BURIED TOGETHER
Partner Laura Gilpin
Queer Places:
Evergreen Cemetery, 1005 Hancock Expy, Colorado Springs, CO 80903, Stati Uniti
Elizabeth
Warham Forster (23 December 1886– 1 January 1972)[1]
was an American nurse, who served on the Navajo Reservation, as a public
health nurse for the tribe. She was innovative in that she encouraged the
Navajo to use their traditional healing methods and rituals and saw them
as complementary parts of the healing process. She later became the
Colorado State Supervisor for the Emergency Recovery Administration. She
was the long-time companion of photographer Laura Gilpin,
who became noted for taking photographs of the Navajo, after Forster
introduced her to their culture.
Elizabeth Warham Forster, known as "Betsy", was born on December 23,
1886 in Georgetown, South Carolina to Farinda Carey (née Payne) and
Charles Warham Forster. She was the middle child of five siblings: Alexius
Mador Forster (1880–1954), Farinda Fairfax Forster (1882–1922), Emily
Fairfax Forster Stuart (1888–1974) and Katherine Herbert Forster
(1891–1905). Through her mother, the family was distantly related to
George Washington.
She enrolled in nursing courses at Union Memorial Hospital of Baltimore,
Maryland and graduated in 1912. Continuing her education, she then studied
public health nursing at Johns Hopkins University.
In 1913, Forster was hired by the Visiting Nurse Association in
Colorado Springs and after two years was made a nursing supervisor.
During the 1918 flu pandemic, she was hired by Laura Gilpin′s mother to
take care for her daughter, who was recovering from influenza.
The two developed a deep friendship, based on many shared interests. By
the end of the year, with Gilpin recovered, Forster left to work for the
Red Cross. After serving for a year with that organization, she returned
to Colorado Springs,
and her supervisors job for the Visiting Nurse Association, where she
worked until 1931.[6]
In 1930, while on a camping trip with Gilpin, the two ran out of gas on
the Navajo Reservation. Forster remained with the car visiting the people
who came to inquire about helping them and ended up playing cards with
them, while Gilpin hiked off to find petrol.[7]
Forster was deeply moved by the friendliness of the Navajo and immediately
inquired about a job with them.[8]
She took a position in 1931 as a public health nurse in Red Rock, Arizona
for the New Mexico Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
Upon her arrival at the reservation, she found that no provisions for
either her own lodging, nor for medical supplies had been made. Securing a
place to stay, she quickly adopted a position that her post would be a
learning experience for her as well as the Navajo.
She made daily nursing rounds, visiting families in their traditional
dwellings and Gilpin often followed her around taking pictures.
Rather than imposing western medicine on her patients, Forster
encouraged use of traditional healing methods and rituals as complementary
practices to her own nursing methods.
For example, during a birthing Forster described, she assisted the Navaho
midwife, allowing the practitioner to take the lead and only adding a few
hygienic measures to the process.
As an advocate for the Navajo to retain their autonomy, she became vocal
in her criticism of both the BIA and missionaries. She saw
Christianization and forced education as detrimental to the
self-determination of the tribe.
The disagreement over whether medicine men should be condemned, resulted
in Forster resignation in 1933.
Leaving the reservation, Forster accepted a position with the Emergency
Recovery Administration in Park County, Colorado and was soon made a
supervisor of the organization. She worked there until 1936, when the
administration was terminated and then worked full-time on a turkey farm
she and Gilpin had started in 1935. After three years, the farm failed and
Forster opened a guest house which she operated until 1942, before
returning to nursing work during the war.
A health crisis occurred in 1944, which forced Forster to retire. She was
diagnosed in August with encephalitis and after being hospitalized was
also diagnosed with polio. Unable to care for herself, she was declared
legally incompetent and was moved to her sister's home in Nebraska for
care. After a year in recovery, the incompetency was annulled and Forster
was well enough to join Gilpin at her new home in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
though she was unable to resume working.
For the remainder of her life, Forster was cared for by Gilpin, who
occasionally photographed Forster over the 50 years of their
companionship.
Near the end of her life, Gilpin had to hire professional care for
Forster, but refused to place her in a nursing home.
Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs
Forster died on 1 January 1972 in Santa Fe, New Mexico and was buried
at Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs, along with her sister; Gilpin is
buried in the same cemetery but in a different plot.[6]
Forster's deep affection for the Navajo people strongly influenced
Gilpin's work and resulted in some of her most important photographs.
Though at the time, her approach to cross-cultural-based public health
work was rejected, today her work with the Navajo is seen as an important
steppingstone and used by researchers in their analysis of both study and
development of public health policy.
In 1988, Forster's letters of her time among the Navajo were edited by
Martha A. Sandweiss and published as Denizens of the Desert: A Tale in
Word and Picture of Life Among the Navaho Indians. The book was
supplemented with photographs by Gilpin.
My published books:
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- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warham_Forster