Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail
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. Early life 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 stepfather, she began school at the Catholic Mission in Pryor