Susan LaFleche-Picotte

This article by KB Schaller is first in a series that will focus on the achievements of Native American Women.

When most Americans think of visiting a physician for an ailment, most likely a Native American woman does not come to mind—and even less likely in prior centuries. But Susan LaFleche-Picotte opened the door to the breaking of that mindset in 1889 when she became the first Native American woman in the United States to earn a medical degree.

Susan was born in 1865 on the Omaha, Nebraska Reservation. She was the daughter of Omaha Chief Joseph (Insta Maza, “Iron Eyes”) LaFleche, last of the great Omaha chiefs, and Mary (One Woman) Gale.

She attended school on the reservation, but her father also believed in alliances with Euro-American reform groups, so at age 14, Susan was sent to the Elizabeth Institute for Young Ladies in New Jersey. When she returned home at age 17, she taught for two years at the Quaker Mission School on her reservation.

But a childhood remembrance, that of a sick Indian woman who died because the local Euro-American physician refused to treat her set her life on a different course. Reminded of the great need for medical care for her people, she decided instead on a career in medicine--an all but impossible dream for an Indian woman of her day.

She returned East and enrolled at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia. The institute, which accepted both American Indian and African heritage students, was among the nation’s first and finest schools available to non-white students of Susan’s era. It would also set the stage for achieving a number of significant “firsts” during her lifetime.

When Martha Waldron, resident physician and a graduate of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania noticed Susan’s academic abilities, she realized her great potential. With her help Susan was able to secure a scholarship through the Connecticut Indian Association--a branch of the Women’s National Indian Association—and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The action made Susan the first person in the nation to receive federal aid for professional education.

She enrolled in the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, completed the three-year program in only two years and in 1889, graduated first in her class. After completing a one-year internship, she became the nation’s first female Native American Indian medical doctor.

Practicing largely as a Presbyterian medical missionary, she provided health care for approximately 1,200 of her Omaha people at the government boarding school. On 24-hour-call, she was known to leave a lamp burning in her window at night so that those who needed her help could better find their way and know that they were welcome.

In 1894, Susan married Henry Picotte. They had two sons. The couple moved to Bancroft, Nebraska where she began a private practice, serving both non-white and Anglo patients.

When Henry was stricken with a terminal illness, she tended him throughout his ordeal while rearing their sons and continuing her busy practice.

She was also a community and church leader who advocated for public health, respect between races, and the rights of Native Indian people. In 1906, she led a delegation to Washington, D.C. and won a battle to prohibit alcohol on the reservation.

In 1913, in the town of Walthill, she founded the first privately-funded hospital on an Indian reservation.

But Susan had health issues of her own. For about 20 years, she suffered from a degenerative bone disease that caused severe ear pain. Her health declined, and surgery to correct the problem was unsuccessful. She died in 1915 at 50 years of age.

After her death, the hospital she founded was renamed Susan LaFlesche Memorial Hospital in her honor. For more than 30 years, it served both White and Native Indian patients. For an additional 20 years, it was an elder care center.

In 1988, a local multi-racial committee acquired the deteriorating property. In 1989, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Now owned by the Susan LaFleche Picotte Center, Inc., a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation, it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993. The committee’s goal was to commemorate Dr. LaFleche-Picotte’s example of student and servant as well as healer. It also sought to extol the cultural diversity of the people she served and displayed both her work and the histories of the Omaha and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) tribes. A section of the museum is utilized as a child care center and also provides support for troubled young people.

In 1992, Picotte Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska, was named in her honor; and in 2002, she was inducted into the International Women in Medicine Hall of Fame of the American Women’s Medical Association.

Born during a time when racial and gender bias were instilled in public thought, Susan LaFleche-Picotte was indeed a woman far ahead of her time.

Web References: Susan LaFleche-Picotte; Just the Facts About Susan LaFleche-Picotte, M.D .; National Library of Medicine, Changing the Face of Medicine; Center for Rural Affairs, Lyons, NE 68038, Susan LaFleche-Picotte; Wikipedia, Susan LaFleche-Picotte; Picotte Elementary School; Linck, Michele, Staff Writer, Dr. Picotte enters Women in Medicine Hall of Fame, Sioux City Journal, June 21, 2002; Cuming County Biographies, Dr. Susan LaFleche-Picotte

K.B. Schaller (Cherokee/Seminole), independent journalist, novelist; member, Native American Journalists Association (NAJA); novel Gray Rainbow Journey was winner of a National Best Books Award for Multicultural Fiction; author of sequel, Journey by the Sackcloth Moon. She lives in South Florida. Contact: soaring-eagles@msn.com. Visit: http://www.kbschaller.com