Susan La Flesche Picotte
Encyclopedia
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
woman to become a physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. She grew up with her parents on the Omaha Reservation
Omaha Reservation
The Omaha Reservation of the Omaha tribe is located mostly in Thurston County, Nebraska, with sections in neighboring Cuming County and Burt County, in addition to Monona County in Iowa. The tribal seat of government is in Macy, with the towns of Rosalie, Thurston, Pender and Walthill located in...
. She went to college at the Hampton Institute and got her medical degree at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) in Philadelphia. Of Ponca
Ponca
The Ponca are a Native American people of the Dhegihan branch of the Siouan-language group. There are two federally recognized Ponca tribes: the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma...
, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, French and Anglo-American descent, she was the first person to receive federal aid for higher education.
LaFlesche Picotte worked in Nebraska, providing health care to her Omaha
Omaha (tribe)
The Omaha are a federally recognized Native American nation which lives on the Omaha Reservation in northeastern Nebraska and western Iowa, United States...
people for much of her career. In private practice after 1894, she also had European-American patients. In 1913 she founded a hospital
Dr. Susan LaFlesche Picotte Memorial Hospital
-External links:*, at Historic American Building Survey*, from a National American Indian Heritage Month feature at the National Park Service...
on the Omaha Reservation
Omaha Reservation
The Omaha Reservation of the Omaha tribe is located mostly in Thurston County, Nebraska, with sections in neighboring Cuming County and Burt County, in addition to Monona County in Iowa. The tribal seat of government is in Macy, with the towns of Rosalie, Thurston, Pender and Walthill located in...
at Walthill, Nebraska
Walthill, Nebraska
Walthill is a village in Thurston County, Nebraska, United States, within the Omaha Reservation. The population was 909 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Walthill is located at...
, the first on any reservation to be privately funded. After LaFlesche Picotte died two years later, the hospital as renamed in her honor. Later it was designated as a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
. Today it serves as a museum featuring her work and the history of the Omaha and Ho-Chunk
Ho-Chunk
The Ho-Chunk, also known as Winnebago, are a tribe of Native Americans, native to what is now Wisconsin and Illinois. There are two federally recognized Ho-Chunk tribes, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska....
tribes, and also has a center for the care of children.
Biography
Susan LaFlesche was one of five children born to Chief Joseph LaFlescheJoseph LaFlesche
Joseph LaFlesche, also known as E-sta-mah-za or Iron Eye , was the last recognized head chief of the Omaha tribe of Native Americans who was selected according to the traditional tribal rituals. The head chief Big Elk had adopted LaFlesche into the Omaha and designated him as his successor....
(Insta Maza, Iron Eye) and his wife Mary (née Gale), also called Hinnuagsnun (One Woman), on the Omaha Reservation
Omaha Reservation
The Omaha Reservation of the Omaha tribe is located mostly in Thurston County, Nebraska, with sections in neighboring Cuming County and Burt County, in addition to Monona County in Iowa. The tribal seat of government is in Macy, with the towns of Rosalie, Thurston, Pender and Walthill located in...
in northeastern Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
. (Each was of half-European ancestry, French on her father's side and Anglo-American on her mother's.) Joseph was Métis
Métis
A Métis is a person born to parents who belong to different groups defined by visible physical differences, regarded as racial, or the descendant of such persons. The term is of French origin, and also is a cognate of mestizo in Spanish, mestiço in Portuguese, and mestee in English...
, son of a French fur trapper (also named Joseph LaFlesche) and his Ponca wife Waoowinchtcha; he was adopted into the Omaha tribe by the chief Big Elk. In 1854 Big Elk designated LaFlesche as the principal chief of the Omaha. His wife Mary Gale was the mixed-race daughter of Dr. John Gale, a surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
at Fort Atkinson
Fort Atkinson (Nebraska)
Fort Atkinson was the first United States Army post to be established west of the Missouri River in the unorganized region of the Louisiana Purchase of the United States. Located just east of present-day Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, the fort was erected in 1819 and abandoned in 1827...
and Ni-co-ma, his Iowa wife. The LaFlesche family was "prominent, educated, and acculturated."
Their parents ensured that Susan and her older siblings, Louis, Susette, Rosalie, and Marguerite, became educated. They made notable contributions in their fields, and included the reformer Susette LaFlesche Tibbles
Susette LaFlesche Tibbles
Susette LaFlesche Tibbles, also called Insta Theamba , was a well-known Native American writer, lecturer, interpreter and artist of the Omaha tribe in Nebraska. Susette LaFlesche was a progressive who was a spokesperson for Native American rights. She was of Ponca, Iowa, French and Anglo-American...
; Rosalie LaFlesche Farley, who served as a financial manager for the Omaha tribe; and Marguerite LaFlesche Picotte, who worked as a teacher. Their half-brother Francis La Flesche
Francis La Flesche
Francis La Flesche was the first professional Native American ethnologist; he worked with the Smithsonian Institution, specializing first in his own Omaha culture, followed by that of the Osage. Working closely as a translator and researcher with the anthropologist Alice C...
