By James Coburn, staff wrier
Being a nurse is being a healer. The biggest part of being a human being is showing love to your fellow human beings, said Sonya Frazier, RN, president, and co-founder of the Oklahoma Indigenous Nurses Association (OINA). She also works for Indian Health Services.
“All of us need to find a purpose in life. We all have a gift and once you find that gift, you share it with others to help them find their gifts,” said Frazier, who lives in Ada.
OINA had a special occasion to welcome recent Indigenous nursing school graduates into the profession. Graduates learned more about experiences they may have in their nursing career.
“For this group at NSU (Northeastern State University) we will do a blessing for them,” Frazier said.
There was be a blanket ceremony. “Baby nurses” were smudged with sage and cedar. OINA participants sang a song for them. It’s to let them know that they have the support they need for their career.
Nurses see new life enter and leave this world, she continued. Many nurses are not given the opportunity to celebrate with patients and family members, or to mourn with them, she added. The event lets Indigenous nurses know it’s healthy to process their feelings.
“As healers we take in a lot from our patients and then we go home to do our best to take care of our families as well and we have to find a balance with that. This is something we used to do traditionally” Frazier said. “When our relatives accomplished something, we would honor them in a way to let them know that we are thankful for them going on that journey and bringing it back to our communities to help our community.”
Family is a big part of Native American life and who is family can extend beyond blood lines.
Frazier is also the founder of the Regalia Making Relatives. The group bridges a gap by teaching Indigenous children the value of connecting to their Indigenous heritage.
She formed Indigenous cultural educational training for nursing to alleviate health and social disparities among Native Americans. Her own experiences of being the object of racism energized her involvement with the National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing.
“I can tell you that in my career I experienced a lot of racism towards me as a Native nurse,” Frazier said. “And I’ve always thought there is a way we can change it.”
Racism tells people that they cannot succeed. Overcoming racism is about educating ourselves, she explained.
“My own children have watched me through my career, and they have said they are not going to be nurses because of what they have seen me go through,” Frazier said.
Ironically, many of her Indigenous friends’ children say they will become nurses because they are inspired by the advocacy of OINA.
She traversed the stigma of racism with her Chickasha/Choctaw heritage and her spirituality derived as a child growing up on the Sioux reservation in South Dakota.
Indigenous nurses remain the least represented group in nursing with less than 0.5% identifying as Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing,
“We’re hoping by putting ourselves out there by educating, providing mentorship, leadership — showing all the projects that we’re involved in as well, will encourage indigenous youth to go into nursing,” Frazier said.
Her vigilance has been described as fearless. Frazier was one of the nurses to write the 2025 code of ethics for the American Nurses Association. Her participation as an Indigenous nurse focused on how to be a good relative to the patients they care for.
“They are our relatives. That’s a big part of our teachings — that we are all related — because we are related to the land, the environment, and to each other,” Frazier explained. “And that’s how we should see each other. Accept each other for who we are and where we come from.”
OINA also gave the code of ethics at the ceremony in May because it represents the core identity of nurses.
“We encourage all nurses to read it, so they will have something to go back to lean on as they go through their nursing career,” Frazier said.
Frazier became a nurse following the footsteps of her mother, who was a retired LPN. Her mom encouraged her to become a registered nurse with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. “Here I am. I’m glad my mom suggested that I do that,” she said.
Frazier earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree at East Central University in Ada. She plans on working toward her master’s degree in nursing next year at Missouri Southern State University.
And this year she has discovered gardening. Placing her hands in the good earth has been very therapeutic for her. She and her husband have been married for 35 years and have eight children together.
“I believe that is what we all need to learn — how to take care of the land — because if we take care of the land, the land will take care of us,” she said.
To learn more about OINA, please visit them on Facebook or their website at https://oklahomanurses.org/OINA. Email them at [email protected]
