March 13, 2025 • 54 mins
Join us as we explore the life of Susan LaFlesche Picotte, Nebraska’s first Native American physician, who served the Omaha tribe from 1865 to 1915. Author Valerie Sherer Mathes explores Picotte's pioneering medical career and advocacy for her community's rights. Discover how Picotte transformed healthcare and fought for justice. This article was originally published in a 1982 issue of Nebraska History Magazine titled "Susan La Flesche Picotte: Nebraska's Indian Physician."
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(00:00):
The following episode features ahistoric article from the
Nebraska History magazine. This article may reflect the
language and attitudes of its time and while it offers
valuable insight into the past, may contain expressions or
viewpoints that are outdated or offensive by today's standards.
Any outdated terms do not reflect the current views or
perspectives of the Nebraska State Historical Society.
Welcome to the Nebraska History podcast.
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I'm your host, Chris Goforth. Each episode we explore articles
written and published in Nebraska History Magazine.
Susan Lafleche Picot graduated from medical school during a
time when very few women did so.In fact, she was the first
Native American woman to reach such an achievement.
This episode explores her history through the 1982
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Nebraska History Magazine article Susan Lafleche Picot,
Nebraska's Indian Physician, written by Valerie Shearer
Mathis Plenty of air and sunshine.
That is nature's medicine, but Ihave hard work to make my people
understand those remarks from Susan Lafleche, the first Indian
woman physician. Susan's people, the Sioux and
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speaking Omaha, had their origins in the Ohio and Wabash
River area, but had subsequentlymigrated westward to eastern
Nebraska. Following the passage of the
Indian Removal Act in 1830, theybegan ceding their claims to
eastern lands. By 1854 they gave up their
rights to hunting grounds West of the Missouri River and
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retained only a small tract bordering the river.
In return for ceded lands, they received annuities, a gristmill,
a blacksmith shop, and protection from hostile tribes.
The treaty also gave the Board of Foreign Missions of the
Presbyterian Church four quartersections of land to continue
missionary work among the tribe.The Presbyterians had
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established their first permanent mission at Bellevue,
NE in 1845, but when the Omaha secession required the Indians
to move to their new reservation, the missionaries
followed. In 1858 they built a new mission
house as well as a boarding and day school where Omaha children,
including those of Joseph Lafleche, were educated.
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The son of a French fur trader and his Indian wife, Joseph in
1853 was the last recognized chief of the tribe.
Aware that the Indians would eventually have to learn the
ways of the whites, in the 1850she hired white carpenters to
construct A2 story frame house near the site of the new
mission. By abandoning the Omaha
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Traditional Earthen Lodge, Joseph became a bit of an
example for his people to follow.
He laid out a town site, fenced 100 acres, and divided the land
into smaller fields in order that each man in his village
could farm. Joseph took another step in
adopting white ways when he refused to have his daughters
tattooed and his son's ears pierced, he explained.
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Quote I was always sure that my sons and daughters would live to
see a time when they would have to mingle with the white people,
and I determined that they should not have any mark put
upon them that might be detrimental in their future
surroundings. End Quote.
Joseph was remarkably astute, for several of his seven
children not only mingled with whites, but played important
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roles in bridging the gap between the two cultures.
One son, Francis, became a well known ethnologist with the
Bureau of American Ethnology. Suzette, the eldest daughter,
became a prominent Indian rightsleader, and Susan, the youngest
daughter, became the first Indian woman to graduate from a
Medical College and practice modern medicine.
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In 1865, the year of Susan's birth, her father signed the
last Omaha Treaty, seating the northern part of their
reservation as a home for the Winnebago.
The Omaha's shrinking land base made the adoption of the ways of
the Whites even more urgent. Joseph, aware of the importance
of education, sent his children to the schools in the East.
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Susan's education began at the Omaha Agency and the
Presbyterian Mission School. In September of 1879, she and
her sister Marguerite entered the Elizabeth Institute for
Young Ladies in Elizabeth, NJ. In 1882, after three years in
New Jersey, the sisters returnedto the reservation.
Susan spent the next two years working at the Mission School
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and for the six month period taught a class of small
children. In 1884, Marguerite and Susan
entered Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in
Hampton, VA. The education of Indians at
Hampton began in 1879 when Richard Henry Pratt, a young
Army officer, arrived with 22 Indian students from Fort
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Marion, Florida. Well known for its education of
black Friedman, Hampton had beenestablished by General Samuel
Armstrong in 1868. Armstrong welcomed the Indian
students warmly, thus beginning a long and successful experiment
in Indian education at Hampton. For the next two years, Susan
and Marguerite, dressed in uniforms, drilled on the parade
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ground and were imbued with the educational philosophy of
Armstrong. He believed that labor was,
quote, a spiritual force, that physical work not only increased
wage earning capacity, but promoted fidelity, accuracy,
honesty, persistence, and intelligence.
Newly arrived students who couldread and write English, like
Susan and Marguerite, were automatically placed in the
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normal course of study and proceeded at their own pace
academically while tutoring partof the day.
Those who had less formal education.
Beginning at 5:00 AM, students put in a 12 hour day.
There was, however, a more pleasant social site of school
life in which both Susan and Marguerite joined eagerly
graduating from Hampton on May 20th, 1886 as Salutorian.
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Susan's address was entitled Quote My Childhood and
Womanhood. End Quote.
General Byron M Cushion, Civil War Medal of Honor winner, also
presented her with the Demorest Prize, a gold medal awarded by
the faculty for the graduating senior who had achieved the
highest examination score in thejunior year.
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Alice Cunningham Fletcher, an ethnologist who had journeyed
from Washington, DC to join the more than 1000 people in the
audience, stated quote. Susan looked well, spoke
clearly, and everyone was delighted with her.
End Quote. Susan's education to this point
was a little out of the ordinary, but her decision to
attend Medical College was unique.
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The fact that she eventually became a medical practitioner
was not unusual, for in some Western tribes there were
medicine women and female shamans.
All Native medical practitionersgain their skills through
visions and trances brought on by fasting as well as by special
training. While Indians could acquire
healing skills at any point of their lives, women could not
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engage in healing until after menopause.
What set Susan apart was her desire to graduate from a
Medical College, an accomplishment that few women
could hope to achieve, especially Indian women.
Later, too, she would practice medicine.
Many years before the onset of menopause on the Omaha
Reservation at Hampton, Susan had been encouraged to
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concentrate on academic subjectsrather than vocational skills.
Both General Armstrong and Doctor Martha W Waldron, the
school's physician, believed Susan capable of attending
Medical College. But first it was necessary to
raise funds for tuition and expenses.
Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Sarah Thompson Kinney, wife of
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the editor of the Hartford Courant, would solve that
problem. Alice Fletcher was familiar with
the Lafleche family, having worked closely with Francis as
her major informant on Omaha culture and having been tended
by young Susan during an attack of inflammatory rheumatism in
1883 while serving as missionary, teacher and
government official for the tribe.
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Miss Fletcher had also been a frequent visitor to reform
gatherings at Lake Monarch in New York.
There she met Sarah Kinney, who,after some persuasion, agreed to
approach the Commissioner of Indian Affairs about the
possibility of Susan's continuededucation.
The Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, located in
Philadelphia, ultimately admitted Susan as a beneficiary
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student. Established initially as the
Female College of Pennsylvania Quote.
To instruct respectable and intelligent females in the
various branches of medical science and quote.
It opened its doors on October 12th, 1850.
By the time of Susan's attendance, it was known as the
Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania.
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On March 20th, 1886, Doctor Waldron, a graduate of the
College, wrote to Alfred Jones, the secretary of its Executive
committee, in behalf of Susan. Jones replied that it was
impossible at that time to give her a free scholarship.
He added that applications had to be handwritten by prospective
students, quote stating age, accompanied by testimonials as
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to health, character and educational qualifications, and
quote. Once her entrance into college
was assured, money for tuition and living expenses as well as
travel was needed. Kenny bought her initial train
ticket and asked the family to send her to Philadelphia by
October 1st. Most of her expense for her
education was paid for by the Connecticut Indian Association,
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of which Misses Kinney was president.
Founded in 1881 as an auxiliary of the Women's National Indian
Association, the aims of the Connecticut group included
quote, aid Indians in civilization, industrial
training, self support, education, citizenship, and
Christianization. End Quote.
Susan's academic support was appropriate to their program.
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In a meeting on May 21st, 1886, at the suggestion of President
Kinney, the Connecticut Association agreed to undertake
the entire expense of Susan's education for the next three
years. General Armstrong had written an
enthusiastic letter about her abilities, for he regarded her
as, quote, the finest, strongestIndian character at this school.
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End Quote. He described her as a level
headed, earnest, capable Christian woman, quite equal to
medical studies. Well aware that the government
paid $167 a year for Indian students at Hampton or Carlisle
Indian School in Pennsylvania, Kinney wrote to John DC Atkins,
commissioner of Indian Affairs, in hope of getting a similar
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grant for Susan's educational expenses.
If the government would provide the $167 per year, she said, the
Connecticut Indian Association would be responsible for the
remainder of her expenses. General Samuel Armstrong, when
writing the Commissioner, respectfully suggesting that the
money be applied towards Susan'seducation, remarked that he had,
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quote, no hesitation in Speakingof her as a young woman of
unusual ability, integrity, fixedness of purpose, and well
worthy in every respect of such aid.
End Quote. Following the Commissioner's
agreement to this proposal, Missus Kinney sent out an appeal
to the women of Connecticut for donations.
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By helping Susan, she noted, theOmaha tribe would also be
elevated. Quote.
In her sweet, quiet way, we feelshe would minister not only to
the physical needs of those who she cared, but also their deeper
wants would strive to lead them to the great healer.
End Quote. On learning of her good fortune,
young Susan wrote to Missus Kinney from Hampton in June that
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it made her happy to have so many mothers caring for her.
Quote It has always been a desire of mine to study medicine
ever since I was a small girl, for even then I saw the needs of
my people for a good physician. End Quote.
She intended to teach the women of her tribe a few practical
points about cleanliness, cooking, nursing, and
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housekeeping. In closing, Susan noted that she
and Marguerite hope to spend most of the summer working among
the sick at the church. Suffering from motion sickness,
a weary Susan alighted from the train in Pennsylvania in early
October. She was met by Misses Seth
Talcott, chairman of the Business Committee of the
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Association, and Doctor Elizabeth Bundy, an instructor
of anatomy at the college. Susan was placed in suitable
housing at the YWCA, with which she was extremely pleased and
was provided with necessary supplies and clothing for the
next three years. She sent home lively and
interesting letters to her sister Rosalie about the people
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she met, her courses and the sights that she saw.
Susan and other students registered in the office of
Rachel Bodley, Dean of the College and a professor of
chemistry. She shook hands with all the
potential young doctors, but greeted Susan with a kiss,
saying quote. We are very glad to welcome you
Miss Laflesche and are proud of your lineage.
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End Quote. The Dean again welcomed Susan
formerly before the entire student body and several days
later gave a reception for the class of 1889.
The crowd was so great that Susan could not even get to the
ice cream that was being served.In her first year, Susan
attended lectures in chemistry, anatomy, Physiology, Histology,
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materia, medica, general therapeutics, and obstetrics.
