Susan La Flesche Picotte (born in 1865) was a Native American medical doctor and reformer and member of the Omaha tribe.
In 1889, at age 24, Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte graduated as valedictorian of her medical class from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, the first Indigenous people, and the first Indigenous woman, to earn a medical degree.
After graduation she returned to the Omaha tribe and worked in a number of medical roles and raised awareness about health issues such as good hygiene and food sanitation. She treated tuberculosis, banned communal drinking cups, and insisted on window screens for good ventilation and to keep out disease-carrying flies.
The reservation hospital in Walthill, Nebraska, completed before her death and bearing her name is now a community centre and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993.
She died in 1915 aged 49
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