The First Native Registered Nurse Changed Indian Country Forever

Every March, Women’s History Month reminds us that the strongest movements in native health started with one person brave enough to lead.

Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail Paved the Way for Native Practitioners

Born in 1903 on the Crow Reservation near Pryor, Montana, Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail was a member of the Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation who became one of the first Indigenous registered nurses in United States history. After being orphaned as a child, she pursued her education through boarding schools in Oklahoma and Massachusetts before graduating from Boston City Hospital’s School of Nursing in 1927. She returned home to serve Our Relatives through the Indian Health Service, where she witnessed firsthand the inadequate care, cultural insensitivity, and forced sterilization of Native women happening inside IHS facilities across Indian Country.

She Fought for Elders, Women, and Children Across Indian Country

Yellowtail documented Native children dying from lack of medical access and elders unable to communicate health concerns to non-Native doctors. She became a midwife in the 1930s, combining Western medical training with traditional Indigenous healing knowledge passed down by Crow women, and she pushed the Indian Health Service to allow tribal healers to attend Native patients. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed her to the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee on Indian Health, and she received the President’s Award for Outstanding Nursing Health Care in 1962. Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail was born on January 27, 1903, in Pryor, Montana, and lived until her passing on December 25, 1981, at the age of 78 in Wyola, Montana.

Her Legacy Lives in Every Native Health Worker Today

Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail was inducted into the American Nurses Hall of Fame in 2002 and remains a symbol of culturally competent care and culture awareness in Native populations. Her life proves that Native practitioners, Native owned small businesses like Ellsworth, and ISBEE-certified organizations carry forward a sacred responsibility to serve Our Relatives with dignity, knowledge, and heart!

Ellsworth stands with every Indigenous health professional continuing Susie Yellowtail’s mission. If you are a Native practitioner, nurse, or healthcare worker seeking culturally grounded career placement in Indian Country, connect with Ellsworth today — because our people deserve care from those who understand them.