Dr. Susan LaFlesche Picotte was born on June 17, 1865 on the Omaha Indian Reservation in northeastern Nebraska. Her father, Josephe LaFlesche, also known as Iron Eyes, was Chief of the Omaha Nation and strongly encouraged her to focus on her education. After attending college at the Hampton Institute in Virginia, she earned her medical degree from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA in 1889, becoming the first American Indian woman to do so.
After medical school, Dr. Picotte returned to the reservation and devoted her medical career to providing healthcare for the Omaha people. She was also an active public health and Indian rights advocate. In 1913, she successfully raised the funds necessary to construct a hospital on the Omaha Reservation at Walthill, Nebraska, the first on any reservation to be privately funded. After her death in 1915, the hospital was renamed the Susan LaFlesche Picotte Memorial Hospital in her honor.
After medical school, Dr. Picotte returned to the reservation and devoted her medical career to providing healthcare for the Omaha people. She was also an active public health and Indian rights advocate. In 1913, she successfully raised the funds necessary to construct a hospital on the Omaha Reservation at Walthill, Nebraska, the first on any reservation to be privately funded. After her death in 1915, the hospital was renamed the Susan LaFlesche Picotte Memorial Hospital in her honor.
