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Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture

Charlotte Edith Anderson was the first Native Canadian woman to train and work as a nurse.

Edith was born on the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve in Southern Ontario. She was a descendant of the great Mohawk leader and British ally, Joseph Brant.

Despite making many applications to nursing schools in Canada, due to racial predjudice, Edith was not permitted to take her training in Canada. However, she was accepted into the New Rochelle (New York) nursing school. After graduation, she went on to become a Public School nurse in New York City.

In 1917, when United States entered into WWI, Edith joined the New Rochelle contingent of the Army Nurse Corps and served in Vittel, France.

Fourteen Native American women served as members of the Army Nurse Corps during World War I, two of them overseas.

She later referred to her service in France at a military hospital as "the adventure of a lifetime."

When she returned from France after the war, she returned to the Six Nations reserve, married, and had a family but still worked part-time as a nurse at the hospital in the Six Nations Reserve.

Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture passed away in 1996, just 6 days short of her 106th birthday.

She was my ex-husband's grandmother. I was honored to have known her.

Sadly out of date, but a substantial bio: http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=history/other/native/nurse

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Mudhooks

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