Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. Since this week's episodes had a medical theme,
Speaker 1: we thought we would continue that for our Saturday Classics.
Speaker 1: So we have our November four episode on Susan La
Speaker 1: Flesh Pacotte, who was the first Indigenous woman in the
Speaker 1: United States to earn an MD. We hope you enjoy
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You missed in History class a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Today we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about Dr Susan La Flesh Pacotte. She
Speaker 1: was the first Native American woman to earn a medical degree.
Speaker 1: She also lived at a time when there was a
Speaker 1: lot of change happening in the United States as a
Speaker 1: whole and among Native Americans and the Omaha tribe that
Speaker 1: she was part of specifically, So in some ways, we're
Speaker 1: kind of looking at the history of this time through
Speaker 1: the story of her life. We're definitely not touching on everything,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot that affected tribal life that we're
Speaker 1: going to get into. Susan La Flesh was born on
Speaker 1: June sixty five in what is now Nebraska. Her father
Speaker 1: was Joseph la Flesh, also known as iron I, and
Speaker 1: her mother was his first wife, Mary Gaale, also called
Speaker 1: One Woman. The La Flesches had four surviving daughters, Suzette, Susan, Rosalie,
Speaker 1: and Marguerite. Joseph also had a son named Frances by
Speaker 1: another wife. Both of Susan's grandmother's were Native women. Her
Speaker 1: father's father was a French Canadian trader, and her mother's
Speaker 1: father was a U. S Army doctor. Susan's ancestors included
Speaker 1: people from multiple indigenous peoples, including the Omaha, Iowa, and
Speaker 1: Ponca tribes, and her father had grown up among several
Speaker 1: different tribes and traveled extensively with his father when he
Speaker 1: was young as well, but the family was enrolled as Omaha.
Speaker 1: Joseph La Flesh had been adopted by Omaha chief big Elk,
Speaker 1: who intended to name Joseph Is his successor. When big
Speaker 1: Elk died in eighteen fifties three, Joseph became one of
Speaker 1: the tribes to principal chiefs and was ultimately its last
Speaker 1: traditional chief. As I alluded to earlier, Susan grew up
Speaker 1: during a time of huge transition for the Omaha and
Speaker 1: for the other tribes and nations in that part of
Speaker 1: North America. First contact between the Omaha and Europeans was
Speaker 1: probably sometime in the mid late seventeen hundreds. By eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty four, after a series of epidemics, wars, and treaties,
Speaker 1: the Omaha had ceded a lot of their territory to
Speaker 1: the United States. They were left with a reservation and
Speaker 1: what's now northeastern Nebraska, and that was further reduced in
Speaker 1: size in eighteen sixty five, which was the year that
Speaker 1: Susan was born. Susan's father believed that the only way
Speaker 1: the Omaha would survive in the face of all this
Speaker 1: was to selectively adapt to white society while still retaining
Speaker 1: as much Omaha culture and identity as possible. This outlook
Speaker 1: was why big Elk had oos in him as his successor.
Speaker 1: He also thought that the Omaha would be wiped out
Speaker 1: if they didn't adapt, so Susan's parents believed strongly that
Speaker 1: she and her siblings needed to learn to live with
Speaker 1: and among white people so they could essentially form a
Speaker 1: bridge between the Omaha and the white world. To that end,
Speaker 1: Joseph and Mary la Flesh didn't give most of their
Speaker 1: children traditional Omaha names, although Susan's oldest sister, Susette, was
Speaker 1: known as Bright Eyes. They weren't given traditional tattoos or
Speaker 1: piercings either, and although Susan had been born in a
Speaker 1: tp during the summer buffalo hunt, the family lived in
Speaker 1: a frame house rather than in the earth lodges that
Speaker 1: the Omaha had traditionally used since settling in the Missouri
Speaker 1: River region. The La Flesh children also attended a Presbyterian
Speaker 1: mission school on their reservation. Their parents had no formal
Speaker 1: education themselves, and they didn't speak much English, but they
Speaker 1: both stressed how critical it was for Susan and all
Speaker 1: of her siblings to learn and do well. Their parents
Speaker 1: spoke to them in Omaha and French, but among each other,
Speaker 1: the siblings were expected to speak English. Susan started attending
Speaker 1: the mission school when she was only three, but she
Speaker 1: was there for a year before it was closed down
Speaker 1: in the wake of Ulyss assess Grants peace policy. This
Speaker 1: peace policy essentially replaced Indian agents with Christian missionaries. The
Speaker 1: policy was based on the mindset that missionary work would
Speaker 1: be less prone to corruption than the previous Indian agent system,
Speaker 1: so when the Presbyterian missions school was replaced with a
Speaker 1: Quaker day school. The La Flesh children attended that school instead.
