Beulah Melvin Allen

{{short description|American physician}}

{{About|the Diné physician|the American nurse and civilian physician|Beulah Ream Allen}}

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| name = Beulah Melvin Allen

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| birth_date = July 19, 1937

| birth_place = Eureka, California, United States

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| occupation = physician

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Beulah Melvin Allen (born July 19, 1937) was a Diné physician. In 1952, at the age of 23, she was the first Miss Navajo Nation.

Life

Beulah Margaret Melvin was born in Eureka, California on July 19, 1937, moving with her family at 18 months old to Fort Defiance, Arizona on the Navajo Reservation.{{cite web |title=Beulah Margaret Melvin {{!}} California Birth Index, 1905-1995 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2QX-HLD |accessdate=4 September 2020 |via=FamilySearch}} Her mother was a nurse at the Fort Defiance Indian Hospital. In 7th grade, she moved to California and stayed there until she finished high school. In 1952, Melvin was selected as Miss Navajo at the annual Navajo Nation Fair. At the time, the competition was determined by whichever contestant received the largest applause.

Starting in 1954, she attended Barnard College, planning to study there for two years. In 1955, she attended Arizona State College, and in 1956, she spent her junior year at the University of Oregon.

She attended Cornell Medical College in 1958 and 1959, receiving a Navajo Tribal scholarship to attend both years.{{cite book |title=Cornell University Medical College Announcement |publisher=Cornell University |volume=50 |number=5 |page=112 |url=https://archive.org/details/cornell1960unse/page/n1051/mode/2up |accessdate=11 September 2020}}{{cite book |title=Cornell University Medical College Announcement |publisher=Cornell University |volume=51 |number=5 |page=113 |url=https://archive.org/details/cornell1960unse/page/n953/mode/2up |accessdate=11 September 2020}}{{cite news |title=Navajo Tribal Group Allocates $168,930 In Funds for '58-'59 Scholarship Awards |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58533456/arizona-daily-sun/ |accessdate=11 September 2020 |work=Arizona Daily Sun |date=21 August 1958 |page=11}}{{cite news |title=Tribe Gives 119 Free College Scholarships |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58533500/the-gallup-independent/ |accessdate=11 September 2020 |work=The Gallup Independent |date=9 September 1959 |page=3}} In 1961, she graduated from The University of Arizona with a bachelor's degree in anthropology.{{cite web |title=Indian Education: America's Unpaid Debt. A Compendium Report Covering Calendar Years 1980-1981. The Eighth Annual Report to the Congress of the United States. |url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED220243.pdf |publisher=National Advisory Council on Indian Education |access-date=2 March 2021 |pages=49–50 |date=June 1982}}

On November 14, 1969, Beulah married Richard N. Allen in Contra Costa, California.{{cite web |title=Beulah M Melvin |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V66B-LSB |publisher=California Marriage Index, 1960-1985 |accessdate=11 September 2020 |via=FamilySearch}}{{cite web |title=Beulah M Cremer |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V6DM-HR6 |publisher=California Marriage Index, 1960-1985 |accessdate=11 September 2020 |via=FamilySearch}}

She received a fellowship to attend the University of Arizona College of Medicine, graduating around the early 1980s.{{cite news |title=Washington fellowship announced for 18 Indian students from Arizona |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21705979/news-roessel-jr-az-4-13-1980/ |accessdate=4 September 2020 |work=Arizona Republic |date=15 April 1980 |page=B2}}

In 1981, she won the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Merit Award.

References

{{reflist |refs=

{{cite book |last1=Krupat |first1=Arnold |title=Changed Forever, Volume I: American Indian Boarding-School Literature |date=2018 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-1-4384-6916-4 |page=325 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rX9SDwAAQBAJ&dq=Beulah+Melvin+Allen&pg=PA325 |language=en}}

{{cite web |title=Miss Navajo |url=https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/missnavajo/pageant.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111172731/http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/missnavajo/pageant.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 11, 2007 |website=PBS |accessdate=15 August 2020}}

{{cite news |title=Navajo Indian Now UO Coed |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58532646/the-eugene-guard/ |accessdate=4 September 2020 |work=The Eugene Guard |date=19 December 1956 |page=13A}}

{{cite news |title=Navajo woman honored |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/57494598/navajo-woman-honored/ |accessdate=4 September 2020 |work=Tucson Citizen |date=13 August 1981 |page=2}}

{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=Tobia |title=First Navajo Here Plans on Nursing |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58531499/barnard-bulletin/ |accessdate=4 September 2020 |work=Barnard Bulletin |date=18 October 1954 |page=2}}

{{cite news |title=Beulah Allen to Receive Medical Degree |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/celebrity-clipping-may-07-1981-1952703/ |accessdate=September 11, 2020 |work=Navajo Times |date=May 7, 1981 |page=10 |language=en}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Beulah Melvin}}

Category:Living people

Category:1937 births

Category:20th-century American women physicians

Category:20th-century American physicians

Category:Native American physicians

Category:Navajo Nation people

Category:20th-century Native American people

Category:21st-century Native American people

Category:20th-century Native American women

Category:21st-century Native American women

Category:People from Eureka, California

Category:People from Fort Defiance, Arizona