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Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. Since this week's episodes had a medical theme,

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Speaker 1: we thought we would continue that for our Saturday Classics.

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Speaker 1: So we have our November four episode on Susan La

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Speaker 1: Flesh Pacotte, who was the first Indigenous woman in the

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Speaker 1: United States to earn an MD. We hope you enjoy

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You missed in History class a production

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Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Today we're

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Speaker 1: going to talk about Dr Susan La Flesh Pacotte. She

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Speaker 1: was the first Native American woman to earn a medical degree.

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Speaker 1: She also lived at a time when there was a

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Speaker 1: lot of change happening in the United States as a

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Speaker 1: whole and among Native Americans and the Omaha tribe that

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Speaker 1: she was part of specifically, So in some ways, we're

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Speaker 1: kind of looking at the history of this time through

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Speaker 1: the story of her life. We're definitely not touching on everything,

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Speaker 1: but there's a lot that affected tribal life that we're

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Speaker 1: going to get into. Susan La Flesh was born on

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Speaker 1: June sixty five in what is now Nebraska. Her father

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Speaker 1: was Joseph la Flesh, also known as iron I, and

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Speaker 1: her mother was his first wife, Mary Gaale, also called

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Speaker 1: One Woman. The La Flesches had four surviving daughters, Suzette, Susan, Rosalie,

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Speaker 1: and Marguerite. Joseph also had a son named Frances by

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Speaker 1: another wife. Both of Susan's grandmother's were Native women. Her

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Speaker 1: father's father was a French Canadian trader, and her mother's

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Speaker 1: father was a U. S Army doctor. Susan's ancestors included

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Speaker 1: people from multiple indigenous peoples, including the Omaha, Iowa, and

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Speaker 1: Ponca tribes, and her father had grown up among several

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Speaker 1: different tribes and traveled extensively with his father when he

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Speaker 1: was young as well, but the family was enrolled as Omaha.

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Speaker 1: Joseph La Flesh had been adopted by Omaha chief big Elk,

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Speaker 1: who intended to name Joseph Is his successor. When big

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Speaker 1: Elk died in eighteen fifties three, Joseph became one of

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Speaker 1: the tribes to principal chiefs and was ultimately its last

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Speaker 1: traditional chief. As I alluded to earlier, Susan grew up

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Speaker 1: during a time of huge transition for the Omaha and

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Speaker 1: for the other tribes and nations in that part of

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Speaker 1: North America. First contact between the Omaha and Europeans was

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Speaker 1: probably sometime in the mid late seventeen hundreds. By eighteen

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Speaker 1: fifty four, after a series of epidemics, wars, and treaties,

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Speaker 1: the Omaha had ceded a lot of their territory to

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Speaker 1: the United States. They were left with a reservation and

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Speaker 1: what's now northeastern Nebraska, and that was further reduced in

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Speaker 1: size in eighteen sixty five, which was the year that

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Speaker 1: Susan was born. Susan's father believed that the only way

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Speaker 1: the Omaha would survive in the face of all this

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Speaker 1: was to selectively adapt to white society while still retaining

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Speaker 1: as much Omaha culture and identity as possible. This outlook

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Speaker 1: was why big Elk had oos in him as his successor.

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Speaker 1: He also thought that the Omaha would be wiped out

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Speaker 1: if they didn't adapt, so Susan's parents believed strongly that

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Speaker 1: she and her siblings needed to learn to live with

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Speaker 1: and among white people so they could essentially form a

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Speaker 1: bridge between the Omaha and the white world. To that end,

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Speaker 1: Joseph and Mary la Flesh didn't give most of their

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Speaker 1: children traditional Omaha names, although Susan's oldest sister, Susette, was

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Speaker 1: known as Bright Eyes. They weren't given traditional tattoos or

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Speaker 1: piercings either, and although Susan had been born in a

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Speaker 1: tp during the summer buffalo hunt, the family lived in

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Speaker 1: a frame house rather than in the earth lodges that

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Speaker 1: the Omaha had traditionally used since settling in the Missouri

