Picotte, << pih KAHT, >> Susan La Flesche (1865-1915), was the first Native American woman to become a physician. She earned an M.D. degree in 1889 from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She graduated at the top of her class.
Picotte, a member of the Omaha tribe, worked to improve medical care on the Omaha reservation in northeastern Nebraska (see Omaha). From about 1891 to 1894, she was head physician on the reservation. She later organized a county medical society and headed the local board of health. In 1913, Picotte established a hospital on the reservation. The hospital was named for Picotte after her death.
Susan La Flesche was born on the Omaha reservation, probably on June 17, 1865, and attended government and mission schools there. Her father, the chief of the Omaha tribe, believed that education was a key to success in America. She studied at the Elizabeth Institute for Young Ladies in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and graduated from Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in Hampton, Virginia. In 1894, she married Henry Picotte, a farmer of French and Sioux ancestry. Susan La Flesche Picotte died on Sept. 18, 1915.
