Honoring Indigenous Nurses: Bridging the Past and Future in Healthcare
Indigenous nurses play a vital role in shaping more equitable, culturally grounded healthcare systems. Yet their voices remain some of the least represented in the profession—with less than 0.5% identifying as Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander, according to the AACN. Through their lived experience, community knowledge, and cultural leadership, they offer a kind of care that reaches far beyond clinical treatment.
In a recent episode of Nurse Converse, Dr. Tina Loarte-Rodriguez spoke with Indigenous nurses Sonya Frazier and Taloa Sharp about what it means to be a Native nurse today. Their conversation revealed how these nurses are not only preserving tradition and confronting systemic barriers, but also building futures where Indigenous people feel seen, respected, and valued. Their presence in healthcare is not only vital—it’s transformative.
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Creating Space for Indigenous Voices in Care
Native nurses remain significantly underrepresented. This lack of visibility can lead to gaps in cultural understanding, miscommunication, and missed opportunities to build trust with Indigenous patients. When people rarely encounter providers who share their background, it can reinforce a sense of isolation and mistrust.
Sonya and Taloa have witnessed how meaningful it is when that dynamic changes. As Indigenous nurses, their presence offers familiarity and cultural connection in spaces where many patients have long felt marginalized.
“That's one of the other things we've been trying to do with our organization is to encourage our young people to go into the nursing profession, to go into the health profession, because we need them," Sonya said. "Because as we all know here, representation matters. Because our patients, they just feel more comfortable whenever there's a nurse or a doctor that looks like them and that understands their culture, understands their background.”
Encouraging more Indigenous youth to pursue nursing isn’t just about workforce diversity—it’s about reshaping systems to reflect and respect the communities they serve.
Culture Is Not an Accessory—It’s Essential
Taloa shared a moment that revealed how cultural practice and identity are inseparable. When her son was preparing for high school graduation, she advocated for his right to wear a beaded cap—something school officials challenged as a dress code issue. But for her family, the cap wasn’t simply an accessory; it was a sacred expression of love, lineage, and community.
"It wasn't just a decoration. There's a lot of thought and a lot of prayer that goes into it. I had already asked my cousin who got his Master's to bead his cap. And that was for a reason because I knew that he understood the purpose behind it. And he would pray as he did it because when we do things, when we give things, there's spirituality involved with it."
These caps are created with care and prayer, often by family members, and carry the significance of a rite of passage. Sonya emphasized that what might be seen as ornamentation is actually ceremony—an affirmation of identity.
When institutions fail to recognize this, they aren't just dismissing an object—they're overlooking the meaning it holds. In healthcare, similar oversights can lead to patients feeling misunderstood or unseen. Respecting cultural practices is essential to delivering care that honors the whole person.
Building Networks for Indigenous Nurses
Recognizing how few Indigenous nurses exist within the healthcare system, Sonya and Taloa co-founded the Oklahoma Indigenous Nurses Association (OINA) to build community and create support structures for others navigating similar challenges. Sonya currently serves as the organization’s president, helping lead its efforts to elevate Native voices in healthcare and support the next generation of Indigenous nurses.
“We were looking for other Indigenous nurses because we were like, we can't be the only ones going through all of this. We can't be alone,” Sonya explained.
Their goal was not only to connect with others who shared their experiences but to offer mentorship, resources, and a collective voice. OINA has since become a platform for advocacy and education, elevating Indigenous perspectives in healthcare and addressing structural issues that affect Native communities—such as the lack of culturally informed care and persistent health disparities.
Through this work, they’ve created space where Indigenous nurses don’t have to justify their presence or explain their values. Instead, they can lead, teach, and collaborate with others who understand the weight of cultural responsibility in professional spaces. The organization also serves as a resource for non-Native colleagues seeking to become better allies and partners in care.
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Teaching Through Story and Ceremony
Rather than leading with data or directives, both nurses rely on storytelling to pass on knowledge—just as their elders did. Whether mentoring a new nurse or guiding a community through grief, they use stories to convey not just facts, but values and teachings that last.
Ceremony, too, plays an ongoing role in their lives. From preparing beadwork to marking seasonal transitions, these rituals keep them rooted in who they are and how they serve. Culture isn’t something they leave at the clinic door; it shapes how they lead, respond, and relate to others.
A Shared Responsibility
Both women call on healthcare professionals—Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike—to take an active role in changing the system. That means speaking up when something feels wrong, making room for cultural practices in clinical spaces, and asking questions with humility. It also means recognizing that change doesn’t come from one person, but from communities working together.
There’s no quick fix for the challenges Native people face in healthcare, but there are clear ways forward: creating more pathways for Indigenous students to enter nursing, protecting the right to cultural expression, and building environments where Native voices are heard, respected, and followed.
