Sage Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Ganado, Arizona was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark on January 16, 2009.

Eventually students representing over 50 different Native American tribes, as well as women of Mexican, Spanish, Inuit, Japanese, Filipino, and Chinese descent enrolled in the training program.

The school's diverse population clearly illustrates that access to an accredited nursing education was not, at that time, generally available within the United States to non-white students.

Local trader Don Lorenzo Hubbell helped them obtain land and gave them the use of a small house near his store.

Mrs. Bierkemper started a school in the living room of that home while her husband was overseeing the building of a church and a manse.

During World War II years, many of the graduates of Sage Memorial School of Nursing served with honor in the military.

The staff helped the remaining undergraduates transfer to good schools, and nursing continued to be a career chosen by many Native Americans.

Small public schools under state supervision had been growing across the Reservation, at first serving English only students, both Anglo and Navajo.

Many of the leaders for the Navajo Tribe in early years and after World War II came from church sponsored schools: the Presbyterians at Ganado, the Methodists in Farmington, the Catholics at St. Michaels, and the Christian Reformed at Rehoboth near Gallup.

This time, Hope did not succeed; despite considerable help from the Indian Health Service, in 1986 the hospital was turned over to a for-profit company.