Susan La Flesche Picotte biography

Synopsis

Susan La Flesche Picotte was the first Native American woman to become a doctor in the United States. She grew up with her parents in the Omaha Reservation, but left to attend college at the Hampton Institute in Virginia. After earning a medical degree at the Women's Medical College of pennsylvania, she returned to the reservation where she worked as a physician until 1894. In 1913 she founded a reservation hospital, which was later named in her honor.

Profile

Physician and tribal leader. Born on June 17, 1865, on the Omaha reservation in Nebraska. Susan La Flesche Picotte broke new ground as the first female Native American to become a doctor. She was the daughter of Omaha Chief Joseph La Flesche, also known as Iron Eye. She left the reservation to go to school and earned her medical degree at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1889.

Returning to the reservation, Susan La Flesche Picotte worked as a physician for her people. She stayed there for several years until she married Henry Picotte in 1894. The couple moved to Bancroft, Nebraska. La Flesche Picotte practiced medicine in her new locale.

With the founding of the town of Walthill in the Omaha reservation, Susan La Flesche Picotte became so active in community and child affairs, as well as a medical doctor, that she was effectively the leader of the Omahas. The hospital she founded in 1913 was named after her upon her death in 1915.