Image Source: National Park Service
Susan La Flesche was the first Native American woman to become a physician. The sister of Susette and Francis La Flesche, she attended the missionary school on the Omaha Reservation, the Elizabeth Institute for Young Ladies. In 1884, she enrolled in the Hampton Institute in Virginia, which Samuel Armstrong had established to educate formerly enslaved people. Susan graduated at the top of her class and then attended Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. She secured a scholarship at the Medical College and again finished at the top of her class.
After graduation, she returned to the Omaha Reservation and served as the reservation physician. It was scarce for a Native American to hold such a position, and La Flesche was the first Native American woman to do so. For five years, La Flesche fought smallpox, influenza, and diphtheria on the reservation, traveling to visit her patients in a horse and buggy from before dawn to after dusk. She managed to control several epidemics during that time, but her hard work began to take a toll on her health, and in 1893, she resigned to recover her health and minister to her sick mother.
In 1894, she married Henry Picotte and established a private practice in Bancroft, Nebraska. She practiced medicine in Bancroft for the rest of her life, as her health permitted. She raised two sons and lectured on health-related matters. After her husband died in 1905, she became a Presbyterian missionary to the Omaha nation and represented them in negotiations with the government. Her final accomplishment was the building of a hospital in Walthill, Nebraska. She died at the hospital in 1915. The hospital has been declared a national historic landmark; since 1988, a festival has been held yearly in her memory.
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