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Speaker 1: River region. The La Flesh children also attended a Presbyterian

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Speaker 1: mission school on their reservation. Their parents had no formal

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Speaker 1: education themselves, and they didn't speak much English, but they

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Speaker 1: both stressed how critical it was for Susan and all

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Speaker 1: of her siblings to learn and do well. Their parents

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Speaker 1: spoke to them in Omaha and French, but among each other,

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Speaker 1: the siblings were expected to speak English. Susan started attending

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Speaker 1: the mission school when she was only three, but she

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Speaker 1: was there for a year before it was closed down

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Speaker 1: in the wake of Ulyss assess Grants peace policy. This

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Speaker 1: peace policy essentially replaced Indian agents with Christian missionaries. The

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Speaker 1: policy was based on the mindset that missionary work would

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Speaker 1: be less prone to corruption than the previous Indian agent system,

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Speaker 1: so when the Presbyterian missions school was replaced with a

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Speaker 1: Quaker day school. The La Flesh children attended that school instead.

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Speaker 1: Joseph la Flesh's decisions about how the Omaha could survive

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Speaker 1: were deeply controversial. The Omaha were divided into what was

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Speaker 1: known as the young Men's Party, which supported the idea

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Speaker 1: of selective assimilation, and then the Chiefs Party, instead advocated

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Speaker 1: maintaining Omaha culture and traditions as much as possible. The

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Speaker 1: neighborhood that Joseph la Flesh established on their reservation, dominated

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Speaker 1: by frame houses and individual farms, was nicknamed the Village

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Speaker 1: of make Believe White Men. When Susan was eight, she

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Speaker 1: had an experience that led to her desire to become

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Speaker 1: a doctor. She was helping to care for an Omaha

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Speaker 1: woman who was very ill, and they had asked the

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Speaker 1: agency doctor, who was white, to come and see her,

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Speaker 1: but after four messages sent to him, he still had

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Speaker 1: not arrived. So Susan sat with this woman as she died,

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Speaker 1: and later she said, quote, it was only an Indian

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Speaker 1: and it did not matter. The doctor preferred hunting for

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Speaker 1: prairie chickens rather than visiting the poor, suffering humanity. Of course,

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Speaker 1: this was not the only time she saw a need

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Speaker 1: for better healthcare on the reservation. As another example, her

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Speaker 1: father had a leg amputated after an untreated injury, but

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Speaker 1: it was what she kept returning to when she talked

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Speaker 1: about wanting to become a doctor. In eighteen seventy five,

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Speaker 1: when Susan was ten, her older sister Susette, returned home

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Speaker 1: from studying at the Elizabeth Insta for Young Ladies in Elizabeth,

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Speaker 1: New Jersey. She wanted a job teaching at the reservation school,

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Speaker 1: but at first she was told that she wasn't eligible.

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Speaker 1: This started an uphill battle in which Suzette unearthed a

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Speaker 1: handbook saying that Native teachers were preferred, got permission to

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Speaker 1: leave the reservation to take an exam for a teaching certificate,

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Speaker 1: and was finally hired as the first Native teacher to

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Speaker 1: be employed on the Omaha Reservation. Suzette moved into a

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Speaker 1: house near the school, and her sisters moved in with

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Speaker 1: her so they could all be closer to the school

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Speaker 1: rather than walking about three miles each way every day.

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Speaker 1: Suzette was a huge influence on Susan's life as a sister,

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Speaker 1: a teacher, and an advocate for Native people's rights. When

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Speaker 1: Susan was twelve, Susette became an interpreter for Standing Bear,

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Speaker 1: who was the chief of the Ponca tribe, and that

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Speaker 1: is when Susette became more widely known as Bright Eyes.

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Speaker 1: The Ponca had been guaranteed reservation land in what is

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Speaker 1: now Minnesota and South Dakota, but in eighteen sixty eight

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Speaker 1: this territory became part of the Great Sioux Reservation Instead.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy seven, the Ponca were forced into Indian

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Speaker 1: Territory and what's now Oklahoma, where they arrived in eighteen

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Speaker 1: seventy eight. This forced relocation was devastating, and nearly a

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Speaker 1: third of the Ponca died, including Standing Bear's son. In

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Speaker 1: January of eighteen seventy nine, Standing Bear left the reservation

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Speaker 1: in Indian Territory without permission, intending to take his son's

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Speaker 1: body back to the Ponca hole land to be buried.