Students were expected to take notes.
Apparently, Susan had difficultywith chemistry, for she borrowed
a chemistry notebook almost every morning after lecture from
a second year student, Sarah Lockerly.
Although attendance was not mandatory, Susan and the others
rarely missed class, especially on examination day, for they had
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to pass 90% of their tests. In addition to attending
lectures, the students went to aweekly clinic at the Women's
Hospital. Susan humorously described an
incident in which female students had been joined by male
students of the Jefferson Medical College.
Just as the surgeon prepared to operate, a young man fainted and
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had to be removed from the room.It wasn't quote, I wasn't even
thinking of fainting. End Quote, wrote Susan.
Nor, for that matter, were any of the girls.
Susan and her fellow students must have truly enjoyed that
day, for they had often been teased about being faint
hearted. Apparently, Susan never minded
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dissecting cadavers and jokinglyinformed Rosalie she was, quote,
going to wield the knife tonight.
Not the scalping knife though. End Quote.
During a typical dissection session, six students were
assigned to 1 cadaver and in detail she described the
procedure to Rosalie. Quote, it is interesting to get
all of the arteries and their branches.
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Everything has a name, she wrotefrom the tiny holes in the bone.
It is splendid. End Quote.
Examinations were dreadful at first, but as time passed, Susan
found them easier. During the March 1887 exams, she
wrote to Rosalie to pray for herto pass but then added quote.
I don't dread them very much though.
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End Quote. Seven days later, she had passed
her chemistry examination and described her anatomy exam as
lovely. Quote I had made a certain point
to study certain bones, and we were asked to describe those
very bones and one or two others.
So I got on swimmingly. End Quote.
In the spring of 1888, Susan passed her chemistry, anatomy
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and Physiology exams several times in her dreams before
actually taking them. Armed with pens, pencils, and
knives, Susan and the other students descended upon the
lecture room. She described the tests as
delightful, except for the suspense of waiting to be
notified of their outcome. At 10:00 PM the students
congregated in the halls to receive letters notifying them
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if they had passed. As second year students.
Susan and her group had to wait for the graduating seniors to be
informed first. As she opened her own letter, a
sense of calmness swept over her.
When she saw that she had passed, she wrote to Miss Kinney
that she was so glad that she could scarcely realize it.
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She was glad for her parents, for the Indians, for the ladies
of the Connecticut Indian Association, whom she called her
Hartford mothers or foster mothers, and naturally for
herself. Now she and the other second
year students could look forwardwith anticipation to the same
time next year when they would graduate.
She frequently wrote home, prescribing medicine and giving
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medical advice to her family. When her mother developed a sore
on her hand, Susan sent a packetwith carbulated Vaseline and
Castile soap. When Rosalie's husband, Ed
became I'll, Susan wrote, quote,Tell him Doctor Sue orders less
quinine and more time for his meals.
I'm going to write him a letter someday in vacation.
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A sisterly, doctorly letter. End Quote.
During one of Rosalie's many pregnancies, Susan advised her
not to work too hard or to lift heavy objects.
She should get plenty of exercise in the fresh air, as
well as enough sleep. And she must stop worrying over
her work and spend more time reading and telling the
children's stories. This was sound advice by any
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standards. Unlike most Indian women of the
19th century, Susan was affordedthe opportunity to learn about
mainstream cultural activities. She frequented the Philadelphia
Academy of Art, commented on thepaintings of Benjamin West, and
became fond of musical performances.
She attended literary and theatrical events, including The
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Mikado and a performance of LilyLangtry in Wife's Peril.
Accompanied by her brother Francis, she witnessed the
Philadelphia Mummers Parade, commenting that the masqueraders
dressed as Indians looked prettywell for Indians.
She especially enjoyed getting out of the city and walking
through Fairmount Park collecting pine cones.
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But she did not ignore her Indian friends and visited
Margarita at Hampton at every opportunity.
She also visited the Indian boysat the Educational Home in West
Philadelphia as well as the Indian children at
Philadelphia's Lincoln Institute.
She attended missionary meetings, went to church, and
joined her friends in various social activities.
Well respected by her fellow students, Susan was chosen
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corresponding Secretary of the Young Women's Christian
Association out of a feeling of indebtedness for their support.
She spoke before several branches of the Connecticut
Indian Association. In October of 1887, she visited
the Hartford group meeting for the first time.
Many of the women, whom she lovingly called her mother's
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Susan, participated in sports atthe college, taking a gymnastics
class and learning to skate and play 10 pins.
She wrote that to keep practice,she would probably swing an axe
or harness the horses the next time she came home.
She would not, she emphatically noted, go anywhere near the
cows. Quote for I am afraid of those
critters and quote. She spent a good deal of time
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with the WWE Heritage family of Philadelphia.
Misses Heritage took special interest in Susan, inviting her
to their home, often for tea or even dinner.
Susan also accompanied them on many social events.
The daughter, Marion, who taughtat Girard College, invited Susan
to various activities. One day the two went to a drill
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at the college. Susan was not only impressed
with the drill, which was supposed to be almost as good as
those at West Point, but also with the architecture at the
college. The largest building resembled
the Parthenon in Athens and was said to be the only American
building which was purely Grecian.
Holidays far from her family must have been a lonely time for
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Susan. Fortunately, her first Christmas
was spent at Hampton with formerschool chums and Marguerite.
Summer vacations were probably more difficult.
During her first summer she accepted a teaching position at
Hampton. The following summer, she
returned to Hampton to attend commencement ceremonies.
Warmly welcomed by teachers and students, she served as role
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model for young Indian students who eagerly looked forward to
her visits. Following the commencement
exercises, Susan took the train home.
She was welcomed at the Bancroftstation on June 1st by her
family. Because her parents were both
ailing that summer, she had to do much of the household and
field work, harness horses, rackhay, measure land for fence,
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cook Stew, and of course, some occasional nursing.
When she arrived home, the Omahawere in the last stage of a
serious measles epidemic. Almost every family lost a loved
one that summer, and Susan did what she could to comfort and
medicate the sick, helping Doctor and Missus Hensel in
their rounds. Susan showed the Indians how to
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take medicine prescribed by the doctor and handed out delicacies
that her friends in Easton, PA, had sent for the sick.
Since the Omaha lived so far apart, Susan could rarely visit
more than 10 families in an afternoon while traveling as
much as 25 miles. Seeing them in their home
environment, she became vividly aware that her people had much
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to learn about cleanliness. The Omaha had suffered another
measles epidemic in 1900, and Susan, then a full-fledged
physician, vaccinated many of the children.
The financing for Susan's first year had been arranged by Misses
Kinney and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Her second year's expenses were temporarily placed in jeopardy
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when Misses Kinney, writing to the Office of Indian Affairs in
hope of renewing the $167 contract, irritated Acting
Commissioner AB Upshaw. She had reported that both the
association and the faculty at the college were satisfied with
Susan's progress in the first year.
Quote. In competing with her white
classmates who had had a lifelong benefit of routine
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public school training, she has,of course, labored under great
disadvantages. But she has been brave,
studious, conscientious through it all and has more than held
her own. End Quote.
Commissioner Upshaw, taking offense at the criticism of
Susan's earlier educational opportunities, informed Misses
Kinney that Susan had, quote, received good literary education
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at the expense of the governmentand had had two years of medical
education at the same expense. And, quote, fortunately, though,
the contract was renewed, but the government share was reduced
to $125 per year. Susan graduated on March 14th,
1889 at the head of the class of36 young women.
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In his commencement address, Doctor James B Walker praised
Susan highly, stating quote, thoughtful of a service to her
people, child though she was. She permits not the magnitude of
her task to stay the inspiration, but bravely,
thoughtfully, diligently pursuesthe course and today receives
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her fitting reward. All this without a precedent.
She will stand among her people as the first woman physician.
Surely may we record with joy such courage, constancy and
ability. End Quote.
Following a competitive exam, Susan was selected one of six
women to intern at the Women's Hospital for four months
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beginning in May. She took a brief vacation before
her internship, spending severaldays with her Connecticut
mothers. She was kept busy speaking
before branches in Farmington, Guilford, New Britain, Norwich,
Waterbury, and Winstead before she made a quick trip home.
Susan returned to the reservation permanently in late
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1889. She accepted an appointment as
physician at the Government Boarding School on August 5th,
but in December, Omaha Agent Robert Ashley requested that she
be allowed to treat the adults of the tribe as well.
Commissioner Thomas Morgan complied with the request,
although there was already another physician at the
reservation within three months of her coming.
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Susan cared for most of his Indian patients because she
spoke their language. When the other doctor left, she
was in charge of the healthcare of all of the 1244 tribal
members. The government built an office
for her at the school. A spacious building, it
contained a drug counter, cabinets full of games and
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scrapbooks and picture books, aswell as magazines.
Some branches of the Women's National Indian Association
donated books and other reading material to her library.
Before long, her office was fullnot only of school children, but
of adults who came to ask for her advice on business matters,
personal affairs, and questions of law.
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Especially on cold, rainy days, the older Omaha could be found
spending a pleasant hour either visiting with Susan or looking
through the magazines. Susan's living quarters were
provided at the government school where Marguerite was the
principal teacher. Although most of their work was
centered at the school, Susan and Marguerite also carried on
their father's work directing the tribe along the path to
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assimilation. They advised the tribe
encouraging couples to marry by license, and with the sanction
of the church, Christian services were soon being held
over the dead. Thus, Susan was serving not only
as physician, but also as nurse,teacher, social worker, general
advisor, and interpreter for church services.
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Religion had always been an important part of Susan's life,
and partly for that reason the Women's National Indian
Association appointed her medical missionary to the tribe.
She attended church services on Sunday mornings where she and
Marguerite often assisted by singing and interpreting.
Sometimes they spoke before the church groups on various topics.
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Christian Endeavor meetings wereheld for the young people on
Sunday evenings, prayer meetingswere held on Wednesdays, and
Sunday school was held for the children in the schoolhouse
before church. But it is the medical record of
this young Omaha woman that is legendary.
Her patients, scattered over the30 by 45 mile reservation, were
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reached by a network of poor dirt roads.
During her first year, she was unable to make as many house
calls as she wished because she did not have a team.
If a patient was only a mile or so away, she would walk.
If the distance was greater, shehired A-Team, but patients often
came to her. She finally purchased a team in
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buggy. In a talk at Hampton in 1892,
Susan told her audience that theroads were so bad that a single
horse could not pull a wagon. Quote.
After trying for some time to goabout on horseback, I broke so
many bottles and thermostats that I had to give up and quote.
During the first winter there were two epidemics of influenza.
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Although there were no fatalities among the adults, 2
babies did die. With the arrival of summer, her
patient load lessened. During July 1891, she saw only
37 patients. In August, that number rose to
111, and by September it soared to 130.