Speaker 1: Joseph la Flesh's decisions about how the Omaha could survive
Speaker 1: were deeply controversial. The Omaha were divided into what was
Speaker 1: known as the young Men's Party, which supported the idea
Speaker 1: of selective assimilation, and then the Chiefs Party, instead advocated
Speaker 1: maintaining Omaha culture and traditions as much as possible. The
Speaker 1: neighborhood that Joseph la Flesh established on their reservation, dominated
Speaker 1: by frame houses and individual farms, was nicknamed the Village
Speaker 1: of make Believe White Men. When Susan was eight, she
Speaker 1: had an experience that led to her desire to become
Speaker 1: a doctor. She was helping to care for an Omaha
Speaker 1: woman who was very ill, and they had asked the
Speaker 1: agency doctor, who was white, to come and see her,
Speaker 1: but after four messages sent to him, he still had
Speaker 1: not arrived. So Susan sat with this woman as she died,
Speaker 1: and later she said, quote, it was only an Indian
Speaker 1: and it did not matter. The doctor preferred hunting for
Speaker 1: prairie chickens rather than visiting the poor, suffering humanity. Of course,
Speaker 1: this was not the only time she saw a need
Speaker 1: for better healthcare on the reservation. As another example, her
Speaker 1: father had a leg amputated after an untreated injury, but
Speaker 1: it was what she kept returning to when she talked
Speaker 1: about wanting to become a doctor. In eighteen seventy five,
Speaker 1: when Susan was ten, her older sister Susette, returned home
Speaker 1: from studying at the Elizabeth Insta for Young Ladies in Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: New Jersey. She wanted a job teaching at the reservation school,
Speaker 1: but at first she was told that she wasn't eligible.
Speaker 1: This started an uphill battle in which Suzette unearthed a
Speaker 1: handbook saying that Native teachers were preferred, got permission to
Speaker 1: leave the reservation to take an exam for a teaching certificate,
Speaker 1: and was finally hired as the first Native teacher to
Speaker 1: be employed on the Omaha Reservation. Suzette moved into a
Speaker 1: house near the school, and her sisters moved in with
Speaker 1: her so they could all be closer to the school
Speaker 1: rather than walking about three miles each way every day.
Speaker 1: Suzette was a huge influence on Susan's life as a sister,
Speaker 1: a teacher, and an advocate for Native people's rights. When
Speaker 1: Susan was twelve, Susette became an interpreter for Standing Bear,
Speaker 1: who was the chief of the Ponca tribe, and that
Speaker 1: is when Susette became more widely known as Bright Eyes.
Speaker 1: The Ponca had been guaranteed reservation land in what is
Speaker 1: now Minnesota and South Dakota, but in eighteen sixty eight
Speaker 1: this territory became part of the Great Sioux Reservation Instead.
Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy seven, the Ponca were forced into Indian
Speaker 1: Territory and what's now Oklahoma, where they arrived in eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy eight. This forced relocation was devastating, and nearly a
Speaker 1: third of the Ponca died, including Standing Bear's son. In
Speaker 1: January of eighteen seventy nine, Standing Bear left the reservation
Speaker 1: in Indian Territory without permission, intending to take his son's
Speaker 1: body back to the Ponca hole land to be buried.
Speaker 1: He and the people who went with him were arrested.
Speaker 1: Then this went to trial and Standing Bear versus Krook.
Speaker 1: The court found in Standing Bear's favor and ruled that
Speaker 1: he had quote the same inalienable right to life, liberty,
Speaker 1: and the pursuit of happiness as the more fortunate White race.
Speaker 1: This was a landmark ruling that established that Native Americans
Speaker 1: were considered persons under the law. After this court ruling standing,
Speaker 1: Bear went on a speaking tour of the eastern United
Speaker 1: States to pain for Native people's rights, and it was
Speaker 1: on this tour that bright Eyes acted as his interpreter
Speaker 1: and began her lifelong work advocating for Native people's rights.
Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy nine, when she was fourteen, Susan La
Speaker 1: Flesh left the Omaha Reservation with her younger sister, Marguerite,
Speaker 1: to attend the Elizabeth Institute for Young Ladies, where Bright
Speaker 1: Eyes had also studied. Three years later, she returned home again,
Speaker 1: following in her older sister's footsteps, to teach, this time
Speaker 1: at the Presbyterian Mission School on the reservation, which had
Speaker 1: reopened while she was away. That year. Eighteen eighty two
Speaker 1: brought more major changes to the Omaha, and we were
Speaker 1: going to talk all about that after we first have
Speaker 1: a sponsor break. From eighteen eighty two to eighteen eighty four,
Speaker 1: susan La Flesh was a teacher on the Omaha Reservation
Speaker 1: and during that time, as I alluded to before the break,
Speaker 1: once again the tribe underwent some major changes relating to
Speaker 1: tribal lands. We talked before the break about how the
Speaker 1: Ponka had been forced out of reservation land that was
Speaker 1: supposed to be theirs. This was mainly due to a
Speaker 1: combination of mismanagement, error, and bureaucracy, but it had raised
Speaker 1: concerns that something similar could happen to the Omaha, especially
Speaker 1: in the face of the ongoing land rush in that
Speaker 1: part of North America, and that became one of the
Speaker 1: motivations for a system of land allotment among the Omaha.
