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Speaker 1: Greetings everyone, Welcome to this day in History class, where

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Speaker 1: we bring you a new tidbit from history every day.

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Speaker 1: Today is March fourteen, nineteen. The day was March fourteenth,

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Speaker 1: eighty nine. Susan La Flesh graduated as valedictorian from medical school,

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Speaker 1: and she became the first Native American woman to earn

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Speaker 1: a medical degree in the United States. Susan was born

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Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty five and what is now in Nebraska.

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Speaker 1: Her father was Joseph la Flesh, also known as Iron Eye,

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Speaker 1: and her mother was Mary Gail also known as One Woman.

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Speaker 1: Susan had a mixed heritage of indigenous peoples, but her

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Speaker 1: family was enrolled as Omaha, a Midwestern Native American tribe.

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Speaker 1: When Susan was born, they lived on a reservation in

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Speaker 1: modern day northeastern Nebraska, and during the reservation there were

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Speaker 1: plenty of instances that exposed the need for better healthcare

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Speaker 1: and Susan's desire to become a doctor. When she was eight,

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Speaker 1: she tended to a dying woman who had called for

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Speaker 1: an agency doctor who didn't show up, and her father

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Speaker 1: had to have a leg amputated after an injury went untreated.

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Speaker 1: But Susan at first would go on to become a teacher.

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Speaker 1: She attended the Elizabeth Institute for Young Ladies in New Jersey,

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Speaker 1: and then she returned to the reservation to teach at

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Speaker 1: the Presbyterian Mission School. But in eighteen eighty three, Alice

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Speaker 1: Cunningham Fletcher, an ethnologist who was close to Susan's brother, Francis,

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Speaker 1: got's sick. Susan helped take care of her, and Fletcher

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Speaker 1: encouraged her to study medicine, so Susan began attending the

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Speaker 1: Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in eighteen eighty four. The

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Speaker 1: school had began accepting indigenous students with a goal of

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Speaker 1: assimilating them into white culture, but regardless, Susan graduated second

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Speaker 1: in her class. In eight six, Martha Waldron, the resident

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Speaker 1: physician at Hampton Institute, had also encouraged Susan to study medicine.

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Speaker 1: She was accepted to the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania,

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Speaker 1: but she couldn't attend because there was no more money

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Speaker 1: in the school scholarship fund by then, and she couldn't

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Speaker 1: afford to pay tuition out of pocket. But it turned

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Speaker 1: out that she had a lot of people on her side.

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Speaker 1: The Connecticut Indian Association, which advocated for the rights of

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Speaker 1: Native people and favored assimilation, raised funds from its members

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Speaker 1: for Susan's education, and it asked for donations through the

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Speaker 1: Hartford Koran. In one letter Susan herself wrote appealing for donations,

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Speaker 1: she said, I feel that as a physician I can

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Speaker 1: do a great deal more than as a mere teacher,

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Speaker 1: for the home is the foundation of all things for

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Speaker 1: the Indians. In my work, I hope will be chiefly

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Speaker 1: in the homes of my people. The U S Office

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Speaker 1: of Indian Affairs also gave Susan money one hundred and

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Speaker 1: sixty seven dollars a year. That grant made her the

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Speaker 1: first student to get federal aid for college, so now

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Speaker 1: that she had the funds to do so, she started

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Speaker 1: medical school in October eighteen eighty six. After she graduated

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Speaker 1: on March fourteenth, eighteen eighty nine, Susan finished an internship

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Speaker 1: she had had in Philadelphia, then returned home to her

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Speaker 1: reservation to be a doctor. Back on the reservation, Dr

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Speaker 1: La Flesh worked competently and compassionately, and she soon gained

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Speaker 1: the trust of her patients. In eighteen ninety, at age

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Speaker 1: twenty four, she became the official Bureau of Indian Affairs position.

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Speaker 1: She treated illnesses and counseled people on their health, but

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Speaker 1: she also assisted people who didn't know English and campaigned

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Speaker 1: for temperance. In eighteen ninety four, she married Henry Pocott,

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Speaker 1: who was a member of the Yankton Western Dakota people.

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Speaker 1: From there, Dr Pocott started a medical office in her home,

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Speaker 1: became a field matron, and began advocating for public health

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Speaker 1: and Native American rights, and in nineteen thirteen she opened

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Speaker 1: a hospital in Walt Hill, Nebraska, with money she had

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Speaker 1: raised herself. But pain she'd been having for years grew worse,

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Speaker 1: and operations she had uncovered a poor prognosis. She died

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Speaker 1: in nineteen fifteen of what they believed at the time

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Speaker 1: to be bone cancer, but she'd managed to make a

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Speaker 1: difference across many fields, leaving her mark on education, medicine,

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Speaker 1: public health, and Indigenous rights. I'm each step Coote, and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: you did yesterday. If you'd like to learn more about Pocott,

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Speaker 1: you can listen to the episode of Stuff you missed

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Speaker 1: in History class called Dr Susan in La flesh Pacott.

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at t d i h C Podcast. We'll

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Speaker 1: be back with more history tomorrow