She started out every morning before 8:00, drove 6 miles in
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One Direction, returned to the office by noon, and then set out
again on more rounds, returning sometimes as late as 10:00 PM
with an exhausted team. Although she never spoke of her
own weariness, her reports beganto reflect more and more days
taken off because of illness. She treated both acute and
chronic cases ranging from influenza, dysentery and cholera
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to an epidemic of conjunctivitisand eye ailment spread because
of unsanitary conditions. After she had instructed her
patients to use separate towels and basins, the epidemic
subsided and at the end of her second year she summed up her
experiences by saying, quote, I am enjoying my work exceedingly
and feel more interest in and more attached to my people than
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ever before. I have not a single thing to
complain of for my life. Here is a very happy one.
End Quote. In December 1891 brought an
especially bad epidemic of influenza, La Gripe, as she
called it. Susan saw a total of 114
patients that month during the epidemic.
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She wrote that the disease quoterage with more violence than
during the two preceding years. Some families were rendered
helpless by it, sometimes all the family but one or two being
down with it almost every day during the month I was out
making visits several days. The thermometer was 15 to 20°
below 0 and I had to drive myself.
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End Quote. Her first patient in December
was an old man with Marguerite driving.
They arrived at a neat little house to find him lying on the
floor in the corner on a blanket, breathing heavily, with
no one to care for him. Susan returned two hours later
with food. In a few weeks he was out of
danger and gratefully sent the young physician, another
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patient, to a Hampton audience. She once related another, more
serious case. Quite late one night she got
word that a young Hampton student was seriously ill.
Starting out early the next morning in 20° below 0 weather,
Susan drove the six miles to thehouse.
The whole family lived in one room and the sick girl had been
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given a corner where she lay in a bed surrounded by her Hampton
mementos. Quote.
The girl and everything in her quarter of the room were clean
and as neat as could be. End Quote, wrote Susan,
reflecting her rigid training atHampton.
Believing the girl could not possibly live through the day
because of her previous history of tuberculosis, now aggravated
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by the flu, Susan left some medicine and promised to return
hurriedly. She drove the 9 or 10 miles
across the reservation to see her other patients and returned
home by 5:00 PM. Accompanied by Marguerite and
another teacher, she set out in a sled loaded with food for the
tubercular girl's home. For the next two weeks, while
the young woman weakened and died, Susan saw her at least
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once every day, often cooking meals for the family and
sometimes staying a night if shefelt it necessary.
January 1892 brought no relief as Susan cared for 120 cases in
three weeks. The last week of the month, she
took off to care for members of her immediate family.
When ladies from the Morristown,NJ, auxiliary of the Women's
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National Indian Association sentSusan money for the sick, she
added it to funds of her own to buy food for her patients.
From October 1891 to the spring of 1892, Susan saw more than 600
patients. The hard rides were becoming
increasingly exhausting but she never refused to make a call
unless she was bedridden herself.
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With the arrival of summer in 1892, Susan took a well deserved
month of rest and attended Hamptons 24th Anniversary.
She gave the commencement address entitled My Work as a
Physician among My People. While in the East she had the
opportunity to meet more membersof the Women's National Indian
Association as their medical missionary.
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She now had to make annual reports.
In May, she spoke before the Washington, DC auxiliary on the
spread of intemperance among herpeople.
One of her early reports had stressed the drinking problem,
noting that the Omaha could obtain whiskey almost as easily
as water. Laws were needed to prevent
crimes attributed to alcoholism,she believed.
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Quote, if a drunken Indian smashes a buggy and assaults a
woman and child by beating them and nothing is done, what can
prevent him from doing it again?End Quote.
The temperance movement was beginning to occupy much of her
thought. During the fall of 1892.
Susan continued her arduous rounds of house calls, attending
to children and numerous walk inpatients.
(31:54):
But her own health began to suffer.
She had complained of numbness and breathing difficulties in
college, but thought that was just psychological.
Possibly it was an early indication of the disease that
would later take her life. By the 1st of January 1893, she
was bedridden. Quote.
Susie has been sick for several weeks.
(32:15):
Her ears have been troubling hervery much.
She says she has pain in her hand and the back of her neck
constantly. End Quote that written by
Rosalie to Francis on October 20th, 1893.
She resigned as government physician because of her health
and that of her mother, who had recently become Critically I'll.
(32:35):
In the summer of 1894, Susan surprised her family by
announcing her forthcoming marriage to Henry Piccott, a
Sioux Indian from the Yankton Agency and brother of
Marguerite's late husband, Charles.
Charles had died in 1892, and probably sometime shortly
thereafter. Thomas Ikinakapi, Susan's first
love, died of tuberculosis. Only Marguerite and Rosalie knew
(33:00):
of TI, as Susan called him, for she had placed her education and
career before marriage. After she graduated and began to
practice, she met Henry quote, ahandsome man with polite,
ingratiating manners and a happysense of humor, and quote, Susan
fell in love with him. When she expressed her desire to
marry, her friends and the heritages were upset.
(33:24):
Learning of the intended betrothal on June 30th, Miss
Heritage wrote expressing regretfor she did not think it wise
owing to Susan's poor health. Marian also wrote Rosalie of her
concern over the matter. Quote, It is because I wish for
Susie only the best things in this world, with the least
suffering and trouble, and that I wish she had decided not to
(33:45):
take this step. End Quote.
Personal letters written by Susan about her romance with
Henry have not survived, but there are numerous letters in
which she revealed her feelings for TI.
They had met at Hampton, and although he was deeply
interested in Susan, she had decided that her career must
come first. She visited Hampton several
(34:08):
times while a student at the Women's Medical College and
spent much time as possible withTI.
She was afraid that he might return to Hampton already
married, but, wrote Rosalie, that would not break her heart,
for she was not made that way. She added, However, quote, he
was, without exception, the handsomest Indian I ever saw in
(34:28):
quote. In her 1886 Christmas visit to
Hampton found TI constantly by her side, as handsome as ever.
They attended a band concert andbrought in the New Year
together. At one point during her visit,
TI was so overcome with emotion on seeing her that he, quote,
had his handkerchief up to his face and his eyes were shining.
(34:49):
I felt so sorry for him. I felt like crying.
And quote, When her carriage departed Hampton, he stood with
a handkerchief over his eyes again.
He looks so forlorn that Marguerite broke down and
another friend wrote that he, quote, acted as if he had lost
his right hand and quote in his letters.
TI told Susan he thought of her constantly.
(35:10):
Her good friend, Hampton teacherCora M Folsom, was convinced
that there was no one good enough for Susan and encouraged
her to have only a platonic friendship with TI, for she
feared he was getting into deep water over her.
Quote. He is so respectful to me and I
like him for that and for his faithfulness and quote, wrote
Susan in reply. In January of 1887, Susan and a
(35:34):
friend had gone to the educational home in West
Philadelphia to visit the Indianboys.
While there, a young Dakota Sioux had paid a great deal of
attention to her. But Susan wrote that she did not
care to go with anyone and remembered someone at Hampton
had wondered what he would thinkto see such attention lavished
upon her when she attended morning service and Sunday
(35:56):
school. In the afternoon the young Sioux
sat next to her, holding out hishymnal.
She remarked to Rosalie, Quote, That is the end of it, I hope.
I haven't had any time or patience for such things
nowadays. Doctors don't have much time,
you know, and he will have to keep his place and quote.
Several days later she wrote, quote, I shall be the dear
(36:18):
little old maid, you know, and come and see you and doctor and
dose you all and quote. In the very next sentence,
nevertheless, she spoke of TI. Quote Sometimes it seems to me I
can see him looking at me with such a look, sometimes a smile
on his face as he says, Come on,Susie.
End Quote. But afraid her older sister
(36:40):
might become concerned, Susan assured her that TI had helped
her and had been a good influence, and that she only
hoped her influence over him would be as half as good.
Quote. I want to be his friend and help
him. I am a better girl for having
gone with him. End Quote.
She ended by assuring Rosalie that nothing will come of it
(37:03):
dear, so be easy and be at rest.One wonders if her life would
have been the same had TI lived and they had married.
But that was not to be. Susan, when almost 30,
apparently decided she was tiredof being an old maid.
Following her marriage to Henry,she began to participate more
directly in Indian life. She and Marguerite, who had
(37:26):
remarried, drew even closer, both having their first babies
within a few months of each other.
Within a year, Susan was seriously ill again.
Rosalie wrote to Francis, quote,Susie had been very sick and I
had given up all hopes of her when she commenced to improve.
End Quote. With her health on the mend,
(37:46):
Susan and her husband lived partof the time in the town of
Bancroft, across from the Presbyterian Church.
Susan, now with two small sons, practice medicine among both
Indians and whites. She quickly won the respect of
local doctors. One night, at the urgent request
of two doctors, she helped in a particularly difficult delivery.
(38:07):
Later, one of them reported thatmother and child were doing
well, thanks to the skill of Doctor Susan.
In her Bancroft house and at hermother's farm, Susan placed a
lighted Lantern in the window toguide those who needed medical
attention. Again in 1897, her health
failed, and that summer she became so sick that she was not
(38:28):
expected to live. Neighbors, both white and
Indian, rallied to her side, bringing fruit, food and flowers
and constantly expressing their concern to her mother.
That summer, when friends and neighbors came to her support,
Susan realized how much that shehad helped them previously.
She felt that there was little use in trying to help people
(38:49):
because it was not appreciated. But she recognized her error,
for she received quote such earnest, heartfelt words of
thanks from people she never expected to hear from.
End Quote. Despite her poor health, she
became an active temperance speaker in place of her father.
In 1856, Joseph Lafleche had organized a police force of
(39:12):
Omaha Indians who administered corporal punishment to any
member of the tribe found drunk.Until his death in 1888, there
was very little liquor on the reservation, but since that time
liquor flowed freely, Church attendance suffered, and farm
work was often neglected. As a young student at the
Medical College, Susan had attended lectures by noted
(39:33):
temperance leaders, including Francis O Willard.
She was therefore exposed to thetemperance movement and the
effects of alcoholism early in her medical career.
Later, as a physician, she saw the effects of alcohol from both
medical and personal angles. Tragically, her husband had
begun to drink excessively and consequently she became even
(39:55):
more active in the movement. During the four years she tended
the ill of the Omaha tribe, Susan always felt perfectly safe
in making her appointments, but the increased use of alcohol had
begun to change that situation, she wrote.
Quote. Men and women died from
alcoholism and little children were seen reeling on the streets
(40:15):
of the town. Drunken brawls in which men were
killed occurred and no person's life was considered safe.
End Quote. Women pawned their clothing and
men spent rent money on liquor instead of provisions and
machinery. Congress passed a law that
improved the situation and a commissioner or deputy was
assigned to enforce it, but his removal encouraged bootleggers
(40:39):
to return. A death caused by alcoholism on
January 26th, 1900 prompted Susan to write to William A
Jones, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, asking what advantage
any money saved from the removalof the deputy would be if her
quote, people were to be demoralized mentally, morally,
and physically. End Quote.
As the years passed, the liquor situation worsened and a year
(41:02):
before her death, she wrote Commissioner Cato sells that his
department ought to prevent the liquor traffic.
Several weeks earlier, an old Indian had been murdered by a
young man who later committed suicide.
Quote. All through lemon extract.
End Quote. She charged, quote, the white
man who sold it being well knownnothing has been done about it.
