Nurses and a Beloved Woman: Eastern Cherokee Sovereignty and Federal Public Health in Interwar America (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781469697413)

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.

Author: Laurel Sanders
ISBN-10: 1469697416
ISBN-13: 9781469697413
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Language: English
Published: 12/15/2026
Pages: 208
Format: Paperback