Specialist in the U.S. Air Force, tracking cargo and troops, including ensuring that human remains made it home. Then, she says, “I spent over 20 years away from my tribe and my people, and I didn’t want to work away from my culture anymore.” She now serves as the American Indian/Alaska Native veteran liaison for the Center for Minority Veterans at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in Washington, D.C., connecting with Indig- enous people across the nation and abroad. Before the onslaught of the coronavirus,


Mullen would “bring the VA to the tribes.” She traveled to powwows and other tribal events to set up booths to distribute infor- mation about veterans benefits and intro- duce local VA staff to tribal members. Now she uses video conferences to communicate with tribal nations and their veterans as well as to collaborate with representatives from Australia, New Zealand, England and other foreign countries to exchange information about how to work with Indigenous and other minority veterans.


HONORING ALL WHO SERVED


Native women and their family members have waited a long time for their service to be rec- ognized. Between 1942 and 1944, the WASP flew more than 60 million miles in 75 different types of military aircraft. However, as civilians, they did not receive military benefits or burials until the U.S. government finally granted them veteran status in 1977. The WASP were award- ed the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010. Ola Rexroat died in June 2017 at the age of 99 and was later interred with full military honors in Arlington Cemetery. The Alaska Territorial Guard members


were not granted veteran status until 2000. Laura Wright died in 1996 at the age of 87. Her family accepted her discharge papers at a ceremony acknowledging the service of about a dozen ATG members in 2017. Ezelle, who attended, says, “I was very, very proud.” The idea that all veterans should be ac-


knowledged for their service is one of the driv- ing forces behind the National Native American Veterans Memorial at the NMAI in Washing- ton, D.C. BigMan served on the memorial’s Advisory Committee and Mullen spoke at the community consultations held to inform its vision. Spottedwolf says of the memorial, “To be able to contribute on that level to a broader understanding, to be able to represent our In- digenous people and the contributions we’ve made—it is very fitting.” X


Anne Bolen is assistant managing editor of American Indian magazine.


NURSING ON THE FRONT LINES AND BEYOND


A


Lakota of the Two Kettle Band, Mar- cella Ryan LeBeau began taking care


of people at age 10, when she nursed her dying mother on their Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe’s reservation in South Dakota. LeBeau joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in 1943 and served as a nurse during World War II. As part of the 76th General Hospital, she was “following the war,” tending to wounded from military operations such as the June 1944 D-Day invasion in Normandy. As air forces flew overhead into battle, she says, “We could see the sky just filled with silver planes.” In a tent hospital, LeBeau


also treated those who fought in the Battle of the Bulge in western Europe’s dense Ardennes Forest from December 1944 to January 1945. The buzz bombs flew over day and night. Just miles from the front, she says, “we could feel the concussion of the ack-ack” on the ground. On January 8, a bomb hit the hospital’s motor pool, killing 25 military police. A nurse coming through the aftermath warned her, “Don’t go there. They are going to need you tonight.” So she rested before going on duty. Years later, she returned to the area to ensure that these soldiers were not forgotten. A plaque at the site lists all their names. One of the patients she helped during the war was Eugene Roubideaux, a Native


Marcella Ryan LeBeau (Lakota)


soldier from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. He had lost both legs and was despondent. She stayed by his side, taking him newspapers from home, until he was suddenly transferred. After the war, at each nursing conference LeBeau at- tended, she would ask if anyone knew his fate. Forty years passed before a phone call from Roubideaux’s daughter reunited the attentive nurse and grateful patient. LeBeau says, “I choked up.” After LeBeau retired from the military as a First Lieutenant in 1946, she was a civil


service nurse for 31 years. Her long career culminated with her serving as the director of nurses at the Indian Health Service in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. Her many hon- ors include the French Legion of Honour in 2004, induction into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 2006 and a Special Recognition Award from the National Congress of American Indians in 2020. At 101 years old, LeBeau continues to care for her people. This past May, she


wrote an editorial appealing for tribal nations to be allowed to maintain “health checkpoints” at reservation entrances to stop the spread of COVID-19. She also often speaks on behalf of her culture and veterans. Reflecting on her own military service, she says, “It was a great honor.”


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 23


PHOTO COURTESY OF AMERICAN VETERANS CENTER


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