Speaker 1: The basic idea was that the reservation land would be
Speaker 1: divided up and apportioned to individual families and individual people
Speaker 1: instead of being held collectively by the Omaha tribe. These
Speaker 1: individual allotments would be held in trust for twenty five years,
Speaker 1: and during that time the people who had received them
Speaker 1: were supposed to demonstrate that they had the means to
Speaker 1: keep up with it and to support themselves. Then, after
Speaker 1: twenty five years, if they had demonstrated that they were
Speaker 1: competent that was the term that was used to describe
Speaker 1: this ability to keep up with the land and to
Speaker 1: basically function, then the land and would be theirs to
Speaker 1: do with as they wished in theory, this would keep
Speaker 1: the Omaha from losing their land because it would be
Speaker 1: owned by individual tribal members rather than subject to treaties
Speaker 1: with the U. S Government, which did not have the
Speaker 1: greatest history of being fair or being upheld fairly. And
Speaker 1: it would also continue to encourage assimilation with white American
Speaker 1: culture and with the greater United States economy, which was
Speaker 1: one of the goals of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Speaker 1: policy at that point. So so to to maybe a
Speaker 1: lesser extent, one of the goals of tribal leadership at
Speaker 1: this point, like we said earlier, and the idea of
Speaker 1: like selective assimilation as a means for survival. So this
Speaker 1: whole idea was put into practice in the Omaha Allotment
Speaker 1: Act of eighteen eighty two, and that made the Omaha
Speaker 1: one of the first indigenous tribes in the United States
Speaker 1: to receive individual allotments of land. And this was once
Speaker 1: again extremely controversial within the tribe. About a third of
Speaker 1: the tribe were very vocally opposed to it. I mean,
Speaker 1: this was a total shift and how they approached the
Speaker 1: idea of the land that they were on. Joseph La
Speaker 1: Flesh was in favor of it, was a huge advocate
Speaker 1: for it, and about a quarter of the tribe supported him.
Speaker 1: Another advocate of this idea of individual land apportionment was
Speaker 1: Alice Cunningham Fletcher of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and
Speaker 1: Ethnology at Harvard University. Fletcher had been living with and
Speaker 1: studying the Omaha. Susan's half brother, Francis had initially been
Speaker 1: one of her informants during her ethnology work with the tribe,
Speaker 1: later becoming her collaborator and an ethnologist in his own right.
Speaker 1: The two of them wrote The Omaha Tribe together, which
Speaker 1: was published in nineteen eleven and continues to be regarded
Speaker 1: as one of the most important and comprehensive works on
Speaker 1: Omaha history and culture. Ultimately, Francis La Flesh was something
Speaker 1: of an adopted son to Alice Fletcher. Can't they have
Speaker 1: the whole other story. That's beyond the scope of this podcast,
Speaker 1: But the point is that there were advocates of this
Speaker 1: whole system among the Omaha and among people who had
Speaker 1: lived and worked with the Omaha. They genuinely thought that
Speaker 1: this was going to be good for the tribe, and
Speaker 1: that it was for the best, but there were definitely
Speaker 1: also other people advocating this whole system who were motivated
Speaker 1: by greed and frankly racism. Once the reservation land had
Speaker 1: been divided up and allotted out to the Omaha, the
Speaker 1: unallotted land, basically land that was left over, would be
Speaker 1: up for sale to anybody, regardless of the motivation. Though
Speaker 1: this whole system of apportionment turned out to be just
Speaker 1: disastrous for the Omaha. Some of the allotments were more
Speaker 1: conducive to farming than others. A lot of people leased
Speaker 1: their allotted land rather than farming it themselves, but they
Speaker 1: didn't ever earn enough in rent to do much more
Speaker 1: than just subsist. Leasing land often became the first step
Speaker 1: to losing it. Once the land came out of trust,
Speaker 1: community ties broke down, as work that had been done
Speaker 1: collaboratively at one point was instead supposed to be done
Speaker 1: by each individual farmer on their individual farm. All of
Speaker 1: this combined with changes to laws regulating alcohol, and as
Speaker 1: a consequence, alcoholism surged on the reservation. This whole process
Speaker 1: would be repeated on a much greater scale, involving many
Speaker 1: more tribes with the DAWs Act of eighteen eighty seven,
Speaker 1: which had similarly devastating results. In July of eighty three,
Speaker 1: as this whole shift was happening, Alice Cuttingham Fletcher became
Speaker 1: very ill with what was described as inflammatory rheumatism, and
Speaker 1: Susan La Flash was one of the people who took
Speaker 1: care of her while she was sick. After being cared
Speaker 1: for by Susan La Flesh, Fletcher encouraged her to go
Speaker 1: back to school and study medicine. Since the Elizabeth Institute
Speaker 1: for Young Ladies was more of a finishing school than
Speaker 1: preparation for college, Susan's first step was to enroll at
Speaker 1: the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. The Hampton Institute had
Speaker 1: been founded in eighteen sixty eight by General Samuel Armstrong.