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Speaker 1: He and the people who went with him were arrested.

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Speaker 1: Then this went to trial and Standing Bear versus Krook.

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Speaker 1: The court found in Standing Bear's favor and ruled that

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Speaker 1: he had quote the same inalienable right to life, liberty,

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Speaker 1: and the pursuit of happiness as the more fortunate White race.

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Speaker 1: This was a landmark ruling that established that Native Americans

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Speaker 1: were considered persons under the law. After this court ruling standing,

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Speaker 1: Bear went on a speaking tour of the eastern United

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Speaker 1: States to pain for Native people's rights, and it was

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Speaker 1: on this tour that bright Eyes acted as his interpreter

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Speaker 1: and began her lifelong work advocating for Native people's rights.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy nine, when she was fourteen, Susan La

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Speaker 1: Flesh left the Omaha Reservation with her younger sister, Marguerite,

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Speaker 1: to attend the Elizabeth Institute for Young Ladies, where Bright

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Speaker 1: Eyes had also studied. Three years later, she returned home again,

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Speaker 1: following in her older sister's footsteps, to teach, this time

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Speaker 1: at the Presbyterian Mission School on the reservation, which had

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Speaker 1: reopened while she was away. That year. Eighteen eighty two

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Speaker 1: brought more major changes to the Omaha, and we were

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Speaker 1: going to talk all about that after we first have

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Speaker 1: a sponsor break. From eighteen eighty two to eighteen eighty four,

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Speaker 1: susan La Flesh was a teacher on the Omaha Reservation

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Speaker 1: and during that time, as I alluded to before the break,

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Speaker 1: once again the tribe underwent some major changes relating to

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Speaker 1: tribal lands. We talked before the break about how the

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Speaker 1: Ponka had been forced out of reservation land that was

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Speaker 1: supposed to be theirs. This was mainly due to a

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Speaker 1: combination of mismanagement, error, and bureaucracy, but it had raised

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Speaker 1: concerns that something similar could happen to the Omaha, especially

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Speaker 1: in the face of the ongoing land rush in that

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Speaker 1: part of North America, and that became one of the

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Speaker 1: motivations for a system of land allotment among the Omaha.

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Speaker 1: The basic idea was that the reservation land would be

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Speaker 1: divided up and apportioned to individual families and individual people

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Speaker 1: instead of being held collectively by the Omaha tribe. These

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Speaker 1: individual allotments would be held in trust for twenty five years,

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Speaker 1: and during that time the people who had received them

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Speaker 1: were supposed to demonstrate that they had the means to

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Speaker 1: keep up with it and to support themselves. Then, after

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Speaker 1: twenty five years, if they had demonstrated that they were

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Speaker 1: competent that was the term that was used to describe

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Speaker 1: this ability to keep up with the land and to

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Speaker 1: basically function, then the land and would be theirs to

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Speaker 1: do with as they wished in theory, this would keep

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Speaker 1: the Omaha from losing their land because it would be

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Speaker 1: owned by individual tribal members rather than subject to treaties

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Speaker 1: with the U. S Government, which did not have the

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Speaker 1: greatest history of being fair or being upheld fairly. And

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Speaker 1: it would also continue to encourage assimilation with white American

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Speaker 1: culture and with the greater United States economy, which was

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Speaker 1: one of the goals of the Bureau of Indian Affairs

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Speaker 1: policy at that point. So so to to maybe a

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Speaker 1: lesser extent, one of the goals of tribal leadership at

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Speaker 1: this point, like we said earlier, and the idea of

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Speaker 1: like selective assimilation as a means for survival. So this

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Speaker 1: whole idea was put into practice in the Omaha Allotment

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Speaker 1: Act of eighteen eighty two, and that made the Omaha

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Speaker 1: one of the first indigenous tribes in the United States

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Speaker 1: to receive individual allotments of land. And this was once

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Speaker 1: again extremely controversial within the tribe. About a third of

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Speaker 1: the tribe were very vocally opposed to it. I mean,

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Speaker 1: this was a total shift and how they approached the

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Speaker 1: idea of the land that they were on. Joseph La

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Speaker 1: Flesh was in favor of it, was a huge advocate

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Speaker 1: for it, and about a quarter of the tribe supported him.

