Even there, students faced a culture that regularly questioned whether women should practice medicine at all.

The era’s medical establishment was dominated overwhelmingly by men.

Women physicians were mocked as unnatural, physically weak, or intellectually incapable of handling the demands of the profession.

Susan entered this environment as a Native student from Nebraska.

She studied anatomy, physiology, chemistry, obstetrics, surgery, pharmacology, and clinical medicine.

The work was demanding.

The city was far from home.

Letters became one of the ways she remained connected to the Omaha Reservation.

When illness spread among relatives or community members, Susan sometimes found herself trying to give medical advice from hundreds of miles away.

Her studies had immediate meaning.