Speaker 1: It was initially created to educate formerly enslaved people after
Speaker 1: the Civil War. It began also enrolling Native students in
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy eight, with a goal of quote civilizing and
Speaker 1: assimilating Native students. It's going to come up again later
Speaker 1: in the episode, but we have a two part podcast
Speaker 1: about the system of boarding schools that was used to
Speaker 1: similar purpose, and this was basically the same idea, but
Speaker 1: for adults and Susan arrived there in eighteen eighty four
Speaker 1: at the age of nineteen. She graduated second in her
Speaker 1: class on May twentieth, eighteen eighty six, and was also
Speaker 1: awarded the Demorest Gold Medal for academic achievement. Hampton Institute's
Speaker 1: resident physician, Martha Waldron, had encouraged La Flesh to study
Speaker 1: medicine at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, which had
Speaker 1: been established in eighteen fifty. She applied and was accepted,
Speaker 1: but it turned out that the school scholarship fund had
Speaker 1: already been allocated for the year and she did not
Speaker 1: have the money to pay for her tuition. Alice Cunningham
Speaker 1: Fletcher helped La Flesh get funding to attend medical school.
Speaker 1: One source of funds was the Connecticut Indian Association, which
Speaker 1: was a branch of the Women's National Indian Association. This
Speaker 1: association had originally been formed as the Indian Committee of
Speaker 1: the Women's Home Mission Society, and it had been formed
Speaker 1: in response to the removal of the Ponca tribe to
Speaker 1: Indian territory that we talked about earlier in the show.
Speaker 1: Many of the organization's members were former abolitionists and their
Speaker 1: original mission was to advocate for the United States to
Speaker 1: respect and uphold its treaties with Native peoples, as well
Speaker 1: as quote protection for Indians and their lands from the
Speaker 1: robberies and horrors of enforced removals. By the time La
Speaker 1: Flesh was trying to get funding for medical school, the
Speaker 1: Connecticut Indian Association's mission had shifted a little bit. Their
Speaker 1: overall goal was the recognition of Native people as having
Speaker 1: full and equal human rights, but also in such a
Speaker 1: way that they would ultimately be Christianized and assimilated into
Speaker 1: white society. They did a lot of petitioning, holding public
Speaker 1: meetings and lecturers, distributing educational materials, and establishing missions. When
Speaker 1: it came to La Flesh's education, the Connecticut Indian Association
Speaker 1: raised funds among its members. They also appealed for donations
Speaker 1: through the Hartford Current. The Current printed several letters related
Speaker 1: to this fundraising effort. One was from General Armstrong, and
Speaker 1: that letter described La Flesh as quote a level headed, earnest,
Speaker 1: capable Christian woman quite equal to medical studies. Another letter
Speaker 1: was from La Flesh herself, and it said, in part quote,
Speaker 1: I feel that as a physician I can do a
Speaker 1: great deal more than as a mere teacher for the
Speaker 1: home is the foundation of all things for the Indians,
Speaker 1: and my work I hope will be chiefly in the
Speaker 1: homes of my people. These funds were supplemented with money
Speaker 1: from the U S Office of Indian Affairs. The office
Speaker 1: granted La Flesh a hundred and sixty seven dollars a year,
Speaker 1: the same amount that it subsidized for students at one
Speaker 1: of the Indian boarding schools. As Tracy mentioned earlier, UH
Speaker 1: we talked about these schools in our our four shot
Speaker 1: two partn UH that again was meant to Christianize Native
Speaker 1: students and get them away instead from their native culture.
Speaker 1: And this funding from the Office of Indian Affairs made
Speaker 1: La Flesh the first student to receive federal aid to
Speaker 1: go to college. Susan La Flesh started medical school in
Speaker 1: October of eighteen eighty six, and her relationship with the
Speaker 1: Connecticut Indian Association continued throughout that time and after her
Speaker 1: time in med school, she referred to them as her
Speaker 1: second Connecticut mothers. La Flesh enjoyed and excelled at her
Speaker 1: medical studies, and she persevered after the death of her father.