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Speaker 1: Another advocate of this idea of individual land apportionment was

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Speaker 1: Alice Cunningham Fletcher of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and

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Speaker 1: Ethnology at Harvard University. Fletcher had been living with and

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Speaker 1: studying the Omaha. Susan's half brother, Francis had initially been

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Speaker 1: one of her informants during her ethnology work with the tribe,

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Speaker 1: later becoming her collaborator and an ethnologist in his own right.

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Speaker 1: The two of them wrote The Omaha Tribe together, which

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Speaker 1: was published in nineteen eleven and continues to be regarded

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Speaker 1: as one of the most important and comprehensive works on

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Speaker 1: Omaha history and culture. Ultimately, Francis La Flesh was something

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Speaker 1: of an adopted son to Alice Fletcher. Can't they have

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Speaker 1: the whole other story. That's beyond the scope of this podcast,

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Speaker 1: But the point is that there were advocates of this

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Speaker 1: whole system among the Omaha and among people who had

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Speaker 1: lived and worked with the Omaha. They genuinely thought that

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Speaker 1: this was going to be good for the tribe, and

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Speaker 1: that it was for the best, but there were definitely

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Speaker 1: also other people advocating this whole system who were motivated

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Speaker 1: by greed and frankly racism. Once the reservation land had

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Speaker 1: been divided up and allotted out to the Omaha, the

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Speaker 1: unallotted land, basically land that was left over, would be

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Speaker 1: up for sale to anybody, regardless of the motivation. Though

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Speaker 1: this whole system of apportionment turned out to be just

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Speaker 1: disastrous for the Omaha. Some of the allotments were more

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Speaker 1: conducive to farming than others. A lot of people leased

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Speaker 1: their allotted land rather than farming it themselves, but they

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Speaker 1: didn't ever earn enough in rent to do much more

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Speaker 1: than just subsist. Leasing land often became the first step

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Speaker 1: to losing it. Once the land came out of trust,

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Speaker 1: community ties broke down, as work that had been done

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Speaker 1: collaboratively at one point was instead supposed to be done

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Speaker 1: by each individual farmer on their individual farm. All of

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Speaker 1: this combined with changes to laws regulating alcohol, and as

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Speaker 1: a consequence, alcoholism surged on the reservation. This whole process

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Speaker 1: would be repeated on a much greater scale, involving many

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Speaker 1: more tribes with the DAWs Act of eighteen eighty seven,

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Speaker 1: which had similarly devastating results. In July of eighty three,

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Speaker 1: as this whole shift was happening, Alice Cuttingham Fletcher became

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Speaker 1: very ill with what was described as inflammatory rheumatism, and

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Speaker 1: Susan La Flash was one of the people who took

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Speaker 1: care of her while she was sick. After being cared

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Speaker 1: for by Susan La Flesh, Fletcher encouraged her to go

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Speaker 1: back to school and study medicine. Since the Elizabeth Institute

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Speaker 1: for Young Ladies was more of a finishing school than

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Speaker 1: preparation for college, Susan's first step was to enroll at

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Speaker 1: the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. The Hampton Institute had

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Speaker 1: been founded in eighteen sixty eight by General Samuel Armstrong.

