Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail

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Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail (* 27. January 1903 in the Crow reservation near Pryor (Montana) ; † 25. December 1981 in Wyola , Montana ) was the first Absarokee and one of the first North American Indians in the United States for admission as Registered Nurse . She worked for the Indian Health Service (IHS), a division of the state public health system , brought modern health care to her people, and traveled across the United States to ensure that indigenous peoples had access to the benefits of the public health system. Yellowtail has served in many government health organizations and has received multiple awards for her work.

Childhood and youth

Susie Walking Bear was born on January 27, 1903 on the Crow Reservation to Kills the Enemy or Jane White Horse, an Oglala and Walking Bear, an Absarokee. Her father, Walking Bear, died before she was born, and her mother married Stone Breast, Yellowtail's stepfather. Yellowtail was raised by her mother and stepfather until the age of 8 when she was sent to the Pryor Catholic Mission School. When she was 12 years old, Yellowtail lost her parents and was sent to the Indian Boarding School , a boarding school for children of Native American origin, in Lodge Grass , Montana . In 1919 she accompanied the Baptist missionary Francis Shaw on a trip to Denver . Although she was told she could return to her Crow School, she was separated from her group and stayed in Denver. Shaw suggested that Yellowtail take her to Muskogee, Oklahoma , to continue her education at the Bacone Indian School .

When they school education had completed their eight years Shaw Yellowtail brought to Northfield (Massachusetts) that they there the Northfield Seminary could visit. Shaw paid school fees and Yellowtail worked as a nanny and maid so she could pay for her housing. The workload, the cultural intolerance of the school administrators who insisted that Yellowtail use the surname Bear, and the distrust of their employers were hard to bear. In 1923 she applied to Tall Pines Girl's Camp in Bennington, New Hampshire and planned to leave Northfield. Yellowtail was accepted to Franklin County Public Hospital in 1924 to study nursing. She then did her internship at Boston General Hospital . Yellowtail was approved in 1927, becoming the first registered nurse of her people. This made her, together with Elizabeth Sadoques Mason ( Abenaki ), her sister Maude, Nancy Cornelius ( Oneida ) and Lula Owl Gloyne ( Cherokee ) one of the first Native American nurses in the United States.

Career

After graduating, Yellowtail returned briefly to the Public Hospital in Greenfield before starting to work in a private care facility in Oklahoma . Before returning to the reservation, she worked as an outpatient nurse with the Chippewa of Minnesota. In 1929 she married Thomas Yellowtail , who was to become a spiritual leader for her people. Yellowtail worked for the Indian Health Service Hospital at Crow Agency for two years . Their goal was to modernize the health services for their tribe and to combat the forced sterilization of Indian women.

Between 1930 and 1960, Yellowtail worked as a consultant and traveled around the country documenting the problems within the IHS, including the insufficient number of health facilities, the inability of the non-indigenous sisters to be culturally sensitive or to speak their language, the unsanitary ones Living conditions, the barriers to reaching traditional healers, the health care uniquely offered by the IHS, and much more.

Washington was aware of the shortcomings and flaws in the IHS and from the early 1940s relied on Yellowtails' assessments of both what was needed and the challenges of the system. Yellowtail worked on the oversight committee of the Division of Indian Health (DIH) to help the sanitary technician convey the importance of hygiene and sanitation to the members of the tribes. DIH projects organized fresh water supply, sewage disposal and garbage disposal for the residential buildings and it was the task of the committee members to explain to the residents how important the care and maintenance of the newly established systems is and what advantages they have from it.

During this time, Yellowtail was also culturally active. She was a dancer with the Crow Indian Ceremonial Dancers and went on a European tour with them from 1953, they performed in Algeria , Denmark , England , Israel , Luxembourg , Morocco and Turkey . Yellowtail and the other dancers also visited Belgium , Finland , France , Italy , Norway , Spain and Sweden . They stayed in Paris for a whole month in 1954 , playing in front of sold out houses. When the group returned in 1955, they appeared on behalf of the Montana Institute of the Arts for the Montana Historical Society . Yellowtail also volunteered as the chaplain for the Miss Indian American elections from its inception through the 1970s.