Speaker 1: On September twenty three, eight She graduated as valedictorian on
Speaker 1: March fourteenth of eighteen eighty nine, making her the first
Speaker 1: Native American woman to earn a medical degree in the
Speaker 1: United States. She went on a speaking tour of several
Speaker 1: other branches of the National Women's Indian Association, basically to
Speaker 1: recruit other women to the same cause as her Connecticut mother's,
Speaker 1: and then after spending a few months finishing an internship
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, she returned home to the Omaha Reservation to
Speaker 1: begin working as a doctor. We'll talk about her time
Speaker 1: as a doctor after a sponsor break. When Susan the
Speaker 1: Flesh returned to the Omaha Reservation, she was initially hired
Speaker 1: as the doctor for the reservation's boarding school. She was
Speaker 1: paid a salary of five hundred dollars, which was a
Speaker 1: fraction of what male doctors and similar positions were being paid.
Speaker 1: The Connecticut Indian Association supplemented this by also making her
Speaker 1: their medical missionary, so they paid her an additional two
Speaker 1: d and fifty dollars a year, and they also bought
Speaker 1: her surgical tools for her At first, some of her
Speaker 1: patients didn't entire early trust her. She spoke English, and
Speaker 1: she had spent years away from the reservation being educated
Speaker 1: by and with white people. She had also been a
Speaker 1: devout Christian since her early years at a mission school
Speaker 1: on the reservation. But she quickly demonstrated that she was
Speaker 1: a competent, capable, compassionate, and dedicated doctor, and soon she
Speaker 1: was known as Doctor Sue, and adult patients were asking
Speaker 1: to see her, even though she was only supposed to
Speaker 1: be treating the children at the school. In January of
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety, the Omaha Agency's white doctor resigned, in part
Speaker 1: because all of his patients were asking to see Dr
Speaker 1: Sue instead. La Flesh was appointed as the official Bureau
Speaker 1: of Indian Affairs physician for the entire Omaha Agency, and
Speaker 1: this made her the first woman to be appointed to
Speaker 1: one of these positions and one of the first Native people.
Speaker 1: She was responsible for the health and wellness of more
Speaker 1: than twelve hundred people for the next four years. They
Speaker 1: were spread out over more than thirteen hundred square miles
Speaker 1: or thirty three d and square killameters of territory. She
Speaker 1: was only twenty four. She did exactly as she said
Speaker 1: she hoped to do in that letter that had been
Speaker 1: published in the Hartford Current. She visited patients in their homes,
Speaker 1: seeing to their health and wellness. She treated illnesses and injuries,
Speaker 1: assisted with complicated deliveries, and counseled people on their health
Speaker 1: and hygiene. In the fall and winter of and influenza
Speaker 1: epidemic struck and she saw more than six hundred patients,
Speaker 1: often traveling on foot or by horse and buggy in
Speaker 1: temperatures that were well below zero degrees fahrenheit that's minus
Speaker 1: eighteen celsius. She also campaigned aggressively for temperance over her lifetime.
Speaker 1: Laws related to the sale of alcohol on reservations or
Speaker 1: to Native people changed a number of times. Her father
Speaker 1: had also campaigned for temperance before she was born and
Speaker 1: while she was young, including establishing an Omaha police force
Speaker 1: to try to cut down on bootlegging. She we saw
Speaker 1: alcoholism as a huge, huge problem on the reservation, and
Speaker 1: she campaigned stridently for prohibition. She also did a lot
Speaker 1: of work that wasn't strictly related to medicine. She settled disputes,
Speaker 1: she offered financial advice, and she just generally counseled people.
Speaker 1: She helped patients who didn't read or write English with
Speaker 1: correspondence and legal matters, and when people didn't understand the
Speaker 1: terms of their land allotment. She helped to explain it.
Speaker 1: She was part doctor, part teacher, part social worker, and
Speaker 1: part mediator, something that continued the whole time she practiced medicine.
Speaker 1: A lot of people describe her as having sort of
Speaker 1: one foot in each world, where she was able to
Speaker 1: make all of these connections with people on the reservation
Speaker 1: because she spoke Omaha fluently, she spoke other native languages
Speaker 1: as well while also speaking English, and she was able
Speaker 1: to do what her father had wanted for his children
Speaker 1: to do, which was to form this bridge. But then
Speaker 1: in La Flesh's mother got seriously ill. Susan had been
Speaker 1: struggling with her own health. She had a series of
Speaker 1: chronic and sometimes severe illnesses. She had ongoing issues with
Speaker 1: neck pain, ear aches, and headaches which might have been
Speaker 1: caused by osteomyelitis. Susan made several requests to be allowed
Speaker 1: time off to take care of her mother, and these
Speaker 1: were repeatedly denied, and she finally resigned as the agency
Speaker 1: doctor so that she could take care of her mother.
