Interactions between public health nurses and clients on American Indian reservations during the 1930s

This essay examines the encounters between clients and public health nurses hired by the Office of Indian Affairs to work on American Indian reservations during the 1930s. It relies on two different types of sources. The first are the accounts of the nurses, including letters, memoirs, and above all their monthly and annual reports to Washington. The second are oral histories conducted by the authors with elderly residents of two Sioux reservations in South Dakota during August 1993. One of the key missions of the public health nurses was to inculcate Euro-American beliefs. They assumed that American Indians would follow a linear progression from understanding the 'rules of health' to the eradication of all traditional practices. That model left no room for ambiguity or syncretism. The Sioux viewed the nurses as resources to be used strategically and selectively. Those who accepted the nurses' services did so because the services addressed specific needs the Sioux themselves defined as important. Most disregarded the health education programme insofar as it assumed the superiority of Euro-American values.