(41:23):
End Quote. When called as an expert witness
in the inquest of the man who had died as a result of the
misuse of liquor, she was asked about the history of liquor
traffic among her people. She bluntly stated, Quote.
We find the Omaha Indian, beforethe advent of the white man, a
fine specimen of manhood, physically and morally of good
health. But with liquor we find these
(41:45):
conditions radically changed andreversed.
We find physical degeneration ofthe Indian.
End Quote. Alcohol reduced their resistance
to disease, making them easy prey to tuberculosis.
Susan added that the Indian child was there for quote a
weak, puny specimen of humanity.End Quote.
Domestic brawls were common and Indian lands were sold for money
(42:09):
to purchase liquor. 1 Indian, she explained, sold his land in
19 O 4 for $6000 and in one yearspent the money treating his
friends to liquor, giving them money, and buying himself 3
buggies. She enumerated the deaths
attributed to liquor from 1894 to 1914, beginning with an
individual who fell from a buggyand was not missed by his drunk
(42:31):
companions until the next morning when his frozen body was
discovered. The government's efforts to keep
liquor off the reservation had failed miserably.
Susan urged that the detectives appointed to patrol the
reservation be not local men andabove all should be moral,
impartial and above receiving bribes.
Whatever small victories she achieved elsewhere were not
(42:54):
equal at home, and in 19 O 5, owing to complications from
drinking, Susan's husband died. She was left as the sole support
of an invalid mother and two small boys.
For the remainder of her life she continued her struggle
against alcohol. Following her husband's death,
the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions appointed her
(43:15):
missionary to her tribe, the first Indian to hold such a
position. She was furnished housing along
with a small stipend. The degenerative ear disease
from which she had suffered for years made her increasingly
deaf, and the pain now extended down into her back.
She continued nevertheless, serving as teacher, preacher,
field worker, and physician at the agency's Blackbird Hills
(43:38):
Presbyterian Church. She held church services, read
the Bible in her native tongue, interpreted hymns, and held
simple Christian services for those who died.
In November of 19 O 6, Susan andMarguerite's husband, Walter
Didick, purchased house lots in the newly established town of
Walt Hill, carved out of Indian land by the railroad.
Largely through Susan's work, the secretary of the Interior
(44:00):
Department ruled that no liquor could be sold in towns once a
part of the Omaha Reservation, another small victory in her
long struggle over alcohol. On her town lot, Susan had a
modern home built, complete withfireplace, furnace, windows for
light and fresh air, and an indoor bathroom.
Upon its completion, Susan and her sons, Pierre and Carl and
(44:23):
her mother moved in. Once settled, Susan and
Marguerite entered the social structure of the town, becoming
charter members of a new chapterof Eastern Star.
Susan, a major organizer of the New Presbyterian Church, also
taught in its Sunday School. Her home was on occasion filled
with family and guests, for she enjoyed entertaining the two
(44:45):
sisters, supported community projects, lectures, concerts and
special events at the County Fair at the Ladder.
Susan was in charge one year of the Indian Department.
She continued to be an active president of the Church
Missionary Society, urging townspeople and businessman of
Wald Hill to become sufficientlyinterested in projects to give
freely of their money and their time.
(45:07):
Soon many people begin attendingthe monthly church meetings of
the Study Circle, which held talks on topics ranging from
Mexicans to Black Freeman. Concerts were also held to raise
money for missionary work. Susan also became politically
involved when the government arbitrarily decided to extend
the trust period for the Omaha an additional 10 years because
(45:27):
it considered Indians in generaluneducated and backward.
This was, however, not true of the Omaha, who had a higher
literacy rate than most tribes, she noted.
Quote. They are independent and self
reliant and competent as the same number of white people.
End Quote. Their last allotment papers had
been delivered in 1885 and the 25 year trust period, during
(45:50):
which time they could not alienate their land, should have
ended in 1910. The decision to extend the trust
term caused numerous hardships for the Omaha.
In addition, a new system of supervised farming was
instituted. The Winnebago and Omaha agencies
were consolidated, thus requiring longer travel distance
for tribal members to transact agency business.
(46:11):
AG Pollock, well respected OmahaSuperintendent, was removed.
Protests arose from both whites and Indians over the additional
supervision quote. Every business action of the
individual is supervised and hedged about with red tape and
paternal restrictions and quote,wrote the editor of the Wald
Hill Times. All the Omaha wanted was to
(46:32):
lease their lands and draw upon their monies themselves.
But as Susan predicted, the entire tribe rebelled, depending
upon her to free them of these new regulations.
Unfortunately, at this critical period in the history of her
people, Susan was again stricken.
During the spring of 19 O 9, shewas again close to death.
Specialists visited her several times, a trained nurse stayed
(46:54):
with her for almost six weeks, and the local doctor visited as
often as three times a day. By June her health had improved
sufficiently to permit her to begin writing letters protesting
the treatment of her tribe. In February, she was the
unanimous choice of Omaha men and women as one of the
delegates to argue their case before the Secretary of the
(47:14):
Interior and the Attorney General of the United States.
When she originally declined to do so because of poor health,
tribesmen threatened to place her body on the train.
Quote, the Omahans depend upon me, so I just have to take care
of myself To this fight is over,she wrote.
Despite a severe case of nervousfrustration which prevented her
(47:36):
from digesting food, Susan protested the red tape which
made it difficult for Indians toget their own money and the
problems imposed in travel of the new combined agency.
Her efforts and those of the rest of the delegation were
successful, and most of the Omaha were deemed competent to
rent or lease their lands and toreceive monies.
(47:57):
Susan occasionally wrote articles which contained light
humor. Invited by the Burke County
Farmers Institute to speak on, quote, primitive farming among
the Omaha Indians and quote, sheput the history of tribal
farming on paper. Quote, there was no need for
suffragettes in those days, she wrote, for the produce of these
gardens always belong to the women.
(48:18):
End Quote. Her final draft was read by
Marguerite on February 13th, 1912 in Decatur, NE during one
of the most successful meetings the association had ever had.
Susan continued recording the traditions of her people by
writing an article on the originof corn for the local newspaper.
Susan always returned, nevertheless, to her first love,
(48:41):
medicine. She was one of the organizers of
the Thurston County Medical Association, served several
terms on the health board for the town of Walt Hill, and was a
member of the State Medical Society for three years.
She served as chairman of the State Health Committee of the
Nebraska Federation of Women's Clubs, working to get health
related bills through the state legislature.
(49:04):
She began to study tuberculosis more intensively, giving
lectures on the subject at the Indian Church as well as to
local townspeople. When writing to Commissioner
Cato Sells in 1914, she suggested that children at the
government schools be examined monthly for the disease.
She told of an 18 year old girl who returned home with
tuberculosis and infected both her mother and grandmother.
(49:26):
All three subsequently died. When Wald Hill observed National
Tuberculosis Day, local doctors were invited to deliver lectures
on the subject at the two churches.
Later their talks were printed in the local newspaper.
Tuberculosis was not, however, Susan's only health worry.
Her other campaigns were againstthe use of common drinking cup
(49:47):
and the household fly. Her article on the evils of the
drinking cup was printed in the local paper, and the committee's
energetic campaign resulted in legislation abolishing its use.
Disposable cups were soon sold in local stores and sanitary
drinking fountains were built inall the schools.
Disposable ice cream dishes and spoons were used by the local
(50:08):
drug store. Another one of Susan's important
successes was the campaign to eradicate the troublesome
household pest, the fly. Describing it as the filthiest
of all vermin. Susan designed an attractive
anti house fly poster encouraging people not to allow
flies in their house or near their food.
(50:29):
By sprinkling lime or kerosene where flies might collect, she
pointed out, their breeding places could be eliminated.
She also encouraged the use of screens for doors and windows.
Fly traps were soon available atall local hardware stores.
Susan had always dreamed of a hospital where she could care
for her patients and avoid the long trips to hospitals in Omaha
(50:50):
or in Sioux City. After several efforts to
interest local philanthropic organizations in building a
hospital, she approached the Home Mission Board of the
Presbyterian Church. It granted $8000.
The Society of Friends, through the Presbyterian Church, gave an
additional $500. Marguerite and her husband
donated an acre of land, and equipment and furnishings came
(51:13):
from other individuals and organizations.
A benefit concert was held to raise additional funds, and the
hospital opened in January 1913.It contained 2 general wards
with a capacity for 12 beds, 5 private wards, a maternity ward,
operating room, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, and a reception room.
Both Indians and whites were admitted and in 1915 a total of
(51:37):
448 patients were cared for, 126of them Indians.
The presence of the local hospital made it possible for
Susan to reduce her patient loadand avoid long drives in the
inclement weather. Death took Susan Lafleche on
September 18th, 1915. The infection in her ears had
(51:57):
worsened steadily and by 1914 was diagnosed as decay of the
bone, probably cancer. Susan underwent 2 operations,
the 1st in February 1915, the second the following March.
By June her brother had been informed by the surgeon that she
had only a month or so to live. Her sons, Carolyn Pierre were
(52:20):
home from school that summer andthey and Marguerite's eldest
daughter helped care for her. Carol was the only one Susan
would trust to give her the hypodermic injections and the
medicines. Her value to the community had
been so profound that the Walt Hill Times of September 24th
added an extra page to carry special eulogies of Susan.
(52:42):
Funeral services were held on Sunday morning, September 19th,
in her home where friends and relatives surrounded her casket.
The simple service was performedby three Presbyterian clergymen.
The Reverend Chapter Mitchell Moore, pastor of Walt Hill
Presbyterian Church, which Susanhad helped to organize.
The Reverend George A Beath, pastor of the Blackbird Hills
(53:04):
Mission, where she had spent years of hard work, and Doctor
DE Jenkins, a member of the Presbyterian Board of Home
Missions, which she had served for many years.
The closing prayer was given in the Omaha language by one of the
older members of the tribe. Internment took place at the
Bancroft Cemetery where she was laid to rest beside her husband.
(53:25):
The Amethyst Chapter of the Eastern Star conducted a moving
graveside service. Quote.
Hardly an Omaha Indian is livingwho has not been treated and
helped by her, and hundreds of white people and Indians owe
their lives to her treatment, her care and nursing.
We are confronted here with a character rising to greatness
(53:48):
and to great deeds out of conditions which seldom produce
more than mediocre men and womenachieving great and beneficial
ends over obstacles almost insurmountable.
End Quote. After her death, the Walt Hill
Hospital was in tribute, renamedthe Doctor Susan Picot Memorial
Hospital by the Home Mission Board.
(54:09):
Thank you for listening to the Nebraska History Podcast.
To learn more about Nebraska History Magazine, to listen to
more podcasts, or to support ourpodcast by becoming a member of
the Nebraska State Historical Society, go to
history.nebraska.gov/podcast. And don't forget to subscribe to
the podcast and get notified when we release new episodes on
your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, I'm Chris
(54:31):
Goforth.
The following episode features ahistoric article from the
Nebraska History magazine. This article may reflect the
language and attitudes of its time and while it offers
valuable insight into the past, may contain expressions or
viewpoints that are outdated or offensive by today's standards.
Any outdated terms do not reflect the current views or
perspectives of the Nebraska State Historical Society.