Speaker 1: On October twenty and while caring for her mother, Susan
Speaker 1: La Flesh meant Henry Pocott his brother, Charles had married
Speaker 1: her sister Marguerite, and Henry had come to help on
Speaker 1: their farm. While Charles was sick and dying. Susan and
Speaker 1: Henry started a relationship, and they got married on June.
Speaker 1: This was a surprise to a lot of people in
Speaker 1: Susan's life, and not necessarily a welcome one to all
Speaker 1: of them. She had often called herself an old maid.
Speaker 1: When the Connecticut Indian Association had agreed to help pay
Speaker 1: for her medical education, she had promised them that she
Speaker 1: would put off marriage and dedicate herself to her medical practice,
Speaker 1: and even before she had accepted their help with tuition,
Speaker 1: she had really felt that marriage would get in the
Speaker 1: way of her plans to become a doctor, and returned
Speaker 1: to her community to practice medicine. This had led her
Speaker 1: to break off a relationship with a young man named
Speaker 1: Thomas Kinney copy or t I, who she had met
Speaker 1: at Hampton Institute. Susan and Henry were also very different.
Speaker 1: Susan was the daughter of an Omaha chief and a doctor.
Speaker 1: Henry was yanked in Sue and he had very little
Speaker 1: formal education and a limited ability to read and write.
Speaker 1: But Susan had fallen in love with him, and in
Speaker 1: the face of her mother's illness and the deaths of
Speaker 1: t I and her sister's husband, she seems to have
Speaker 1: just decided that life was simply too short. The Connecticut
Speaker 1: Indian Association responded to the news of her engagement and
Speaker 1: her wedding with concerned kind of in air quotes letters,
Speaker 1: along with a write up in their newsletter that read,
Speaker 1: in part quote, since her health and home restrictions do
Speaker 1: not permit her longer engagement an actual medical practice, we
Speaker 1: must bury any regret at our loss and trust that
Speaker 1: her bright, intelligent spirit will shed its light upon the
Speaker 1: new life and surroundings opening before her. But Susan La
Speaker 1: Flesh Picott did not stay away from medical practice for long.
Speaker 1: She and her mother both recovered, and she and Henry
Speaker 1: moved to an allotment of land they secured in Bancroft, Nebraska.
Speaker 1: Susan set up a medical office in their home, and
Speaker 1: she left a lantern in the window at night so
Speaker 1: patients could find her whenever they needed her. She also
Speaker 1: became the Omaha Reservation Field Matron, which was a Bureau
Speaker 1: of Indian Affairs position sort of like a mobile home
Speaker 1: economics teacher field matrons, who also included both Anglo and
Speaker 1: Native women, were part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Speaker 1: efforts to assimilate the Native population, so they taught Victorians
Speaker 1: so called civilized methods of homemaking to women in Native communities.
Speaker 1: Susan and Henry had two children together, Pierre and Carol,
Speaker 1: and when they were babies, Susan took them house calls
Speaker 1: with her because by this point many of her patients
Speaker 1: refused to see any other doctor. When the children got older,
Speaker 1: she sent them to Nebraska Military Academy because she wanted
Speaker 1: them to have the same sort of education that she did,
Speaker 1: which she thought would allow them to live in the
Speaker 1: white world. During her time in private practice, Pacott spent
Speaker 1: as much time advocating for public health on the Omaha
Speaker 1: Reservation as she did treating individual patients. She campaigned for
Speaker 1: tuberculosis prevention, temperance, house black control, and getting rid of
Speaker 1: common cups at pumps and other water sources. Health reformers
Speaker 1: elsewhere in the United States were also campaigning for these
Speaker 1: basic things, but Pecott was doing this basically all by herself.
Speaker 1: She was really at the forefront of the idea of
Speaker 1: public health among Native communities. In nineteen o three, Susan's sister,
Speaker 1: Suzette now Suzette Laflesh Tibbles died, and then in nineteen
Speaker 1: o five, Henry Pocott died at the age of forty five.
Speaker 1: He had tubercular oosis, which was worsened by alcoholism. Susan
Speaker 1: was just forty before her husband's death. Susan the Flesh
Speaker 1: Picott had typically worked from the assumption that the federal
Speaker 1: government and its Indian agents were at least trying to
Speaker 1: operate with Native people's best interests in mind. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can tell from what she's done in her life
Speaker 1: so far that she agreed with her father and the
Speaker 1: idea that there needed to be some selective assimilation. And
Speaker 1: she seems to have just sort of thought that people
Speaker 1: were trying to work with everyone's best interests. But that
Speaker 1: opinion really started to shift after her husband's death. One
Speaker 1: reason was that he had left their children and inheritance,
Speaker 1: but government officials were trying to give a distant male
Speaker 1: relative control over it while trying to get control of
Speaker 1: her son's money. She wrote a letter saying, quote, it
Speaker 1: is strange that I a mother and one who has
Speaker 1: worked hard to support herself and children, and bitterly opposed
Speaker 1: to whiskey in any form should be denied the right
Speaker 1: to care for her children his money, and it should
Speaker 1: be given into the care of a man who is
Speaker 1: a hard drinker and who has seen these children only
Speaker 1: once in his life, and who resides in another state.
