Nurses and a Beloved Woman

In the 1920s and 1930s, the US Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) operated a public health (or “field nurse”) program to provide better care for Indigenous communities. Laurel Sanders tells the history of this program, centering on the life of Lula Owl Gloyne. Gloyne was an OIA field nurse, an early Native registered nurse, and a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Located in Western North Carolina, this Indigenous Appalachian community faced healthcare barriers shaped by racism, segregation, poverty, and poor infrastructure; likewise, Native communities nationwide endured tuberculosis epidemics and other public health crises.

The OIA attempted to improve conditions by professionalizing women’s health work within its ranks, but the new field nurses were also agents of forced assimilation, a project with deep roots in the public health field as well as US federal Indian policy. Few field nurses, including Gloyne, were Indigenous themselves. In bringing their experiences to light, Sanders show the overlap between the profession of nursing and the ancient importance of women’s leadership, the tensions between federal paternalism and Native nations' goals, and the central role of community connection in public health.