Welcome to the Nebraska History podcast.
(00:20):
I'm your host, Chris Goforth. Each episode we explore articles
written and published in Nebraska History Magazine.
Susan Lafleche Picot graduated from medical school during a
time when very few women did so.In fact, she was the first
Native American woman to reach such an achievement.
This episode explores her history through the 1982
(00:40):
Nebraska History Magazine article Susan Lafleche Picot,
Nebraska's Indian Physician, written by Valerie Shearer
Mathis Plenty of air and sunshine.
That is nature's medicine, but Ihave hard work to make my people
understand those remarks from Susan Lafleche, the first Indian
woman physician. Susan's people, the Sioux and
(01:02):
speaking Omaha, had their origins in the Ohio and Wabash
River area, but had subsequentlymigrated westward to eastern
Nebraska. Following the passage of the
Indian Removal Act in 1830, theybegan ceding their claims to
eastern lands. By 1854 they gave up their
rights to hunting grounds West of the Missouri River and
(01:22):
retained only a small tract bordering the river.
In return for ceded lands, they received annuities, a gristmill,
a blacksmith shop, and protection from hostile tribes.
The treaty also gave the Board of Foreign Missions of the
Presbyterian Church four quartersections of land to continue
missionary work among the tribe.The Presbyterians had
(01:44):
established their first permanent mission at Bellevue,
NE in 1845, but when the Omaha secession required the Indians
to move to their new reservation, the missionaries
followed. In 1858 they built a new mission
house as well as a boarding and day school where Omaha children,
including those of Joseph Lafleche, were educated.
(02:06):
The son of a French fur trader and his Indian wife, Joseph in
1853 was the last recognized chief of the tribe.
Aware that the Indians would eventually have to learn the
ways of the whites, in the 1850she hired white carpenters to
construct A2 story frame house near the site of the new
mission. By abandoning the Omaha
(02:26):
Traditional Earthen Lodge, Joseph became a bit of an
example for his people to follow.
He laid out a town site, fenced 100 acres, and divided the land
into smaller fields in order that each man in his village
could farm. Joseph took another step in
adopting white ways when he refused to have his daughters
tattooed and his son's ears pierced, he explained.
(02:48):
Quote I was always sure that my sons and daughters would live to
see a time when they would have to mingle with the white people,
and I determined that they should not have any mark put
upon them that might be detrimental in their future
surroundings. End Quote.
Joseph was remarkably astute, for several of his seven
children not only mingled with whites, but played important
(03:11):
roles in bridging the gap between the two cultures.
One son, Francis, became a well known ethnologist with the
Bureau of American Ethnology. Suzette, the eldest daughter,
became a prominent Indian rightsleader, and Susan, the youngest
daughter, became the first Indian woman to graduate from a
Medical College and practice modern medicine.
(03:31):
In 1865, the year of Susan's birth, her father signed the
last Omaha Treaty, seating the northern part of their
reservation as a home for the Winnebago.
The Omaha's shrinking land base made the adoption of the ways of
the Whites even more urgent. Joseph, aware of the importance
of education, sent his children to the schools in the East.
(03:53):
Susan's education began at the Omaha Agency and the
Presbyterian Mission School. In September of 1879, she and
her sister Marguerite entered the Elizabeth Institute for
Young Ladies in Elizabeth, NJ. In 1882, after three years in
New Jersey, the sisters returnedto the reservation.
Susan spent the next two years working at the Mission School
(04:15):
and for the six month period taught a class of small
children. In 1884, Marguerite and Susan
entered Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in
Hampton, VA. The education of Indians at
Hampton began in 1879 when Richard Henry Pratt, a young
Army officer, arrived with 22 Indian students from Fort
(04:35):
Marion, Florida. Well known for its education of
black Friedman, Hampton had beenestablished by General Samuel
Armstrong in 1868. Armstrong welcomed the Indian
students warmly, thus beginning a long and successful experiment
in Indian education at Hampton. For the next two years, Susan
and Marguerite, dressed in uniforms, drilled on the parade
(04:57):
ground and were imbued with the educational philosophy of
Armstrong. He believed that labor was,
quote, a spiritual force, that physical work not only increased
wage earning capacity, but promoted fidelity, accuracy,
honesty, persistence, and intelligence.
Newly arrived students who couldread and write English, like
Susan and Marguerite, were automatically placed in the
(05:20):
normal course of study and proceeded at their own pace
academically while tutoring partof the day.
Those who had less formal education.
Beginning at 5:00 AM, students put in a 12 hour day.
There was, however, a more pleasant social site of school
life in which both Susan and Marguerite joined eagerly
graduating from Hampton on May 20th, 1886 as Salutorian.
(05:44):
Susan's address was entitled Quote My Childhood and
Womanhood. End Quote.
General Byron M Cushion, Civil War Medal of Honor winner, also
presented her with the Demorest Prize, a gold medal awarded by
the faculty for the graduating senior who had achieved the
highest examination score in thejunior year.
(06:05):
Alice Cunningham Fletcher, an ethnologist who had journeyed
from Washington, DC to join the more than 1000 people in the
audience, stated quote. Susan looked well, spoke
clearly, and everyone was delighted with her.
End Quote. Susan's education to this point
was a little out of the ordinary, but her decision to
attend Medical College was unique.
(06:25):
The fact that she eventually became a medical practitioner
was not unusual, for in some Western tribes there were
medicine women and female shamans.
All Native medical practitionersgain their skills through
visions and trances brought on by fasting as well as by special
training. While Indians could acquire
healing skills at any point of their lives, women could not
(06:47):
engage in healing until after menopause.
What set Susan apart was her desire to graduate from a
Medical College, an accomplishment that few women
could hope to achieve, especially Indian women.
Later, too, she would practice medicine.
Many years before the onset of menopause on the Omaha
Reservation at Hampton, Susan had been encouraged to
(07:09):
concentrate on academic subjectsrather than vocational skills.
Both General Armstrong and Doctor Martha W Waldron, the
school's physician, believed Susan capable of attending
Medical College. But first it was necessary to
raise funds for tuition and expenses.
Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Sarah Thompson Kinney, wife of
(07:29):
the editor of the Hartford Courant, would solve that
problem. Alice Fletcher was familiar with
the Lafleche family, having worked closely with Francis as
her major informant on Omaha culture and having been tended
by young Susan during an attack of inflammatory rheumatism in
1883 while serving as missionary, teacher and
government official for the tribe.
(07:50):
Miss Fletcher had also been a frequent visitor to reform
gatherings at Lake Monarch in New York.
There she met Sarah Kinney, who,after some persuasion, agreed to
approach the Commissioner of Indian Affairs about the
possibility of Susan's continuededucation.
The Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, located in
Philadelphia, ultimately admitted Susan as a beneficiary
(08:12):
student. Established initially as the
Female College of Pennsylvania Quote.
To instruct respectable and intelligent females in the
various branches of medical science and quote.
It opened its doors on October 12th, 1850.
By the time of Susan's attendance, it was known as the
Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania.
(08:33):
On March 20th, 1886, Doctor Waldron, a graduate of the
College, wrote to Alfred Jones, the secretary of its Executive
committee, in behalf of Susan. Jones replied that it was
impossible at that time to give her a free scholarship.
He added that applications had to be handwritten by prospective
students, quote stating age, accompanied by testimonials as
(08:56):
to health, character and educational qualifications, and
quote. Once her entrance into college
was assured, money for tuition and living expenses as well as
travel was needed. Kenny bought her initial train
ticket and asked the family to send her to Philadelphia by
October 1st. Most of her expense for her
education was paid for by the Connecticut Indian Association,
(09:18):
of which Misses Kinney was president.
Founded in 1881 as an auxiliary of the Women's National Indian
Association, the aims of the Connecticut group included
quote, aid Indians in civilization, industrial
training, self support, education, citizenship, and
Christianization. End Quote.
Susan's academic support was appropriate to their program.
(09:39):
In a meeting on May 21st, 1886, at the suggestion of President
Kinney, the Connecticut Association agreed to undertake
the entire expense of Susan's education for the next three
years. General Armstrong had written an
enthusiastic letter about her abilities, for he regarded her
as, quote, the finest, strongestIndian character at this school.
(10:01):
End Quote. He described her as a level
headed, earnest, capable Christian woman, quite equal to
medical studies. Well aware that the government
paid $167 a year for Indian students at Hampton or Carlisle
Indian School in Pennsylvania, Kinney wrote to John DC Atkins,
commissioner of Indian Affairs, in hope of getting a similar
(10:22):
grant for Susan's educational expenses.
If the government would provide the $167 per year, she said, the
Connecticut Indian Association would be responsible for the
remainder of her expenses. General Samuel Armstrong, when
writing the Commissioner, respectfully suggesting that the
money be applied towards Susan'seducation, remarked that he had,
(10:44):
quote, no hesitation in Speakingof her as a young woman of
unusual ability, integrity, fixedness of purpose, and well
worthy in every respect of such aid.
End Quote. Following the Commissioner's
agreement to this proposal, Missus Kinney sent out an appeal
to the women of Connecticut for donations.
(11:04):
By helping Susan, she noted, theOmaha tribe would also be
elevated. Quote.
In her sweet, quiet way, we feelshe would minister not only to
the physical needs of those who she cared, but also their deeper
wants would strive to lead them to the great healer.
End Quote. On learning of her good fortune,
young Susan wrote to Missus Kinney from Hampton in June that
(11:28):
it made her happy to have so many mothers caring for her.
Quote It has always been a desire of mine to study medicine
ever since I was a small girl, for even then I saw the needs of
my people for a good physician. End Quote.
She intended to teach the women of her tribe a few practical
points about cleanliness, cooking, nursing, and
(11:49):
housekeeping. In closing, Susan noted that she
and Marguerite hope to spend most of the summer working among
the sick at the church. Suffering from motion sickness,
a weary Susan alighted from the train in Pennsylvania in early
October. She was met by Misses Seth
Talcott, chairman of the Business Committee of the
(12:10):
Association, and Doctor Elizabeth Bundy, an instructor
of anatomy at the college. Susan was placed in suitable
housing at the YWCA, with which she was extremely pleased and
was provided with necessary supplies and clothing for the
next three years. She sent home lively and
interesting letters to her sister Rosalie about the people
(12:31):
she met, her courses and the sights that she saw.
Susan and other students registered in the office of
Rachel Bodley, Dean of the College and a professor of
chemistry. She shook hands with all the
potential young doctors, but greeted Susan with a kiss,
saying quote. We are very glad to welcome you
Miss Laflesche and are proud of your lineage.
(12:53):
End Quote. The Dean again welcomed Susan
formerly before the entire student body and several days
later gave a reception for the class of 1889.
The crowd was so great that Susan could not even get to the
ice cream that was being served.In her first year, Susan
attended lectures in chemistry, anatomy, Physiology, Histology,
(13:15):
materia, medica, general therapeutics, and obstetrics.
Students were expected to take notes.
Apparently, Susan had difficultywith chemistry, for she borrowed
a chemistry notebook almost every morning after lecture from
a second year student, Sarah Lockerly.
