Abel E K, Reifel N
UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, USA.
Soc Hist Med. 1996 Apr;9(1):89-108. doi: 10.1093/shm/9.1.89.
This essay examines the encounters between clients and public health nurses hired by the Office of Indian Affairs to work on American Indian reservations during the 1930s. It relies on two different types of sources. The first are the accounts of the nurses, including letters, memoirs, and above all their monthly and annual reports to Washington. The second are oral histories conducted by the authors with elderly residents of two Sioux reservations in South Dakota during August 1993. One of the key missions of the public health nurses was to inculcate Euro-American beliefs. They assumed that American Indians would follow a linear progression from understanding the 'rules of health' to the eradication of all traditional practices. That model left no room for ambiguity or syncretism. The Sioux viewed the nurses as resources to be used strategically and selectively. Those who accepted the nurses' services did so because the services addressed specific needs the Sioux themselves defined as important. Most disregarded the health education programme insofar as it assumed the superiority of Euro-American values.
本文考察了20世纪30年代受印第安事务办公室雇佣、在美洲印第安人保留地工作的客户与公共卫生护士之间的接触情况。它依据两种不同类型的资料来源。第一种是护士们的记述，包括信件、回忆录，尤其是她们每月和每年给华盛顿的报告。第二种是作者于1993年8月对南达科他州两个苏族保留地的老年居民进行的口述历史。公共卫生护士的一项关键任务是灌输欧美观念。他们假定美洲印第安人会遵循从理解“健康规则”到根除所有传统习俗的线性进程。那种模式没有给模棱两可或融合留下空间。苏族人将护士视为可以有策略地、有选择地加以利用的资源。那些接受护士服务的人这样做是因为这些服务满足了苏族人自己界定为重要的特定需求。大多数人无视健康教育计划，因为该计划假定欧美价值观具有优越性。