Speaker 1: Some of her other opinions were shifting as well. As
Speaker 1: we said earlier, Susan was a devout Christian, and her
Speaker 1: father had converted to Christianity during his time as chief
Speaker 1: as well. Joseph la Flesh had made it a point
Speaker 1: not to proselytize and not to discourage traditional Omaha ceremonies
Speaker 1: and observances like he wanted the Omaha to retain as
Speaker 1: much of their cultural identity as possible, and Susan had
Speaker 1: mostly done the same, but she had definitely talked about
Speaker 1: things like temperance from a very Christian viewpoint. So when
Speaker 1: the religious use of peyote started to become more popular
Speaker 1: among the Omaha, at first, Pacott was vocally against it,
Speaker 1: but that changed after her husband's death, especially as she
Speaker 1: began to hear from people that payotism had helped them
Speaker 1: to give up alcohol and to reconnect with their traditional
Speaker 1: beliefs and practices. Is She ultimately advocated against laws outlawing
Speaker 1: peyote use, especially in the context of Native American religion.
Speaker 1: In nineteen o nine, the Department of the Interior made
Speaker 1: a number of new policies that related to the Omaha
Speaker 1: without actually consulting the Omaha on any of them. One
Speaker 1: was that they consolidated the Omaha and Winnebago agencies, and
Speaker 1: that gave agency doctors and other officials a lot more
Speaker 1: territory and people to try to cover. Becott wrote a
Speaker 1: number of letters explaining the strain that this merger would
Speaker 1: put on the people who were working in these agencies.
Speaker 1: They also revisited the trust period that had been outlined
Speaker 1: in the Omaha Allotment Act of eighty two. That twenty
Speaker 1: five year trust period was expiring, which meant that people
Speaker 1: who had been on their land for twenty five years
Speaker 1: were supposed to be evaluated for their competence, and if
Speaker 1: they were competent, the land was supposed to be theirs.
Speaker 1: Competence under this definition included things like self sufficiency and
Speaker 1: the ability to speak English. But instead of starting the
Speaker 1: evaluation process, the government added ten more years to the
Speaker 1: timeline across the board. Dr Pocott was selected to lead
Speaker 1: the Omaha Tribal delegation to Washington, d C. To try
Speaker 1: to address all of these policies and issues. Her mother
Speaker 1: had died that year. She was also very ill, and
Speaker 1: so she had started off not by planning to go
Speaker 1: in person, but by writing a lot of letters to
Speaker 1: government officials. But when people told her they were going
Speaker 1: to carry her bodily to the train if she didn't
Speaker 1: go herself, she went to Washington in person with the delegation.
Speaker 1: She and three other members of the delegation spent about
Speaker 1: three weeks there, including appearing before the Secretary of the
Speaker 1: Interior and the United States Attorney General. A big focus
Speaker 1: of the meeting was the land allotment. In one meeting,
Speaker 1: Pacott said quote, we have suffered enough from your experiments.
Speaker 1: We are weary of hardships needlessly endured. We have been
Speaker 1: practically robbed of our rights by the government. Therefore, in
Speaker 1: the name of justice and humanity, and because we want
Speaker 1: to become a self reliant, independent, self sustaining people, we
Speaker 1: ask for a more liberal interpretation of the law. So,
Speaker 1: in one way, this delegation was successful. The Competency Commission
Speaker 1: did reverse that decision to just add a blanket ten
Speaker 1: years to the trust period across the board, but in
Speaker 1: another way, it wasn't. The government was once again under
Speaker 1: huge pressure from people who wanted to be able to
Speaker 1: buy the land in question, and local governments were really
Speaker 1: eager for the land to be released because that would
Speaker 1: make it part of the local tax base. So instead
Speaker 1: of actually examining the competence of all the people who
Speaker 1: had been allotted land, the Competency Commission just approved the
Speaker 1: release of hundreds of allotments, including ones that belonged to
Speaker 1: people who had specifically said they were not ready. This
Speaker 1: was once again disastrous, and over the next five years,
Speaker 1: the vast majority of people who had received land allotments
Speaker 1: lost their land. In nineteen Pacott completed a project that
Speaker 1: had been a lifelong dream. She opened a hospital in
Speaker 1: Walt Hill, Nebraska. This was the first hospital on a
Speaker 1: reservation that wasn't funded by government money. Pacott used her
Speaker 1: own money and raised the money she didn't have herself.
