This interview originally aired on "In the Moment" on SDPB Radio.
The life of a laundress known as "Mrs. Nash" has been obscured by history and the stories written about her.
She was a laundress who worked at several U.S. forts in the late 1800s. Recipients of her services included General George Armstrong Custer's family, including his wife Elizabeth.
Nash had three documented marriages. Her final husband was Corporal Patrick Noonan.
When she died in 1878, the women preparing her body for burial reported that Nash possessed male anatomy.
In current terminology, the laundress may have been transgender or intersex. (According to the Human Rights Campaign, "Intersex people are born with a variety of differences in their sex traits and reproductive anatomy.")
Catherine Oberheim is an archeologist with the Bureau of Land Management's South Dakota Field Office. She found Nash's story in the pages of a book she bought at a Rapid City flea market.
She joins “In the Moment” to dive into her research into Nash and Noonan’s lives and what she says we can learn from them.
Oberheim wrote a blog post for the BLM on Nash's story and her hunt for her grave. Read it here.
This interview includes discussion of a suicide.
At the time of publication, Oberheim was referred to by a different first name. This web story has been updated but the attached audio still includes the name and references used at the time of the June 2024 interview.
