Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture

Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture (10 April 1890 – 3 April 1996), known simply as Edith Monture, was a Mohawk World War I veteran, known as the first Indigenous-Canadian woman to become a registered nurse, as well as to gain the right to vote in a Canadian federal election. She was the first Indigenous woman from Canada to serve in the United States military.

Career and overseas service in First World War She had to train as a nurse in the United States because all of the Canadian nursing schools refused her due to her race. The Indian Act of 1876 prevented access to higher education to Indigenous people. Edith Anderson studied at the New Rochelle Nursing School in New York and graduated top of her class, becoming the first Indigenous registered nurse in Canada in 1914. It is believed that she was presented with ceremonial Mohawk clothing as burial wear before she left for overseas service in case she died in the war. It took until 1960 for all Indigenous women to get the federal vote without relinquishing their "Indian status" in Canada.

Anderson continued to work in healthcare and worked as a nurse and midwife a hospital on the reserve until 1955, when she retired aged 65. As Edith Monture she worked hard to improve Indigenous health care. In 1939 Monture was elected honorary president of the Ohsweken Red Cross.

Monture was designated a National Historic Person in 2025 by the Government of Canada, under the Historic Sites and Monuments Act, for her trailblazing role as a nurse and veteran.

Public commemoration of her life includes street and community names in Brantford, Ontario. Edith Monture Avenue, Edith Monture Park and Edith Monture Elementary School in Brantford are all named after her.