Susan La Flesche Picotte

Susan La Flesche Picotte (June 17, 1865 – September 18, 1915) was an Omaha Native American doctor and reformer in the late 19th century. She is widely acknowledged as the first Native American to earn a medical degree. She campaigned for public health and for the formal, legal recognition of Native American citizenship.

Early life and education

Susan La Flesche was born on June 17, 1865, on the Omaha Indian Reservation, present-day northeastern Nebraska. She was the youngest of four daughters of Mary (One Woman) and Joseph La Flesche (Iron Eye). Her father was the last recognized chief of the Omaha.

La Flesche attended the Elizabeth Institute for Young Ladies, a private school in New Jersey, and later the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, one of the first Native American boarding schools. She graduated at the top of her class in 1886.

Medical career

La Flesche applied to the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, where she graduated as valedictorian in 1889. She was the first person of Native American descent to earn a medical degree.

After graduation, La Flesche returned to the Omaha reservation where she worked as a physician for the Office of Indian Affairs (now the Bureau of Indian Affairs). She served more than 1,300 patients over a 450-square mile area.

Later life and death

In 1894, La Flesche married Henry Picotte and they had two sons. After her husband's death in 1905, she continued her medical practice and became an advocate for the prohibition of alcohol, which she believed was destroying Native American communities.

La Flesche died of bone cancer on September 18, 1915.

Legacy

La Flesche's legacy continues in the work of the Susan La Flesche Picotte Memorial Hospital, the first hospital built on a Native American reservation without federal funding.

See also

• List of first women doctors and medical practitioners
• Native American civil rights

References

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External links

• Biography at the National Library of Medicine

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