Badass Women: Dr. Susan la Flesche Picotte

Susan la Flesche Picotte was born on the Omaha reservation in Nebraska in 1865 and is widely recognized as the first Native American person to earn a medical degree, as well as the first person in the U.S. to receive federal aid in order to complete their education.

Born to parents who were both biracial, she was raised with a mix of her Omaha traditions and also white culture, as her parents saw that to survive in the society they lived in, she would have to be comfortable moving in both worlds. After beginning her education on the reservation, she went to university at Hampton College, a historically black college that also attracted many Native Americans. Instead of settling down to marriage and children upon graduation, as women were expected to do, La Flesche applied to medical school, a rare decision based solely on the fact that most medical schools did not accept women.

She attended the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, and received her aid from the Women’s National Indian Association, which paid not only her tuition, but also for her books, supplies, and room and board. She graduated at the top of her class and was valedictorian. Although the institutions supporting her often were in favor of assimilation, and La Flesche herself also spoke in support of it, she always remembered her heritage, caring for the Indian community first and then the broader community as well—as many as 1,200 people fell under her care.

In a society that didn’t value women at all, and Native American women even less, she pushed forward and always kept her dreams and goals at the forefront of her life. Even after marrying a divorcee and having two children with him, she continued to work, which was extremely uncommon in the Victorian age, as the large majority of women were expected to stay at home and raise the children.

Throughout her life she was an advocate for the Native American population not only within the medical community, but also both on and off the reservation, helping them with their illnesses and also with their court battles as they fought to receive the money they deserved from their already sold land. This advocacy was inspired by her own inheritance issues; principally when her husband died and she had to fight to secure not only her own inheritance from him, but also that of her sons.

She also raised funds to open a hospital on the reservation itself, named the Dr. Susan la Flesche Memorial Hospital, and which is now a community center.

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