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Speaker 1: It was initially created to educate formerly enslaved people after

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Speaker 1: the Civil War. It began also enrolling Native students in

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy eight, with a goal of quote civilizing and

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Speaker 1: assimilating Native students. It's going to come up again later

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Speaker 1: in the episode, but we have a two part podcast

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Speaker 1: about the system of boarding schools that was used to

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Speaker 1: similar purpose, and this was basically the same idea, but

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Speaker 1: for adults and Susan arrived there in eighteen eighty four

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Speaker 1: at the age of nineteen. She graduated second in her

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Speaker 1: class on May twentieth, eighteen eighty six, and was also

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Speaker 1: awarded the Demorest Gold Medal for academic achievement. Hampton Institute's

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Speaker 1: resident physician, Martha Waldron, had encouraged La Flesh to study

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Speaker 1: medicine at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, which had

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Speaker 1: been established in eighteen fifty. She applied and was accepted,

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Speaker 1: but it turned out that the school scholarship fund had

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Speaker 1: already been allocated for the year and she did not

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Speaker 1: have the money to pay for her tuition. Alice Cunningham

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Speaker 1: Fletcher helped La Flesh get funding to attend medical school.

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Speaker 1: One source of funds was the Connecticut Indian Association, which

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Speaker 1: was a branch of the Women's National Indian Association. This

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Speaker 1: association had originally been formed as the Indian Committee of

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Speaker 1: the Women's Home Mission Society, and it had been formed

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Speaker 1: in response to the removal of the Ponca tribe to

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Speaker 1: Indian territory that we talked about earlier in the show.

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Speaker 1: Many of the organization's members were former abolitionists and their

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Speaker 1: original mission was to advocate for the United States to

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Speaker 1: respect and uphold its treaties with Native peoples, as well

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Speaker 1: as quote protection for Indians and their lands from the

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Speaker 1: robberies and horrors of enforced removals. By the time La

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Speaker 1: Flesh was trying to get funding for medical school, the

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Speaker 1: Connecticut Indian Association's mission had shifted a little bit. Their

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Speaker 1: overall goal was the recognition of Native people as having

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Speaker 1: full and equal human rights, but also in such a

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Speaker 1: way that they would ultimately be Christianized and assimilated into

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Speaker 1: white society. They did a lot of petitioning, holding public

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Speaker 1: meetings and lecturers, distributing educational materials, and establishing missions. When

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Speaker 1: it came to La Flesh's education, the Connecticut Indian Association

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00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:22,840
Speaker 1: raised funds among its members. They also appealed for donations

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Speaker 1: through the Hartford Current. The Current printed several letters related

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Speaker 1: to this fundraising effort. One was from General Armstrong, and

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Speaker 1: that letter described La Flesh as quote a level headed, earnest,

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Speaker 1: capable Christian woman quite equal to medical studies. Another letter

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Speaker 1: was from La Flesh herself, and it said, in part quote,

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Speaker 1: I feel that as a physician I can do a

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Speaker 1: great deal more than as a mere teacher for the

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

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Speaker 1: and my work I hope will be chiefly in the

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00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:56,560
Speaker 1: homes of my people. These funds were supplemented with money

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Speaker 1: from the U S Office of Indian Affairs. The office

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00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:02,800
Speaker 1: granted La Flesh a hundred and sixty seven dollars a year,

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Speaker 1: the same amount that it subsidized for students at one

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Speaker 1: of the Indian boarding schools. As Tracy mentioned earlier, UH

290
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Speaker 1: we talked about these schools in our our four shot

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00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:17,640
Speaker 1: two partn UH that again was meant to Christianize Native

292
00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:21,600
Speaker 1: students and get them away instead from their native culture.

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Speaker 1: And this funding from the Office of Indian Affairs made

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Speaker 1: La Flesh the first student to receive federal aid to

295
00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:31,119
Speaker 1: go to college. Susan La Flesh started medical school in

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Speaker 1: October of eighteen eighty six, and her relationship with the

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Speaker 1: Connecticut Indian Association continued throughout that time and after her

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Speaker 1: time in med school, she referred to them as her

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Speaker 1: second Connecticut mothers. La Flesh enjoyed and excelled at her

300
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Speaker 1: medical studies, and she persevered after the death of her father.

