Trailblazing Kanien’kehá:ka nurse now a national historic person

Edith Anderson Monture has garnered yet another accolade nearly 30 years after her death, thanks in part to her grandson. 

A Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) woman from Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, Anderson Monture was recently deemed a person of national historic significance under Parks Canada's National Program of Historical Commemoration.

Anderson Monture, one of the first First Nations women to become a registered nurse in Canada, died at the age of 105 at her home in the community in 1996.

Her grandson, John Moses, a member of the Delaware Nation who is Kanien’kehá:ka through his maternal family, said he was thinking of more than just his trailblazer grandmother when he made the nomination to Parks Canada.  

"My main motivation was hopefully this will serve as an incentive for other young Indigenous people out there who are looking for role models within the health-care professions," he said.

Anderson Monture struggled to be accepted to a Canadian nursing school, which almost exclusively admitted white students. At the time, First Nations people also faced involuntary enfranchisement (loss of Indian status) for pursuing higher education.

She moved to the United States to attend nursing school in New York state, and completed her degree in 1914. She then volunteered as a nurse with the U.S. military in the First World War, treating wounded soldiers in France.  

After the war, she became a midwife and also supported local First Nations voting efforts by hosting a polling station in her home, Moses said. 

He said he hopes people are able to reflect on the complexity of his grandmother’s achievements. 

"It's very gratifying to see that this national designation has occurred but at the same time, we have to be cognizant of all aspects of the story being told," he said. 

"It was Canada's racist policies under the Indian Act of Grandma's era that obliged her to seek her nurses training [in the U.S.] in the first place."

Erin Millions, a non-Indigenous associate professor of history at the University of Winnipeg, co-nominated Anderson Monture.

She told Parks Canada that Anderson Monture’s life and work should be remembered as extraordinary and exceptional. 

"Her exclusion from Canadian nurse training programs, however, highlights the racism and colonial policies that often prevented First Nations students from accessing post-secondary education," Millions said in a Parks Canada news release.