Susan LaFlesche Picotte Memorial Hospital

Between the 1889 degree and the 1913 hospital lay hard years. Alice Fletcher, a family friend, had pointed Susan La Flesche to the Connecticut Indian Association, which paid her tuition and housing. Back among the Umóⁿhoⁿ she became physician at the Omaha Agency Indian School at $500 a year, responsible for more than 1,200 people across some 450 square miles. She resigned in 1893 to care for her dying mother and married Henry Picotte, a Yankton, in 1894. In 1910 she went to Washington to tell the Indian Office that most Omaha could manage their own affairs.

What the plaque says

Susan LaFlesche Picotte Memorial Hospital This hospital is named in honor of the first Native American woman physician. Dr. Picotte (1865-1915) was the daughter of Mary Gale and Iron Eye, also known as Joseph LaFlesche, the last traditionally recognized chief of the Omaha Tribe. She was educated at the Elizabeth Institute for Young Women (New Jersey), the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (Virginia) and The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, where she graduated first in her class in 1889. She returned to the Omaha Reservation to serve both the Native American and white communities as a physician, civic leader, Native American rights activist, and outspoken advocate of public health and sanitation. A dedicated physician despite a painful disease that diminished her own health, Dr. Picotte was known for keeping a lighted lamp in the window of her home to welcome patients in the night. In 1913 she fulfilled her goal of establishing a hospital to serve the community of Walthill and surrounding area. The hospital, which now houses the Susan LaFlesche Picotte Center, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988 and named a National Historic Landmark in 1993. Susan LaFlesche Picotte Center, Inc. Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blackbird Scenic Overlook — 7.0 mi
  A pull-off on US-75 at Macy on the Umóⁿhoⁿ reservation, looking over the Missouri valley toward the hill where Wazhiⁿga' sabe, Blackbird, was buried after the smallpox of 1800.

More markers nearby

• Susan LaFlesche Picotte Memorial Hospital — 0.9 mi
• Winnebago Scouts — 6.5 mi
• Omaha Tribe — 6.6 mi
• Combs School, Built 1857 - Closed 1964 — 9.9 mi