Although attendance was not mandatory, Susan and the others
rarely missed class, especially on examination day, for they had
(13:39):
to pass 90% of their tests. In addition to attending
lectures, the students went to aweekly clinic at the Women's
Hospital. Susan humorously described an
incident in which female students had been joined by male
students of the Jefferson Medical College.
Just as the surgeon prepared to operate, a young man fainted and
(13:59):
had to be removed from the room.It wasn't quote, I wasn't even
thinking of fainting. End Quote, wrote Susan.
Nor, for that matter, were any of the girls.
Susan and her fellow students must have truly enjoyed that
day, for they had often been teased about being faint
hearted. Apparently, Susan never minded
(14:20):
dissecting cadavers and jokinglyinformed Rosalie she was, quote,
going to wield the knife tonight.
Not the scalping knife though. End Quote.
During a typical dissection session, six students were
assigned to 1 cadaver and in detail she described the
procedure to Rosalie. Quote, it is interesting to get
all of the arteries and their branches.
(14:41):
Everything has a name, she wrotefrom the tiny holes in the bone.
It is splendid. End Quote.
Examinations were dreadful at first, but as time passed, Susan
found them easier. During the March 1887 exams, she
wrote to Rosalie to pray for herto pass but then added quote.
I don't dread them very much though.
(15:02):
End Quote. Seven days later, she had passed
her chemistry examination and described her anatomy exam as
lovely. Quote I had made a certain point
to study certain bones, and we were asked to describe those
very bones and one or two others.
So I got on swimmingly. End Quote.
In the spring of 1888, Susan passed her chemistry, anatomy
(15:25):
and Physiology exams several times in her dreams before
actually taking them. Armed with pens, pencils, and
knives, Susan and the other students descended upon the
lecture room. She described the tests as
delightful, except for the suspense of waiting to be
notified of their outcome. At 10:00 PM the students
congregated in the halls to receive letters notifying them
(15:47):
if they had passed. As second year students.
Susan and her group had to wait for the graduating seniors to be
informed first. As she opened her own letter, a
sense of calmness swept over her.
When she saw that she had passed, she wrote to Miss Kinney
that she was so glad that she could scarcely realize it.
(16:07):
She was glad for her parents, for the Indians, for the ladies
of the Connecticut Indian Association, whom she called her
Hartford mothers or foster mothers, and naturally for
herself. Now she and the other second
year students could look forwardwith anticipation to the same
time next year when they would graduate.
She frequently wrote home, prescribing medicine and giving
(16:29):
medical advice to her family. When her mother developed a sore
on her hand, Susan sent a packetwith carbulated Vaseline and
Castile soap. When Rosalie's husband, Ed
became I'll, Susan wrote, quote,Tell him Doctor Sue orders less
quinine and more time for his meals.
I'm going to write him a letter someday in vacation.
(16:51):
A sisterly, doctorly letter. End Quote.
During one of Rosalie's many pregnancies, Susan advised her
not to work too hard or to lift heavy objects.
She should get plenty of exercise in the fresh air, as
well as enough sleep. And she must stop worrying over
her work and spend more time reading and telling the
children's stories. This was sound advice by any
(17:14):
standards. Unlike most Indian women of the
19th century, Susan was affordedthe opportunity to learn about
mainstream cultural activities. She frequented the Philadelphia
Academy of Art, commented on thepaintings of Benjamin West, and
became fond of musical performances.
She attended literary and theatrical events, including The
(17:35):
Mikado and a performance of LilyLangtry in Wife's Peril.
Accompanied by her brother Francis, she witnessed the
Philadelphia Mummers Parade, commenting that the masqueraders
dressed as Indians looked prettywell for Indians.
She especially enjoyed getting out of the city and walking
through Fairmount Park collecting pine cones.
(17:55):
But she did not ignore her Indian friends and visited
Margarita at Hampton at every opportunity.
She also visited the Indian boysat the Educational Home in West
Philadelphia as well as the Indian children at
Philadelphia's Lincoln Institute.
She attended missionary meetings, went to church, and
joined her friends in various social activities.
Well respected by her fellow students, Susan was chosen
(18:18):
corresponding Secretary of the Young Women's Christian
Association out of a feeling of indebtedness for their support.
She spoke before several branches of the Connecticut
Indian Association. In October of 1887, she visited
the Hartford group meeting for the first time.
Many of the women, whom she lovingly called her mother's
(18:39):
Susan, participated in sports atthe college, taking a gymnastics
class and learning to skate and play 10 pins.
She wrote that to keep practice,she would probably swing an axe
or harness the horses the next time she came home.
She would not, she emphatically noted, go anywhere near the
cows. Quote for I am afraid of those
critters and quote. She spent a good deal of time
(19:01):
with the WWE Heritage family of Philadelphia.
Misses Heritage took special interest in Susan, inviting her
to their home, often for tea or even dinner.
Susan also accompanied them on many social events.
The daughter, Marion, who taughtat Girard College, invited Susan
to various activities. One day the two went to a drill
(19:22):
at the college. Susan was not only impressed
with the drill, which was supposed to be almost as good as
those at West Point, but also with the architecture at the
college. The largest building resembled
the Parthenon in Athens and was said to be the only American
building which was purely Grecian.
Holidays far from her family must have been a lonely time for
(19:44):
Susan. Fortunately, her first Christmas
was spent at Hampton with formerschool chums and Marguerite.
Summer vacations were probably more difficult.
During her first summer she accepted a teaching position at
Hampton. The following summer, she
returned to Hampton to attend commencement ceremonies.
Warmly welcomed by teachers and students, she served as role
(20:05):
model for young Indian students who eagerly looked forward to
her visits. Following the commencement
exercises, Susan took the train home.
She was welcomed at the Bancroftstation on June 1st by her
family. Because her parents were both
ailing that summer, she had to do much of the household and
field work, harness horses, rackhay, measure land for fence,
(20:28):
cook Stew, and of course, some occasional nursing.
When she arrived home, the Omahawere in the last stage of a
serious measles epidemic. Almost every family lost a loved
one that summer, and Susan did what she could to comfort and
medicate the sick, helping Doctor and Missus Hensel in
their rounds. Susan showed the Indians how to
(20:48):
take medicine prescribed by the doctor and handed out delicacies
that her friends in Easton, PA, had sent for the sick.
Since the Omaha lived so far apart, Susan could rarely visit
more than 10 families in an afternoon while traveling as
much as 25 miles. Seeing them in their home
environment, she became vividly aware that her people had much
(21:10):
to learn about cleanliness. The Omaha had suffered another
measles epidemic in 1900, and Susan, then a full-fledged
physician, vaccinated many of the children.
The financing for Susan's first year had been arranged by Misses
Kinney and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Her second year's expenses were temporarily placed in jeopardy
(21:30):
when Misses Kinney, writing to the Office of Indian Affairs in
hope of renewing the $167 contract, irritated Acting
Commissioner AB Upshaw. She had reported that both the
association and the faculty at the college were satisfied with
Susan's progress in the first year.
Quote. In competing with her white
classmates who had had a lifelong benefit of routine
(21:52):
public school training, she has,of course, labored under great
disadvantages. But she has been brave,
studious, conscientious through it all and has more than held
her own. End Quote.
Commissioner Upshaw, taking offense at the criticism of
Susan's earlier educational opportunities, informed Misses
Kinney that Susan had, quote, received good literary education
(22:15):
at the expense of the governmentand had had two years of medical
education at the same expense. And, quote, fortunately, though,
the contract was renewed, but the government share was reduced
to $125 per year. Susan graduated on March 14th,
1889 at the head of the class of36 young women.
(22:36):
In his commencement address, Doctor James B Walker praised
Susan highly, stating quote, thoughtful of a service to her
people, child though she was. She permits not the magnitude of
her task to stay the inspiration, but bravely,
thoughtfully, diligently pursuesthe course and today receives
(22:58):
her fitting reward. All this without a precedent.
She will stand among her people as the first woman physician.
Surely may we record with joy such courage, constancy and
ability. End Quote.
Following a competitive exam, Susan was selected one of six
women to intern at the Women's Hospital for four months
(23:18):
beginning in May. She took a brief vacation before
her internship, spending severaldays with her Connecticut
mothers. She was kept busy speaking
before branches in Farmington, Guilford, New Britain, Norwich,
Waterbury, and Winstead before she made a quick trip home.
Susan returned to the reservation permanently in late
(23:38):
1889. She accepted an appointment as
physician at the Government Boarding School on August 5th,
but in December, Omaha Agent Robert Ashley requested that she
be allowed to treat the adults of the tribe as well.
Commissioner Thomas Morgan complied with the request,
although there was already another physician at the
reservation within three months of her coming.
(24:00):
Susan cared for most of his Indian patients because she
spoke their language. When the other doctor left, she
was in charge of the healthcare of all of the 1244 tribal
members. The government built an office
for her at the school. A spacious building, it
contained a drug counter, cabinets full of games and
(24:20):
scrapbooks and picture books, aswell as magazines.
Some branches of the Women's National Indian Association
donated books and other reading material to her library.
Before long, her office was fullnot only of school children, but
of adults who came to ask for her advice on business matters,
personal affairs, and questions of law.
(24:40):
Especially on cold, rainy days, the older Omaha could be found
spending a pleasant hour either visiting with Susan or looking
through the magazines. Susan's living quarters were
provided at the government school where Marguerite was the
principal teacher. Although most of their work was
centered at the school, Susan and Marguerite also carried on
their father's work directing the tribe along the path to
(25:03):
assimilation. They advised the tribe
encouraging couples to marry by license, and with the sanction
of the church, Christian services were soon being held
over the dead. Thus, Susan was serving not only
as physician, but also as nurse,teacher, social worker, general
advisor, and interpreter for church services.
(25:23):
Religion had always been an important part of Susan's life,
and partly for that reason the Women's National Indian
Association appointed her medical missionary to the tribe.
She attended church services on Sunday mornings where she and
Marguerite often assisted by singing and interpreting.
Sometimes they spoke before the church groups on various topics.
(25:44):
Christian Endeavor meetings wereheld for the young people on
Sunday evenings, prayer meetingswere held on Wednesdays, and
Sunday school was held for the children in the schoolhouse
before church. But it is the medical record of
this young Omaha woman that is legendary.
Her patients, scattered over the30 by 45 mile reservation, were
(26:05):
reached by a network of poor dirt roads.
During her first year, she was unable to make as many house
calls as she wished because she did not have a team.
If a patient was only a mile or so away, she would walk.
If the distance was greater, shehired A-Team, but patients often
came to her. She finally purchased a team in
(26:27):
buggy. In a talk at Hampton in 1892,
Susan told her audience that theroads were so bad that a single
horse could not pull a wagon. Quote.
After trying for some time to goabout on horseback, I broke so
many bottles and thermostats that I had to give up and quote.
During the first winter there were two epidemics of influenza.
(26:48):
Although there were no fatalities among the adults, 2
babies did die. With the arrival of summer, her
patient load lessened. During July 1891, she saw only
37 patients. In August, that number rose to
111, and by September it soared to 130.
