needs of community. That truth carries us beyond the clinic walls. We offer free acupuncture to our community weekly. We
teach and equip street medics with herbal and traditional medicine to care for
our unhoused relatives — and every donation this program receives, we regift
back to community. We donate many medicines and much care to families in need.

Teaching is medicine too

Dr. Arlo taught Cherokee language, NADA acu-detox, seed-saving, and classes on herbs. He shared this work with the Tribal Canoe Journeys, the UNM Curanderismo Program, TNAFA (Traditional Native American Farming Association) and in community with the Cherokee Nation, Elders and Headstart Programs, Language Preservation Groups. Pueblos of Acoma and Tesuque.

My own teaching spans Traditional Chinese Medicine, curanderismo, and the traditional medicines — limpias, sobadas, ventosas, moxa, ear candling, herbal medicine, and acu-detox. I teach
medicine-making, from remedios to soap and candle making; traditional birthing
practices; food sovereignty, including nutrition, cooking classes, and
seed-saving; and storytelling as medicine. I have shared this work with the UNM
Curanderismo Program, the UNM AMORE Midwifery Program, ASHA School of Massage, the Cedar School of Midwifery, Explora and PBS Kids, GONA, and Las Golondrinas, and in community with the Navajo Nation and the Pueblos of San Felipe, Santa Ana, Tesuque, Acoma, Laguna, Jemez, and more.

Together and apart, our work with Indigenous communities extends throughout the Americas and internationally.

Held by many hands

We are endlessly grateful for our staff, our friends, and our community — all the hands that have helped keep Red Root thriving, especially after Arlo's passing. Red Root's continued journey has been a community effort. As community we have carried each other through grief, through COVID, through every hardship these times have laid upon us. We are still here because of you.

Today, we continue our mission
through the loving hands of our current practitioners. We invite you to get to
know them — → meet our practitioners.
And we are held each day by our wonderful staff, who care for our community
with warmth and patience, helping people find what they need and meeting them
in a truly human way — putting the kind, and the human, back in humankind.

This is medicine with deep roots — grown in this soil, carried through generations, and offered with love.

October 21, 1979 – September 16, 2020

Arlo walked the medicine path following the ways of the holy. He always wanted
to bless others with his life, his medicine, his language, his kind eyes, and
his tender heart. He was always willing to lend a hand to anyone and everyone
around him.

As a Nationally Certified Diplomate and Licensed Doctor of Oriental Medicine,
Arlo's gifts extended far. His specialties — addictions, trauma, dermatology,
pain management, herbal medicine, and pediatrics — touched patients locally and
communities internationally. He brought wisdom, empowered people through
medicine, culture, and indigenous language, and inspired many to take
responsibility for their mental, physical, and emotional health. This was his
passion and his prayer.

While our community has lost a medicine person, we gained a legacy of love by
knowing him. Arlo, your smiles, your laughter, and your courage live on in all
of us. We honor you and your memory. We will continue to walk the medicine path
you showed us. We will continue to bless others with our lives, our medicine,
our language, our kind eyes, and our tender hearts. We will continue to lend a
hand to anyone and everyone around us. We will continue to take responsibility
for our mental, physical, and emotional health. We will continue to inspire
others to do the same. This is our prayer for you, Arlo. This is our legacy of
love for you.

Read More About Dr. Starr