Susan La Flesche Picotte
Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865-1915) was the first Native American woman to go to medical school in the United States of America.[1] She graduated as a very skilled doctor and valedictorian of her class, but her rights were still restricted.
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La Flesche grew up with seven other siblings, her mother, and her father. Her father was a very important figure in her life and inspired her to be more than what she looked like, and to strive for the best. She decided she wanted to be a doctor after a lady passed away in front of her because a white man didn’t check on her.[1] This made her want to become a doctor and help fight the racial inequalities this world was made out of.
She went to a med school for women in Pennsylvania and graduated very successfully. [2]She was not allowed to vote being a woman and was not allowed to become a US citizen being an Indian. In Addition, Indians were lower class than whites.
Alice Cunningham Fletcher was very kind and helpful despite the racial discrimination. Fletcher helped solicit donations so that she could start her education. Fletcher was a women's rights activist and made a huge impact on La Flesche.
Susan La Flesche Picotte Media
The Missouri River near the Omaha Indian Reservation
The first building that housed the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, c. 1850
Early photo of Susan La Flesche Picotte
A 19th-century stethoscope
A public health poster from the 1920s, part of the campaign against tuberculosis in which Picotte participated
A map of the original lands held by the Omaha and other Plains tribes (in green), and their reservations (in orange). The Omaha reservation borders the Winnebago reservation in eastern Nebraska
Susan La Flesche Picotte House in Walthill, Nebraska, where she lived from 1907 until her death in 1915
Dr. Susan LaFlesche Picotte Memorial Hospital, Walthill, Nebraska, declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1993