She started out every morning before 8:00, drove 6 miles in
(27:10):
One Direction, returned to the office by noon, and then set out
again on more rounds, returning sometimes as late as 10:00 PM
with an exhausted team. Although she never spoke of her
own weariness, her reports beganto reflect more and more days
taken off because of illness. She treated both acute and
chronic cases ranging from influenza, dysentery and cholera
(27:31):
to an epidemic of conjunctivitisand eye ailment spread because
of unsanitary conditions. After she had instructed her
patients to use separate towels and basins, the epidemic
subsided and at the end of her second year she summed up her
experiences by saying, quote, I am enjoying my work exceedingly
and feel more interest in and more attached to my people than
(27:54):
ever before. I have not a single thing to
complain of for my life. Here is a very happy one.
End Quote. In December 1891 brought an
especially bad epidemic of influenza, La Gripe, as she
called it. Susan saw a total of 114
patients that month during the epidemic.
(28:14):
She wrote that the disease quoterage with more violence than
during the two preceding years. Some families were rendered
helpless by it, sometimes all the family but one or two being
down with it almost every day during the month I was out
making visits several days. The thermometer was 15 to 20°
below 0 and I had to drive myself.
(28:35):
End Quote. Her first patient in December
was an old man with Marguerite driving.
They arrived at a neat little house to find him lying on the
floor in the corner on a blanket, breathing heavily, with
no one to care for him. Susan returned two hours later
with food. In a few weeks he was out of
danger and gratefully sent the young physician, another
(28:58):
patient, to a Hampton audience. She once related another, more
serious case. Quite late one night she got
word that a young Hampton student was seriously ill.
Starting out early the next morning in 20° below 0 weather,
Susan drove the six miles to thehouse.
The whole family lived in one room and the sick girl had been
(29:19):
given a corner where she lay in a bed surrounded by her Hampton
mementos. Quote.
The girl and everything in her quarter of the room were clean
and as neat as could be. End Quote, wrote Susan,
reflecting her rigid training atHampton.
Believing the girl could not possibly live through the day
because of her previous history of tuberculosis, now aggravated
(29:40):
by the flu, Susan left some medicine and promised to return
hurriedly. She drove the 9 or 10 miles
across the reservation to see her other patients and returned
home by 5:00 PM. Accompanied by Marguerite and
another teacher, she set out in a sled loaded with food for the
tubercular girl's home. For the next two weeks, while
the young woman weakened and died, Susan saw her at least
(30:03):
once every day, often cooking meals for the family and
sometimes staying a night if shefelt it necessary.
January 1892 brought no relief as Susan cared for 120 cases in
three weeks. The last week of the month, she
took off to care for members of her immediate family.
When ladies from the Morristown,NJ, auxiliary of the Women's
(30:26):
National Indian Association sentSusan money for the sick, she
added it to funds of her own to buy food for her patients.
From October 1891 to the spring of 1892, Susan saw more than 600
patients. The hard rides were becoming
increasingly exhausting but she never refused to make a call
unless she was bedridden herself.
(30:49):
With the arrival of summer in 1892, Susan took a well deserved
month of rest and attended Hamptons 24th Anniversary.
She gave the commencement address entitled My Work as a
Physician among My People. While in the East she had the
opportunity to meet more membersof the Women's National Indian
Association as their medical missionary.
(31:11):
She now had to make annual reports.
In May, she spoke before the Washington, DC auxiliary on the
spread of intemperance among herpeople.
One of her early reports had stressed the drinking problem,
noting that the Omaha could obtain whiskey almost as easily
as water. Laws were needed to prevent
crimes attributed to alcoholism,she believed.
(31:32):
Quote, if a drunken Indian smashes a buggy and assaults a
woman and child by beating them and nothing is done, what can
prevent him from doing it again?End Quote.
The temperance movement was beginning to occupy much of her
thought. During the fall of 1892.
Susan continued her arduous rounds of house calls, attending
to children and numerous walk inpatients.
(31:54):
But her own health began to suffer.
She had complained of numbness and breathing difficulties in
college, but thought that was just psychological.
Possibly it was an early indication of the disease that
would later take her life. By the 1st of January 1893, she
was bedridden. Quote.
Susie has been sick for several weeks.
(32:15):
Her ears have been troubling hervery much.
She says she has pain in her hand and the back of her neck
constantly. End Quote that written by
Rosalie to Francis on October 20th, 1893.
She resigned as government physician because of her health
and that of her mother, who had recently become Critically I'll.
(32:35):
In the summer of 1894, Susan surprised her family by
announcing her forthcoming marriage to Henry Piccott, a
Sioux Indian from the Yankton Agency and brother of
Marguerite's late husband, Charles.
Charles had died in 1892, and probably sometime shortly
thereafter. Thomas Ikinakapi, Susan's first
love, died of tuberculosis. Only Marguerite and Rosalie knew
(33:00):
of TI, as Susan called him, for she had placed her education and
career before marriage. After she graduated and began to
practice, she met Henry quote, ahandsome man with polite,
ingratiating manners and a happysense of humor, and quote, Susan
fell in love with him. When she expressed her desire to
marry, her friends and the heritages were upset.
(33:24):
Learning of the intended betrothal on June 30th, Miss
Heritage wrote expressing regretfor she did not think it wise
owing to Susan's poor health. Marian also wrote Rosalie of her
concern over the matter. Quote, It is because I wish for
Susie only the best things in this world, with the least
suffering and trouble, and that I wish she had decided not to
(33:45):
take this step. End Quote.
Personal letters written by Susan about her romance with
Henry have not survived, but there are numerous letters in
which she revealed her feelings for TI.
They had met at Hampton, and although he was deeply
interested in Susan, she had decided that her career must
come first. She visited Hampton several
(34:08):
times while a student at the Women's Medical College and
spent much time as possible withTI.
She was afraid that he might return to Hampton already
married, but, wrote Rosalie, that would not break her heart,
for she was not made that way. She added, However, quote, he
was, without exception, the handsomest Indian I ever saw in
(34:28):
quote. In her 1886 Christmas visit to
Hampton found TI constantly by her side, as handsome as ever.
They attended a band concert andbrought in the New Year
together. At one point during her visit,
TI was so overcome with emotion on seeing her that he, quote,
had his handkerchief up to his face and his eyes were shining.
(34:49):
I felt so sorry for him. I felt like crying.
And quote, When her carriage departed Hampton, he stood with
a handkerchief over his eyes again.
He looks so forlorn that Marguerite broke down and
another friend wrote that he, quote, acted as if he had lost
his right hand and quote in his letters.
TI told Susan he thought of her constantly.
(35:10):
Her good friend, Hampton teacherCora M Folsom, was convinced
that there was no one good enough for Susan and encouraged
her to have only a platonic friendship with TI, for she
feared he was getting into deep water over her.
Quote. He is so respectful to me and I
like him for that and for his faithfulness and quote, wrote
Susan in reply. In January of 1887, Susan and a
(35:34):
friend had gone to the educational home in West
Philadelphia to visit the Indianboys.
While there, a young Dakota Sioux had paid a great deal of
attention to her. But Susan wrote that she did not
care to go with anyone and remembered someone at Hampton
had wondered what he would thinkto see such attention lavished
upon her when she attended morning service and Sunday
(35:56):
school. In the afternoon the young Sioux
sat next to her, holding out hishymnal.
She remarked to Rosalie, Quote, That is the end of it, I hope.
I haven't had any time or patience for such things
nowadays. Doctors don't have much time,
you know, and he will have to keep his place and quote.
Several days later she wrote, quote, I shall be the dear
(36:18):
little old maid, you know, and come and see you and doctor and
dose you all and quote. In the very next sentence,
nevertheless, she spoke of TI. Quote Sometimes it seems to me I
can see him looking at me with such a look, sometimes a smile
on his face as he says, Come on,Susie.
End Quote. But afraid her older sister
(36:40):
might become concerned, Susan assured her that TI had helped
her and had been a good influence, and that she only
hoped her influence over him would be as half as good.
Quote. I want to be his friend and help
him. I am a better girl for having
gone with him. End Quote.
She ended by assuring Rosalie that nothing will come of it
(37:03):
dear, so be easy and be at rest.One wonders if her life would
have been the same had TI lived and they had married.
But that was not to be. Susan, when almost 30,
apparently decided she was tiredof being an old maid.
Following her marriage to Henry,she began to participate more
directly in Indian life. She and Marguerite, who had
(37:26):
remarried, drew even closer, both having their first babies
within a few months of each other.
Within a year, Susan was seriously ill again.
Rosalie wrote to Francis, quote,Susie had been very sick and I
had given up all hopes of her when she commenced to improve.
End Quote. With her health on the mend,
(37:46):
Susan and her husband lived partof the time in the town of
Bancroft, across from the Presbyterian Church.
Susan, now with two small sons, practice medicine among both
Indians and whites. She quickly won the respect of
local doctors. One night, at the urgent request
of two doctors, she helped in a particularly difficult delivery.
(38:07):
Later, one of them reported thatmother and child were doing
well, thanks to the skill of Doctor Susan.
In her Bancroft house and at hermother's farm, Susan placed a
lighted Lantern in the window toguide those who needed medical
attention. Again in 1897, her health
failed, and that summer she became so sick that she was not
(38:28):
expected to live. Neighbors, both white and
Indian, rallied to her side, bringing fruit, food and flowers
and constantly expressing their concern to her mother.
That summer, when friends and neighbors came to her support,
Susan realized how much that shehad helped them previously.
She felt that there was little use in trying to help people
(38:49):
because it was not appreciated. But she recognized her error,
for she received quote such earnest, heartfelt words of
thanks from people she never expected to hear from.
End Quote. Despite her poor health, she
became an active temperance speaker in place of her father.
In 1856, Joseph Lafleche had organized a police force of
(39:12):
Omaha Indians who administered corporal punishment to any
member of the tribe found drunk.Until his death in 1888, there
was very little liquor on the reservation, but since that time
liquor flowed freely, Church attendance suffered, and farm
work was often neglected. As a young student at the
Medical College, Susan had attended lectures by noted
(39:33):
temperance leaders, including Francis O Willard.
She was therefore exposed to thetemperance movement and the
effects of alcoholism early in her medical career.
Later, as a physician, she saw the effects of alcohol from both
medical and personal angles. Tragically, her husband had
begun to drink excessively and consequently she became even
(39:55):
more active in the movement. During the four years she tended
the ill of the Omaha tribe, Susan always felt perfectly safe
in making her appointments, but the increased use of alcohol had
begun to change that situation, she wrote.
Quote. Men and women died from
alcoholism and little children were seen reeling on the streets
(40:15):
of the town. Drunken brawls in which men were
killed occurred and no person's life was considered safe.
End Quote. Women pawned their clothing and
men spent rent money on liquor instead of provisions and
machinery. Congress passed a law that
improved the situation and a commissioner or deputy was
assigned to enforce it, but his removal encouraged bootleggers
(40:39):
to return. A death caused by alcoholism on
January 26th, 1900 prompted Susan to write to William A
Jones, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, asking what advantage
any money saved from the removalof the deputy would be if her
quote, people were to be demoralized mentally, morally,
and physically. End Quote.
As the years passed, the liquor situation worsened and a year
(41:02):
before her death, she wrote Commissioner Cato sells that his
department ought to prevent the liquor traffic.
