Nurse, Mother, Midwife

This chapter explores Native women’s childbearing experiences during the 1930s through the life story of a single woman: Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail. Yellowtail, born on the Crow Reservation, became one of the first Native American registered nurses and worked briefly at the government hospital on her reservation. Through her experiences as an employee and a patient, Yellowtail became aware of inadequate obstetrics practices at the hospital. Specifically, she alleged that she and other Crow women underwent involuntary sterilization procedures within hospital walls. The chapter places Yellowtail’s experiences within the context of the contemporary eugenics movement. It also documents Yellowtail’s multifaceted response to these injustices, which included a decades-long midwifery practice.