Speaker 1: In addition to general patient wards, the hospital also had
Speaker 1: a maternity ward and an operating room. But sadly, Susan
Speaker 1: La Flesh Pacott didn't live very long after her hospital
Speaker 1: was opened. She had been having trouble with pain in
Speaker 1: her head, neck, and ears for years. We talked about
Speaker 1: it earlier on the show, and this pain got cyclically worse.
Speaker 1: She also progressively lost her hearing, and in nineteen fourteen
Speaker 1: she had a series of operations which did alleviate some
Speaker 1: of the pain, but also revealed that she probably had
Speaker 1: bone cancer. Doctors tried every treatment they could think of,
Speaker 1: including using a radium pellet that was sent by Marie
Speaker 1: Curie on request from Susan's brother in law. Susan La
Speaker 1: Flesh Pacott died on September eighteen, nineteen fifteen. Her funeral
Speaker 1: was conducted by three Presbyterian ministers, with an Omaha elder
Speaker 1: giving the final prayer. She was buried next to her
Speaker 1: late husband. She was only fifty when she died, so
Speaker 1: this is an incredible amount that she was able to
Speaker 1: accomplish in a relatively short life. The hospital she established
Speaker 1: continued to operate until the nineteen forties, and the building
Speaker 1: still exists today. It's on the National Register of Historic Places.
Speaker 1: A large scale fundraising effort started in early eighteen to
Speaker 1: try to restore and preserve. The building and the Omaha
Speaker 1: tribe are included in the preservation efforts. In late June
Speaker 1: of eighteen, it was named one of the United states
Speaker 1: eleven most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for
Speaker 1: Historic Preservation, and Pocott Elementary School in Omaha is also
Speaker 1: named for her. There's also a really lovely documentary called
Speaker 1: Medicine Woman, which weaves Susan La flesh Picott story with
Speaker 1: the stories of a group of Omaha, Lakota, and Navajo
Speaker 1: women who have become doctors and surgeons and healers. And
Speaker 1: one of the things that they talk about is how
Speaker 1: Susan Flesh Picott has become a role model and an
Speaker 1: inspiration for young Native women, both for people who want
Speaker 1: to go into healthcare and wellness and then also just
Speaker 1: in terms of self determination, perseverance um. According to the
Speaker 1: PBS website, this documentary is going to be re airing
Speaker 1: on PBS and November. I don't know the specific date
Speaker 1: or whether it will have passed by the time this
Speaker 1: episode is out. You can also find it online. But
Speaker 1: I really I'm very fascinated by Susan A. Flesh Picott
Speaker 1: because it's she occupied the whole like one foot in
Speaker 1: each world. Description that a lot of people have used
Speaker 1: of her applies not just to the fact that of
Speaker 1: the fact that she went to medical school and she
Speaker 1: had like a formal education and was also the daughter
Speaker 1: of a chief, but also the fact that, like the
Speaker 1: way she approached the world was sort of about trying
Speaker 1: to carve out a place for herself and for the
Speaker 1: greater Omaha tribe while still trying to survive in a
Speaker 1: world that was not really conducive to a lot of
Speaker 1: more traditional tribal beliefs and practices and observances. So she's
Speaker 1: kind of a complicated and fascinating figure that way. Well,
Speaker 1: and I wonder what it must have been like for
Speaker 1: her to have, for quite some time put her trust
Speaker 1: in what she believed to be the good intentions of people, yeah,
Speaker 1: in the government and that she was working with, and
Speaker 1: then to realize that that trust was not necessarily given
Speaker 1: always to the correct people. Yeah. And you can tell
Speaker 1: in some of her writing that the older she got
Speaker 1: and the more experience that she had dealing directly with
Speaker 1: like a government agents and policy and that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: she you can tell that she was sort of loose,
Speaker 1: like she had been so patient, and she she was
Speaker 1: reaching the end of her patients for some of those
Speaker 1: elements of what was going on in the world that
Speaker 1: she was living in. But seriously, like still, what an
Speaker 1: accomplishment to start your own hospital at the age of
Speaker 1: I think forty eight when she finished the hospital. So
Speaker 1: I gotta get right to work on that. If I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do anything close to I would never achieve anything
Speaker 1: close to it. So thanks so much for joining us
Speaker 1: on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive,
Speaker 1: if you heard an email address or a Facebook U
Speaker 1: r L or something similar over the course of the show,
Speaker 1: that could be obsolete now. Our current email address is
Speaker 1: History Podcast at I heart radio dot com. Our old
Speaker 1: health stuff works email address no longer works, and you
Speaker 1: can find us all over social media at missed in
Speaker 1: History and you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: Google podcasts, the I heart Radio app, and wherever else
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts. Stuff You Missed in History Class
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: H