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Speaker 1: On September twenty three, eight She graduated as valedictorian on

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Speaker 1: March fourteenth of eighteen eighty nine, making her the first

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Speaker 1: Native American woman to earn a medical degree in the

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Speaker 1: United States. She went on a speaking tour of several

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Speaker 1: other branches of the National Women's Indian Association, basically to

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Speaker 1: recruit other women to the same cause as her Connecticut mother's,

307
00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:15,080
Speaker 1: and then after spending a few months finishing an internship

308
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Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, she returned home to the Omaha Reservation to

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Speaker 1: begin working as a doctor. We'll talk about her time

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Speaker 1: as a doctor after a sponsor break. When Susan the

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00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:36,159
Speaker 1: Flesh returned to the Omaha Reservation, she was initially hired

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Speaker 1: as the doctor for the reservation's boarding school. She was

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Speaker 1: paid a salary of five hundred dollars, which was a

314
00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:45,160
Speaker 1: fraction of what male doctors and similar positions were being paid.

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Speaker 1: The Connecticut Indian Association supplemented this by also making her

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Speaker 1: their medical missionary, so they paid her an additional two

317
00:18:53,119 --> 00:18:55,520
Speaker 1: d and fifty dollars a year, and they also bought

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Speaker 1: her surgical tools for her At first, some of her

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00:18:58,680 --> 00:19:02,720
Speaker 1: patients didn't entire early trust her. She spoke English, and

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00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:05,880
Speaker 1: she had spent years away from the reservation being educated

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00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:09,119
Speaker 1: by and with white people. She had also been a

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Speaker 1: devout Christian since her early years at a mission school

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Speaker 1: on the reservation. But she quickly demonstrated that she was

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00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:20,159
Speaker 1: a competent, capable, compassionate, and dedicated doctor, and soon she

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00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:23,679
Speaker 1: was known as Doctor Sue, and adult patients were asking

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Speaker 1: to see her, even though she was only supposed to

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00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:28,879
Speaker 1: be treating the children at the school. In January of

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Speaker 1: eighteen ninety, the Omaha Agency's white doctor resigned, in part

329
00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:35,120
Speaker 1: because all of his patients were asking to see Dr

330
00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:39,000
Speaker 1: Sue instead. La Flesh was appointed as the official Bureau

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Speaker 1: of Indian Affairs physician for the entire Omaha Agency, and

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Speaker 1: this made her the first woman to be appointed to

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00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:48,280
Speaker 1: one of these positions and one of the first Native people.

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00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:51,640
Speaker 1: She was responsible for the health and wellness of more

335
00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:55,399
Speaker 1: than twelve hundred people for the next four years. They

336
00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:58,919
Speaker 1: were spread out over more than thirteen hundred square miles

337
00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:02,040
Speaker 1: or thirty three d and square killameters of territory. She

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00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:05,760
Speaker 1: was only twenty four. She did exactly as she said

339
00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:07,639
Speaker 1: she hoped to do in that letter that had been

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00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:11,639
Speaker 1: published in the Hartford Current. She visited patients in their homes,

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00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:16,040
Speaker 1: seeing to their health and wellness. She treated illnesses and injuries,

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00:20:16,359 --> 00:20:20,160
Speaker 1: assisted with complicated deliveries, and counseled people on their health

343
00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:26,000
Speaker 1: and hygiene. In the fall and winter of and influenza

344
00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:29,120
Speaker 1: epidemic struck and she saw more than six hundred patients,

345
00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:32,200
Speaker 1: often traveling on foot or by horse and buggy in

346
00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:36,280
Speaker 1: temperatures that were well below zero degrees fahrenheit that's minus

347
00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:43,240
Speaker 1: eighteen celsius. She also campaigned aggressively for temperance over her lifetime.

348
00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:46,960
Speaker 1: Laws related to the sale of alcohol on reservations or

349
00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:50,320
Speaker 1: to Native people changed a number of times. Her father

350
00:20:50,440 --> 00:20:53,320
Speaker 1: had also campaigned for temperance before she was born and

351
00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:57,160
Speaker 1: while she was young, including establishing an Omaha police force

352
00:20:57,320 --> 00:21:00,360
Speaker 1: to try to cut down on bootlegging. She we saw

353
00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:03,879
Speaker 1: alcoholism as a huge, huge problem on the reservation, and

354
00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:07,760
Speaker 1: she campaigned stridently for prohibition. She also did a lot

355
00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:12,240
Speaker 1: of work that wasn't strictly related to medicine. She settled disputes,

356
00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:15,960
Speaker 1: she offered financial advice, and she just generally counseled people.

