Her half-brother Francis La Flesche became an ethnologist and one of the first Native American professional anthropologists.

Rosalie La Flesche Farley became deeply involved in Omaha financial and land matters.

The family produced not one isolated “exceptional” child but several people who learned how to move between Omaha community life and American political institutions.

Susan’s medical career grew from that same environment.

Her father wanted his children to understand the power structure surrounding them.

Education could be dangerous because schools often demanded cultural surrender.

But ignorance of American law, medicine, finance, and bureaucracy could also leave Native communities vulnerable.

Susan would spend her adult life inside that contradiction.

She accepted western medical training.

She also used it in service of Omaha people.