Susie Yellowtail
| Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Susie Walking Bear January 27, 1903 near Pryor, Montana |
| Died | December 25, 1981 (aged 78) Wyola, Montana |
| Burial place | Lodge Grass Cemetery, Big Horn County, Montana |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | nurse |
| Years active | 1927-1979 |
| Known for | First Crow registered nurse in the U.S. |
Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail (1903-1981) (Crow-Sioux) was the first Crow and one of the first Native Americans to graduate as a registered nurse in the United States. Working for the Indian Health Service, she brought modern health care to her people and traveled throughout the U.S. to assess care given to indigenous people for the Public Health Service. Yellowtail served on many national health organizations and received many honors for her work, including the President's Award for Outstanding Nursing Health Care in 1962 and being honored in 1978 as the "Grandmother of American Indian Nurses" by the American Indian Nurses Association. She was inducted into the Montana Hall of Fame in 1987 and in 2002 became the first Native American inductee of the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame.
Susie Walking Bear was born on January 27, 1903 on the Crow Indian Reservation near Pryor, Montana to native parents. Her mother, Kills the Enemy or Jane White Horse was Oglala Sioux and her father, Walking Bear, was Apsáalooke Crow. Walking Bear's father died prior to her birth and her mother remarried Stone Breast. Raised by her mother and step father, she began school at the Catholic Mission in Pryor at age eight, but was orphaned when she was twelve and sent to the Indian Boarding School in Lodge Grass, Montana. In 1919, she accompanied a missionary, Francis Shaw, to Denver, for a Baptist convention, and though she had been promised she could return to the Crow school, she was sightseeing when her group returned to Montana. Shaw suggested that Walking Bear accompany her to Muskogee, Oklahoma and continue her schooling at Bacone Indian School. When Walking Bear completed her eighth grade studies, Shaw, then Mrs. Clifford Field, brought her to Northfield, Massachusetts and paid the tuition for Walking Bear to attend Northfield Seminary. Walking Bear worked as a nanny and maid while attending school to be able to pay her own room and board.
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