How Susan La Flesche Picotte Became America’s First Native Woman Doctor – Then Built The Hospital Her People Had Been Denied

One of the earliest Native professional ethnologists was a La Flesche.

America’s first Native woman physician was a La Flesche.

The family itself becomes evidence of what Native communities could produce when given access to institutions they had long been denied.

The difference is that the La Flesches did not simply ask to be included.

They used inclusion to intervene.

The Health Crisis Was Also A Crisis Of Trust

One of Susan’s hardest tasks could not be solved with a medical instrument.

It was trust.

The Omaha Reservation had been shaped by decades of federal intervention.

Agents made decisions about food, land, education, and movement.