In 1965 Yellowtail was elected Mrs. American Indian at the American Indian Youth Conference (German youth meeting of American Indians). In 1968, she was appointed to the United States Public Health Service's Native American Health Oversight Committee for four years . In a 1970 documentary about IHS services in Indian communities, Yellowtail was one of five speakers. Governor Forrest H. Anderson selected Yellowtail in 1972 for a further term to work on the State Advisory Council for Vocational Education (dt. State Advisory Commission for Vocational Education ). There she emphasized the need for educational opportunities for indigenous residents so that they can become competitive in their search for jobs. She also stressed that indigenous people desperately needed service training opportunities so that there would be lawyers, doctors, nurses and teachers who could give the population access to help from people who understood their culture. Yellowtail also worked on the National Alcohol and Drug Abuse Committee and was appointed by Richard Nixon to the Council on Indian Health, Education and Welfare and the state Indian Health Advisory Committee (German Indian Health Supervisory Committee ) appointed. Yellowtail also founded the first professional association for Native American nurses

Yellowtail died on December 25, 1981 at her home in Wyola, Montana.

Awards

  • 1962 President's Award for Outstanding Nursing from John F. Kennedy
  • 1962 Outstanding Indian of the Year W. Dean Wilson: Indian Powwow News in Navajo Times, August 13, 1970 p. 32
  • 1978 Grandmother of American Indian Nurses by the American Indian Nurses Association.
  • 1987 Montana Hall of Fame
  • 2002 American Nurses Association Hall of Fame first indigenous American woman

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Dave Walters: Susie Yellowtail (1903-1981) . Montana State Govt. 1987. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
  2. ^ A b Kathryn A. Askins: Bridging Cultures: American Indian Students at the Northfield Mount Hermon School . University of New Hampshire, 2009, ISBN 978-1-109-23339-1 .
  3. ↑ Kathryn A. Askins: Bridging Cultures: American Indian Students at the Northfield Mount Hermon School . University of New Hampshire, 2009, ISBN 978-1-109-23339-1 , p. 149.
  4. ↑ a b c Laura K. Ferguson: Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail: "Our Bright Morning Star" . Montana Historical Society. May 6, 2014. Archived from the original on July 20, 2014. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
  5. ^ A b Kathryn A. Askins: Bridging Cultures: American Indian Students at the Northfield Mount Hermon School . University of New Hampshire, 2009, ISBN 978-1-109-23339-1 , p. 151.
  6. ↑ (Untitled) . In: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle , October 24, 1927. Retrieved June 29, 2020. 
  7. ↑ a b (Untitled) . In: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle , October 24, 1927. Retrieved June 29, 2020. 
  8. ↑ Minority Nurse: Who really was the first american indian RN? of March 30, 2013 (English) accessed on June 29, 2020
  9. ↑ Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail (1903-1981) 2002 Inductee . American Nurses Association . 2002. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
  10. ^ Indian Woman Fights for Health, Equality . In: The Greenfield Recorder , July 18, 1970. 
  11. ^ There Is a Need for Indian Nurses . In: Clovis News Journal , April 24, 1977. Retrieved June 29, 2020. 
  12. ^ A b Pat Murdo: Conference Studies Education for Indians in The Independent Record of March 10, 1976
  13. ↑ Kathryn A. Askins: Bridging Cultures: American Indian Students at the Northfield Mount Hermon School . University of New Hampshire, 2009, ISBN 978-1-109-23339-1 , p. 153.
  14. ↑ Indian Sanitation Drive Pushed in The Billings Gazette, February 2, 1964, p. 17
  15. ^ A b Ceremonial Dancers Are Headed by Donald Deernose in The Independent Record, February 27, 1955
  16. ↑ Crow Dancers Centennial Stars? in The Billings Gazette, April 22, 1962, p. 2
  17. ↑ Navajo Tribal Fair Winners Announced in The Albuquerque Journal, September 4, 1969, p. 22
  18. ↑ Margaret Birt: Crow Nurse Honored in Greenfield Recorder Gazette, December 16, 1965, p. 18
  19. ^ Show Scheduled on Indian Health . In: The Albuquerque Journal , November 8, 1970. Retrieved June 30, 2020. 
  20. ↑ Julianne Jennings: In Celebration of National Nursing Week: The First Women of Healing in Indian Country Today Media Network, May 13, 2012
  21. ↑ Thomas Yellowtail, Michael Oren Fitzgerald: Yellowtail, Crow Medicine Man and Sun Dance Chief: An Autobiography University of Oklahoma Press, 1994 ISBN 978-0-8061-2602-9 p. 213
  22. ↑ Native Nurses . New Mexico Nurses Association. July – September 2016. Accessed June 30, 2020.
  23. ↑ Liz Sonneborn: A to Z of American Indian Women Infobase Publishing, 2014 ISBN 978-1-4381-0788-2 p. 283
personal data
SURNAME Yellowtail, Susie Walking Bear
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Susie Walking Bear (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Native American nurse
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Crow Reservation at Pryor (Montana)
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 1981
Place of death Wyola , Montana