Native Nurses Leading the Way with Care, Culture, and Community

Reesa’s Story

By Reesa Eliza Thornmaker- Artz (Chippewa Cree), BSN, RN, Credentialed School Nurse, Montana State University

There is a particular kind of love that looks like showing up. Knowing in your bones that your presence in a room matters. That the history you carry, the community you come from, the way you understand healing, all of it, is what that room has been waiting for. Indian Country has always had healers. Right now, it needs more of them, and the next generation of Indigenous women in healthcare are already becoming exactly that.

I grew up knowing that health is political. Tender and charged and historical all at once. Shaped by people who were outside our communities. As a Native woman, that landing was personal. The maternal health crisis, the reproductive injustices, the clinical spaces that never quite held our fullness were the landscape I grew up inside of, and they became the landscape I decided to change. That decision asked me to dream bigger than what I had been shown, and I said yes.

Nursing school was rigorous and formative and largely quiet on the textured, layered realities of Indigenous patients. The curriculum trained me to treat bodies expertly, and stepped past the grief that Indigenous patients carry into clinical spaces. I walked away a skilled nurse and also deeply aware of the absence I had moved through, and hungry to do something about it. Native women, present in the room, holding irreplaceable context, that is what changes outcomes.

The work calls in so many directions because the need does too, and I have learned to say yes to all of it. To the school hallway and the delivery room and the crisis line and the dissertation and the advocacy work, all at once, without waiting for permission. Indigenous women have always been capacious people. Dreaming big, following every thread of curiosity, allowing yourself to be everything and all the things that light you up. And that is not being scattered, that is the fullness this work deserves. Say yes to your ambition. Say yes to your multitudes.

Native women carry something into healthcare spaces that is both rare and urgently necessary. We move through these systems with an understanding of what seeking care has historically cost our communities, showing up anyway, as providers and researchers and advocates. We understand the particular vulnerability of Indigenous women in clinical spaces, the way historical trauma shapes a body’s relationship to being examined, questioned, treated. That understanding is some of the most sophisticated clinical awareness a provider can hold, and it lives in us organically. It is a gift, and it belongs in every room. Every room you are brave enough to walk into.

Indigenous women face some of the most staggering maternal mortality rates in the country, compounded by generations of reproductive harm carried out under the guise of care. These outcomes are responsive to who is in the room. When an Indigenous woman is the provider, the researcher, the counselor, the scientist, the nurse, the doctor, the midwife, trust becomes possible in a way it often hasn’t been before. That shift is everything. It begins the moment you decide your ambition is worth following.

Native women have always been devoted and enduring keepers of community health. That legacy belongs in every clinic, every delivery room, every research partnership being built today, and it belongs to every Indigenous woman who feels that particular pull toward healing and is courageous enough to lean into it fully.

To any Native woman standing at the edge of a path in healthcare, lean into every part of yourself. Your curiosity, your grief, your fire, your tenderness, your multitudes. Dream as big as your communities need you to. You are exactly who this moment is asking for.

We have always been healers. Nothing has ever changed that, and nothing ever will.

Jeffery’s Story

Jeffrey Begay Jr. grew up connected to the Navajo reservation and saw first-hand how people living on the reservation had limited access to healthcare, healthy foods, transportation, and community resources, impacting their health.

In his first job as a paramedic on the reservation, responding to a great deal of trauma calls helped him understand the importance of emergency medical response. Alcohol abuse, domestic violence, diabetes, and their comorbidities were some of the most common ailments he was called to treat.

Jeffrey says he was inspired to seek a career in nursing not only from witnessing health disparities in his community but by his mother, the strongest influence in his healthcare journey. She instilled in him Navajo cultural values, along with his maternal grandfather, a medicine man. Jeffrey sees a connection between healing, service, and responsibility and focuses on advocacy, cultural humility, and meeting people where they are in his work.

Nearly a decade ago, Jeffrey moved to Denver, Colorado to pursue his nursing degrees, driven by the desire to expand his knowledge and scope of practice by contributing more to both his community and broader healthcare systems. Today he works two jobs, as a flight nurse with Intermountain Health’s Legacy Life Flight team, and as a PRN pediatric emergency nurse at Denver Health.

A cornerstone of Jeffrey’s personal healthcare philosophy incorporates his values as a Navajo, focusing on balance, respect, and wellness for the whole person. He says nursing is about deep relationships and not simply treating immediate illness or injury.

Jeffrey shares a story about responding to a call on the reservation where an elder with low blood sugar was home alone caring for her livestock without a vehicle. She needed more than temporarily boosting her blood sugar, so Jeffrey cooked her a meal and ensured someone was coming to stay with her before leaving.

A hardship many reservations and rural communities face is lacking the complex, comprehensive medical systems of urban areas. Witnessing firsthand this gap in care, Jeffrey wants to build systems that combine Western medicine with traditional concepts of what healing means and cultural awareness by medical staff. Evidence-based medicine improves patient care, but so does the involvement of healthcare workers who respect and understand their patients’ cultures.

He says there is also a need for patient health literacy, especially Native patients who may not understand the difference between what the Indian Health Service (IHS) offers and health insurance.

“We need healthcare workers who are clinically strong, but also culturally humble, who are community-centered and willing to advocate for patients beyond the bedside. We need nurses, paramedics, community health representatives, caseworkers, and leaders who can explain care clearly, coordinate referrals, support families, and protect the dignity of Native patients as they move through these complex healthcare systems,” Jeffrey says.

Healthcare workers also need support in the form of resources and sound leadership. Strong staffing, telehealth access, mental health resources, and sustainable funding are just some of the resources Jeffrey notes. Healthcare workers in Indian country need culturally grounded education to understand tribal sovereignty, the history of IHS, and federal trust responsibility. On the topic of personal trust, Jeffrey reminds healthcare workers trust isn’t automatic, especially in communities that have experienced historical trauma, underfunded systems, and inconsistent access. Time and communication are key between patients and healthcare workers

As a nursing student. Jeffrey remembers feeling unsure of his success and wondering if he truly belonged in higher education and healthcare. Jeffrey shares the sentiments of many Native students that education isn’t just about passing classes. It also includes finances, family responsibility, transportation, and leaving one’s community. But he also advises current and prospective Native nursing students that they come from resilient people and there are many pathways to becoming a nurse, all of which are meaningful.

“Our cultures teach us humility, respect, responsibility, and service. Those teachings are powerful leadership tools. They help us to become nurses who listen deeply, advocate strongly, and care for the whole person. And again, not just diagnosis. We bring something special to healthcare because we understand community, family, hardship, and the importance of culturally sensitive care,” he says

Jeffrey also encourages Native nursing students to seek out mentors, apply for scholarships, ask questions and accept help when it’s offered.

“Do not be afraid to take up space in nursing. Our communities need us and healthcare systems across this country need our voices. Native nurses are part of the bridge between traditional knowledge, Western medicine, health equity, and community healing.”

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