, son of Ta-in-ne, their father's second wife, became an ethnologist at the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
.
Susan attended school in northeastern Nebraska until age fourteen. Her father encouraged his children and tribe to seek education and build relationships with European-American reform groups. La Flesche and her sister Marguerite went to New Jersey to attend the Elizabeth Institute for Young Ladies, as had their older sister Susette.
Susan returned home at age 17 in 1882; she taught for two years at the Quaker Mission School on the Omaha Reservation. While teaching, La Flesche cared for the health of the anthropologist Alice Fletcher, who was studying the Omaha. Fletcher returned repeatedly for research, and Francis La dsFlesche became interested in pursuing studies in the field. He later worked with her at the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, where the two developed a close professional partnership. They wrote a book together on the Omaha.
At Fletcher's urging, Susan La Flesche and her sister Marguerite returned to the East for college. Susan went on to earn a medical degree. Both she and Marguerite did their undergraduate work at the Hampton Institute, a prominent historically black college (HBCU) that also educated Native American students. The resident physician, Martha Waldron, was a graduate of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) and encouraged LaFlesche to apply there.
Alice Fletcher helped Susan La Flesche by securing scholarship funds for her medical school from the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
and the Connecticut Indian Association, a branch of the Women's National Indian Association
Women's National Indian Association
The Women’s National Indian Association was founded in 1879 by a group of American women including Mary Bonney and Amelia Stone Quinton. Bonney and Quinton united against the encroachment of white settlers on land set aside for Native Americans. They also drew up a petition that addressed the...
. After completing the normally 3-year program at WMCP in 2 years, Susan La Flesche graduated in 1889 at the top of her class. She remained in Philadelphia to complete her internship. She returned to Nebraska to provide health care to the Omaha, mostly young persons at the government boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
. There LaFlesche was responsible for some 1200 people.
In 1906 LaFlesche Picotte led a delegation to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, to lobby for the prohibition of alcohol on the Omaha Reservation
Omaha Reservation
The Omaha Reservation of the Omaha tribe is located mostly in Thurston County, Nebraska, with sections in neighboring Cuming County and Burt County, in addition to Monona County in Iowa. The tribal seat of government is in Macy, with the towns of Rosalie, Thurston, Pender and Walthill located in...
.
In 1913, two years before her death, LaFlesche Picotte fulfilled a dream by founding a hospital on the reservation in Walthill, Nebraska. She secured the services of the prominent architect William L. Steele
William L. Steele
William LaBarthe Steele was an important architect of the Prairie School during the early twentieth century. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Steele worked in the office of renowned architect Louis Sullivan in Chicago, Illinois 1897–1900...
and raised private funds from various sources. Hers was the first hospital on any American Indian reservation that was funded by private rather than federal government money.
Marriage and family
In 1894 Susan La Flesche married Henry Picotte, a Yankton Sioux. (Her sister Marguerite married his brother Charles and moved to the Yankton Sioux Reservation with him to teach.) After their marriage, Susan and Henry Picotte moved to Bancroft, NebraskaBancroft, Nebraska
Bancroft is a village in Cuming County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 520 at the 2000 census.John Neihardt, who later became Nebraska's poet laureate, lived in Bancroft for twenty years and wrote many of his works there. His study is preserved at the John G...
, where she set up a private practice serving both European-American and Native American patients. Along with maintaining a busy practice, La Flesche Picotte raised their two sons. She nursed her husband through a terminal illness.
Susan LaFlesche Picotte died at age 50 from undetermined causes.
Legacy
- The hospital she founded was in her honor after her death, as the Dr. Susan LaFlesche Picotte Memorial HospitalDr. Susan LaFlesche Picotte Memorial Hospital-External links:*, at Historic American Building Survey*, from a National American Indian Heritage Month feature at the National Park Service...
. It has been adapted for use as a museum: it features her work, and the history of the OmahaOmaha (tribe)The Omaha are a federally recognized Native American nation which lives on the Omaha Reservation in northeastern Nebraska and western Iowa, United States...
and WinnebagoHo-ChunkThe Ho-Chunk, also known as Winnebago, are a tribe of Native Americans, native to what is now Wisconsin and Illinois. There are two federally recognized Ho-Chunk tribes, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska....
tribes. Portions of the building are used for the Sacred Child Center, providing support for troubled young people. - The hospital has been designated a National Historical Landmark by the Department of Interior.
- The Susan LaFlesche Picotte House in Walthill is listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. - Her papers are included with the LaFlesche Family Papers at the Nebraska State Historical Society.
External links
- "Susan La Flesche Picotte, First Native American Woman Medical Doctor", Nebraska Studies
- LaFlesche Family Papers, Nebraska State Historical Society
- "Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte", Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.