357
00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:19,520
Speaker 1: She helped patients who didn't read or write English with

358
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:23,520
Speaker 1: correspondence and legal matters, and when people didn't understand the

359
00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:26,399
Speaker 1: terms of their land allotment. She helped to explain it.

360
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Speaker 1: She was part doctor, part teacher, part social worker, and

361
00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:34,360
Speaker 1: part mediator, something that continued the whole time she practiced medicine.

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Speaker 1: A lot of people describe her as having sort of

363
00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:41,000
Speaker 1: one foot in each world, where she was able to

364
00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:43,679
Speaker 1: make all of these connections with people on the reservation

365
00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:47,960
Speaker 1: because she spoke Omaha fluently, she spoke other native languages

366
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:50,600
Speaker 1: as well while also speaking English, and she was able

367
00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:53,440
Speaker 1: to do what her father had wanted for his children

368
00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:56,439
Speaker 1: to do, which was to form this bridge. But then

369
00:21:56,480 --> 00:22:01,439
Speaker 1: in La Flesh's mother got seriously ill. Susan had been

370
00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:03,960
Speaker 1: struggling with her own health. She had a series of

371
00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:08,000
Speaker 1: chronic and sometimes severe illnesses. She had ongoing issues with

372
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:10,639
Speaker 1: neck pain, ear aches, and headaches which might have been

373
00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:14,959
Speaker 1: caused by osteomyelitis. Susan made several requests to be allowed

374
00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:17,320
Speaker 1: time off to take care of her mother, and these

375
00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:21,160
Speaker 1: were repeatedly denied, and she finally resigned as the agency

376
00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:23,160
Speaker 1: doctor so that she could take care of her mother.

377
00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:28,240
Speaker 1: On October twenty and while caring for her mother, Susan

378
00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:32,080
Speaker 1: La Flesh meant Henry Pocott his brother, Charles had married

379
00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:34,920
Speaker 1: her sister Marguerite, and Henry had come to help on

380
00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:38,680
Speaker 1: their farm. While Charles was sick and dying. Susan and

381
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:41,760
Speaker 1: Henry started a relationship, and they got married on June.

382
00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:46,200
Speaker 1: This was a surprise to a lot of people in

383
00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:50,080
Speaker 1: Susan's life, and not necessarily a welcome one to all

384
00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:53,040
Speaker 1: of them. She had often called herself an old maid.

385
00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:56,640
Speaker 1: When the Connecticut Indian Association had agreed to help pay

386
00:22:56,720 --> 00:22:59,240
Speaker 1: for her medical education, she had promised them that she

387
00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 1: would put off marriage and dedicate herself to her medical practice,

388
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,080
Speaker 1: and even before she had accepted their help with tuition,

389
00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:08,040
Speaker 1: she had really felt that marriage would get in the

390
00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:10,359
Speaker 1: way of her plans to become a doctor, and returned

391
00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:13,560
Speaker 1: to her community to practice medicine. This had led her

392
00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:16,320
Speaker 1: to break off a relationship with a young man named

393
00:23:16,359 --> 00:23:19,120
Speaker 1: Thomas Kinney copy or t I, who she had met

394
00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:23,199
Speaker 1: at Hampton Institute. Susan and Henry were also very different.

395
00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:26,679
Speaker 1: Susan was the daughter of an Omaha chief and a doctor.

396
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:29,880
Speaker 1: Henry was yanked in Sue and he had very little

397
00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:33,000
Speaker 1: formal education and a limited ability to read and write.

