Women in Science, Medicine and Mathematics

Edith Monture

Born Charlotte Edith Anderson on April 10, 1890, on the Six Nations Reserve in Ohsweken, just outside of Brantford, Ontario. Edith was the youngest of eight children born to Mohawk parents. She attended school on the reserve & later completed high school at the Brantford Collegiate Institute, in school she was described as a gifted student. At the turn of the century, a girl finishing high school, whether they were Indigenous or not, was very rare.

When she was in her twenties she tried and failed to apply to several Ontario nursing schools. Most nursing schools in Ontario didn't allow Indigenous women to attend; the Indian Act, which had been passed by the federal government in 1876 also limited Indigenous people's opportunities. So Edith turned her sights to the US, where she was finally accepted into the New Rochelle Nursing School, in New York. In 1914, she graduated at the head of her class, becoming the first Indigenous woman to become a registered nurse in Canada.

After graduation, Edith worked as a nurse at a private school, in New Rochelle, New York. After the US entered WW1 in 1917, Edith volunteered to join the United States Army Nurse Corps, along with 14 other Canadian nurses. She is one of the few Indigenous women who served overseas with the corps and was the first Canadian Indigenous woman to serve with the US military. Before sailing to France, Edith briefly returned the Six Nations reserve, it's said she was gifted traditional Mohawk clothing, so she could be buried with them if she died while serving overseas. As so many had perished in the war, it was anticipated she would be killed to. For over a year, Edith worked as a nurse at Base Hospital 23, in Vittel, France, treating soldiers injured by gas attacks and other forms of trench warfare. She periodically provided assistance at other medical centres around France and even walked through battlegrounds, searching for the wounded. Like her fellow nurses, her work took an immense physical and emotional toll.

Edith wrote in her diary about 14 hour shifts and sorrow over the loss of a favorite patient, Earl King, who adopted Edith as a big sister. The 20 year old was expected to survive, but one morning he began heavily bleeding and he died 4 hours later. The devastated Edith wrote to King's mother in the US, assuring her that she had been by Earl's side when he passed. After the war when Edith returned to the reserve, the Kings visited her at her home and invited her to pay them a visit in Iowa.

Edith also became the first female Status Indian and registered band member to gain the right to vote in a Canadian federal election, the Military Service Act of 1917 had given wartime nurses the right to vote. However, it wasn't until 1960, that all Indigenous women were allowed to vote in federal elections. She married Claybran Monture in 1919; together they had 5 children, Bud, Helen, Ron, Don, their 5th child, Gilbert died as an infant in 1929.

After WW1, Edith advocated for better healthcare for Indigenous people. In 1939, she was elected honorary president of the Ohsweken Red Cross. She worked part-time as a nurse and midwife on the reserve until 1955, when she retired aged 65. Edith Monture died on April 3, 1996, just a week before her 106th birthday. She had 14 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. Edith is buried at the St. John Anglican Cemetery on the reserve. She has a street and a park named after her in Brantford, Ontario.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/charlotte-edith-anderson-monture?gclid=Cj0KCQiAu62QBhC7ARIsALXijXQow9Xa_bMVrBqVsahzPEcSafiJlIhGkfchANm-5wQJ3BM6uQG4lREaAgmzEALw_wcB