After completing her studies and earning her degree, Susan returned to
Nebraska as a government physician. She rode on horseback from
reservation to reservation, from family to family, treating the sick. It is
said that, by the time of her death, she had treated every member of the
Omaha Nation.

After a time, she married and settled in Bancroft, Nebraska where she
had a private practice treating both Native and white patients. Flesche
married in the summer of 1894 and added her husband's last name,
Picotte, to her own. She adopted Christianity, and became a missionary
of the Omaha Blackbird Hills Presbyterian Church. She moved to the
newly established town of Walthill and founded a hospital there.

Susan went on to be a leading citizen of Walthill, and headed a
delegation to Washington, D.C. to fight against the sale of liquor in
Nebraska. She was so successful in her endeavors that a covenant was
placed in land sale documents of that time prohibiting the possession of
liquor on any land purchased from the Omaha.

Susan died at 50, and is buried in Bancroft, Nebraska.

Susan La Flesche

Scattered throughout history, there
are entire Native families who
seemed to be touched by greatness.
The La Flesche family was one of
those. Iron Eyes was the last Omaha
chief and his belief was that the white
man was here to stay and the only
way for his people to survive was to
learn the white ways, be properly
educated, and learn to balance Native
ways with the white ways. His
children went on to become authors,
politicians, orators, anthropologists
� and Susan, who distinguished
herself by becoming the first Native
American woman ever to earn a
medical degree and work as a
practicing M.D.

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