Several weeks earlier, an old Indian had been murdered by a
young man who later committed suicide.
Quote. All through lemon extract.
End Quote. She charged, quote, the white
man who sold it being well knownnothing has been done about it.
(41:23):
End Quote. When called as an expert witness
in the inquest of the man who had died as a result of the
misuse of liquor, she was asked about the history of liquor
traffic among her people. She bluntly stated, Quote.
We find the Omaha Indian, beforethe advent of the white man, a
fine specimen of manhood, physically and morally of good
health. But with liquor we find these
(41:45):
conditions radically changed andreversed.
We find physical degeneration ofthe Indian.
End Quote. Alcohol reduced their resistance
to disease, making them easy prey to tuberculosis.
Susan added that the Indian child was there for quote a
weak, puny specimen of humanity.End Quote.
Domestic brawls were common and Indian lands were sold for money
(42:09):
to purchase liquor. 1 Indian, she explained, sold his land in
19 O 4 for $6000 and in one yearspent the money treating his
friends to liquor, giving them money, and buying himself 3
buggies. She enumerated the deaths
attributed to liquor from 1894 to 1914, beginning with an
individual who fell from a buggyand was not missed by his drunk
(42:31):
companions until the next morning when his frozen body was
discovered. The government's efforts to keep
liquor off the reservation had failed miserably.
Susan urged that the detectives appointed to patrol the
reservation be not local men andabove all should be moral,
impartial and above receiving bribes.
Whatever small victories she achieved elsewhere were not
(42:54):
equal at home, and in 19 O 5, owing to complications from
drinking, Susan's husband died. She was left as the sole support
of an invalid mother and two small boys.
For the remainder of her life she continued her struggle
against alcohol. Following her husband's death,
the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions appointed her
(43:15):
missionary to her tribe, the first Indian to hold such a
position. She was furnished housing along
with a small stipend. The degenerative ear disease
from which she had suffered for years made her increasingly
deaf, and the pain now extended down into her back.
She continued nevertheless, serving as teacher, preacher,
field worker, and physician at the agency's Blackbird Hills
(43:38):
Presbyterian Church. She held church services, read
the Bible in her native tongue, interpreted hymns, and held
simple Christian services for those who died.
In November of 19 O 6, Susan andMarguerite's husband, Walter
Didick, purchased house lots in the newly established town of
Walt Hill, carved out of Indian land by the railroad.
Largely through Susan's work, the secretary of the Interior
(44:00):
Department ruled that no liquor could be sold in towns once a
part of the Omaha Reservation, another small victory in her
long struggle over alcohol. On her town lot, Susan had a
modern home built, complete withfireplace, furnace, windows for
light and fresh air, and an indoor bathroom.
Upon its completion, Susan and her sons, Pierre and Carl and
(44:23):
her mother moved in. Once settled, Susan and
Marguerite entered the social structure of the town, becoming
charter members of a new chapterof Eastern Star.
Susan, a major organizer of the New Presbyterian Church, also
taught in its Sunday School. Her home was on occasion filled
with family and guests, for she enjoyed entertaining the two
(44:45):
sisters, supported community projects, lectures, concerts and
special events at the County Fair at the Ladder.
Susan was in charge one year of the Indian Department.
She continued to be an active president of the Church
Missionary Society, urging townspeople and businessman of
Wald Hill to become sufficientlyinterested in projects to give
freely of their money and their time.
(45:07):
Soon many people begin attendingthe monthly church meetings of
the Study Circle, which held talks on topics ranging from
Mexicans to Black Freeman. Concerts were also held to raise
money for missionary work. Susan also became politically
involved when the government arbitrarily decided to extend
the trust period for the Omaha an additional 10 years because
(45:27):
it considered Indians in generaluneducated and backward.
This was, however, not true of the Omaha, who had a higher
literacy rate than most tribes, she noted.
Quote. They are independent and self
reliant and competent as the same number of white people.
End Quote. Their last allotment papers had
been delivered in 1885 and the 25 year trust period, during
(45:50):
which time they could not alienate their land, should have
ended in 1910. The decision to extend the trust
term caused numerous hardships for the Omaha.
In addition, a new system of supervised farming was
instituted. The Winnebago and Omaha agencies
were consolidated, thus requiring longer travel distance
for tribal members to transact agency business.
(46:11):
AG Pollock, well respected OmahaSuperintendent, was removed.
Protests arose from both whites and Indians over the additional
supervision quote. Every business action of the
individual is supervised and hedged about with red tape and
paternal restrictions and quote,wrote the editor of the Wald
Hill Times. All the Omaha wanted was to
(46:32):
lease their lands and draw upon their monies themselves.
But as Susan predicted, the entire tribe rebelled, depending
upon her to free them of these new regulations.
Unfortunately, at this critical period in the history of her
people, Susan was again stricken.
During the spring of 19 O 9, shewas again close to death.
Specialists visited her several times, a trained nurse stayed
(46:54):
with her for almost six weeks, and the local doctor visited as
often as three times a day. By June her health had improved
sufficiently to permit her to begin writing letters protesting
the treatment of her tribe. In February, she was the
unanimous choice of Omaha men and women as one of the
delegates to argue their case before the Secretary of the
(47:14):
Interior and the Attorney General of the United States.
When she originally declined to do so because of poor health,
tribesmen threatened to place her body on the train.
Quote, the Omahans depend upon me, so I just have to take care
of myself To this fight is over,she wrote.
Despite a severe case of nervousfrustration which prevented her
(47:36):
from digesting food, Susan protested the red tape which
made it difficult for Indians toget their own money and the
problems imposed in travel of the new combined agency.
Her efforts and those of the rest of the delegation were
successful, and most of the Omaha were deemed competent to
rent or lease their lands and toreceive monies.
(47:57):
Susan occasionally wrote articles which contained light
humor. Invited by the Burke County
Farmers Institute to speak on, quote, primitive farming among
the Omaha Indians and quote, sheput the history of tribal
farming on paper. Quote, there was no need for
suffragettes in those days, she wrote, for the produce of these
gardens always belong to the women.
(48:18):
End Quote. Her final draft was read by
Marguerite on February 13th, 1912 in Decatur, NE during one
of the most successful meetings the association had ever had.
Susan continued recording the traditions of her people by
writing an article on the originof corn for the local newspaper.
Susan always returned, nevertheless, to her first love,
(48:41):
medicine. She was one of the organizers of
the Thurston County Medical Association, served several
terms on the health board for the town of Walt Hill, and was a
member of the State Medical Society for three years.
She served as chairman of the State Health Committee of the
Nebraska Federation of Women's Clubs, working to get health
related bills through the state legislature.
(49:04):
She began to study tuberculosis more intensively, giving
lectures on the subject at the Indian Church as well as to
local townspeople. When writing to Commissioner
Cato Sells in 1914, she suggested that children at the
government schools be examined monthly for the disease.
She told of an 18 year old girl who returned home with
tuberculosis and infected both her mother and grandmother.
(49:26):
All three subsequently died. When Wald Hill observed National
Tuberculosis Day, local doctors were invited to deliver lectures
on the subject at the two churches.
Later their talks were printed in the local newspaper.
Tuberculosis was not, however, Susan's only health worry.
Her other campaigns were againstthe use of common drinking cup
(49:47):
and the household fly. Her article on the evils of the
drinking cup was printed in the local paper, and the committee's
energetic campaign resulted in legislation abolishing its use.
Disposable cups were soon sold in local stores and sanitary
drinking fountains were built inall the schools.
Disposable ice cream dishes and spoons were used by the local
(50:08):
drug store. Another one of Susan's important
successes was the campaign to eradicate the troublesome
household pest, the fly. Describing it as the filthiest
of all vermin. Susan designed an attractive
anti house fly poster encouraging people not to allow
flies in their house or near their food.
(50:29):
By sprinkling lime or kerosene where flies might collect, she
pointed out, their breeding places could be eliminated.
She also encouraged the use of screens for doors and windows.
Fly traps were soon available atall local hardware stores.
Susan had always dreamed of a hospital where she could care
for her patients and avoid the long trips to hospitals in Omaha
(50:50):
or in Sioux City. After several efforts to
interest local philanthropic organizations in building a
hospital, she approached the Home Mission Board of the
Presbyterian Church. It granted $8000.
The Society of Friends, through the Presbyterian Church, gave an
additional $500. Marguerite and her husband
donated an acre of land, and equipment and furnishings came
(51:13):
from other individuals and organizations.
A benefit concert was held to raise additional funds, and the
hospital opened in January 1913.It contained 2 general wards
with a capacity for 12 beds, 5 private wards, a maternity ward,
operating room, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, and a reception room.
Both Indians and whites were admitted and in 1915 a total of
(51:37):
448 patients were cared for, 126of them Indians.
The presence of the local hospital made it possible for
Susan to reduce her patient loadand avoid long drives in the
inclement weather. Death took Susan Lafleche on
September 18th, 1915. The infection in her ears had
(51:57):
worsened steadily and by 1914 was diagnosed as decay of the
bone, probably cancer. Susan underwent 2 operations,
the 1st in February 1915, the second the following March.
By June her brother had been informed by the surgeon that she
had only a month or so to live. Her sons, Carolyn Pierre were
(52:20):
home from school that summer andthey and Marguerite's eldest
daughter helped care for her. Carol was the only one Susan
would trust to give her the hypodermic injections and the
medicines. Her value to the community had
been so profound that the Walt Hill Times of September 24th
added an extra page to carry special eulogies of Susan.
(52:42):
Funeral services were held on Sunday morning, September 19th,
in her home where friends and relatives surrounded her casket.
The simple service was performedby three Presbyterian clergymen.
The Reverend Chapter Mitchell Moore, pastor of Walt Hill
Presbyterian Church, which Susanhad helped to organize.
The Reverend George A Beath, pastor of the Blackbird Hills
(53:04):
Mission, where she had spent years of hard work, and Doctor
DE Jenkins, a member of the Presbyterian Board of Home
Missions, which she had served for many years.
The closing prayer was given in the Omaha language by one of the
older members of the tribe. Internment took place at the
Bancroft Cemetery where she was laid to rest beside her husband.
(53:25):
The Amethyst Chapter of the Eastern Star conducted a moving
graveside service. Quote.
Hardly an Omaha Indian is livingwho has not been treated and
helped by her, and hundreds of white people and Indians owe
their lives to her treatment, her care and nursing.
We are confronted here with a character rising to greatness
(53:48):
and to great deeds out of conditions which seldom produce
more than mediocre men and womenachieving great and beneficial
ends over obstacles almost insurmountable.
End Quote. After her death, the Walt Hill
Hospital was in tribute, renamedthe Doctor Susan Picot Memorial
Hospital by the Home Mission Board.
(54:09):
Thank you for listening to the Nebraska History Podcast.
To learn more about Nebraska History Magazine, to listen to
more podcasts, or to support ourpodcast by becoming a member of
the Nebraska State Historical Society, go to
history.nebraska.gov/podcast. And don't forget to subscribe to
the podcast and get notified when we release new episodes on
your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, I'm Chris
(54:31):
Goforth.
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