398
00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:35,879
Speaker 1: But Susan had fallen in love with him, and in

399
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:38,200
Speaker 1: the face of her mother's illness and the deaths of

400
00:23:38,359 --> 00:23:41,280
Speaker 1: t I and her sister's husband, she seems to have

401
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:44,639
Speaker 1: just decided that life was simply too short. The Connecticut

402
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:47,879
Speaker 1: Indian Association responded to the news of her engagement and

403
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:52,119
Speaker 1: her wedding with concerned kind of in air quotes letters,

404
00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:55,160
Speaker 1: along with a write up in their newsletter that read,

405
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:58,040
Speaker 1: in part quote, since her health and home restrictions do

406
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:02,000
Speaker 1: not permit her longer engagement an actual medical practice, we

407
00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:05,399
Speaker 1: must bury any regret at our loss and trust that

408
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:08,480
Speaker 1: her bright, intelligent spirit will shed its light upon the

409
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:11,960
Speaker 1: new life and surroundings opening before her. But Susan La

410
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:15,120
Speaker 1: Flesh Picott did not stay away from medical practice for long.

411
00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:18,679
Speaker 1: She and her mother both recovered, and she and Henry

412
00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:21,840
Speaker 1: moved to an allotment of land they secured in Bancroft, Nebraska.

413
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:25,320
Speaker 1: Susan set up a medical office in their home, and

414
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:27,320
Speaker 1: she left a lantern in the window at night so

415
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:30,520
Speaker 1: patients could find her whenever they needed her. She also

416
00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:34,000
Speaker 1: became the Omaha Reservation Field Matron, which was a Bureau

417
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:37,200
Speaker 1: of Indian Affairs position sort of like a mobile home

418
00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:41,879
Speaker 1: economics teacher field matrons, who also included both Anglo and

419
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:44,959
Speaker 1: Native women, were part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs

420
00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:48,960
Speaker 1: efforts to assimilate the Native population, so they taught Victorians

421
00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:53,280
Speaker 1: so called civilized methods of homemaking to women in Native communities.

422
00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:57,680
Speaker 1: Susan and Henry had two children together, Pierre and Carol,

423
00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:00,640
Speaker 1: and when they were babies, Susan took them house calls

424
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 1: with her because by this point many of her patients

425
00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:06,680
Speaker 1: refused to see any other doctor. When the children got older,

426
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:10,040
Speaker 1: she sent them to Nebraska Military Academy because she wanted

427
00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:12,760
Speaker 1: them to have the same sort of education that she did,

428
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:14,960
Speaker 1: which she thought would allow them to live in the

429
00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:18,720
Speaker 1: white world. During her time in private practice, Pacott spent

430
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:21,840
Speaker 1: as much time advocating for public health on the Omaha

431
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:25,879
Speaker 1: Reservation as she did treating individual patients. She campaigned for

432
00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:29,920
Speaker 1: tuberculosis prevention, temperance, house black control, and getting rid of

433
00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:34,679
Speaker 1: common cups at pumps and other water sources. Health reformers

434
00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 1: elsewhere in the United States were also campaigning for these

435
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:41,880
Speaker 1: basic things, but Pecott was doing this basically all by herself.

436
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:45,119
Speaker 1: She was really at the forefront of the idea of

437
00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:50,600
Speaker 1: public health among Native communities. In nineteen o three, Susan's sister,

438
00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:55,320
Speaker 1: Suzette now Suzette Laflesh Tibbles died, and then in nineteen

439
00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:58,320
Speaker 1: o five, Henry Pocott died at the age of forty five.

440
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:03,440
Speaker 1: He had tubercular oosis, which was worsened by alcoholism. Susan

441
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:07,520
Speaker 1: was just forty before her husband's death. Susan the Flesh

442
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:10,639
Speaker 1: Picott had typically worked from the assumption that the federal

443
00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:13,600
Speaker 1: government and its Indian agents were at least trying to

444
00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:16,800
Speaker 1: operate with Native people's best interests in mind. I mean,

445
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:18,520
Speaker 1: you can tell from what she's done in her life

446
00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:21,119
Speaker 1: so far that she agreed with her father and the

447
00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:24,680
Speaker 1: idea that there needed to be some selective assimilation. And

448
00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 1: she seems to have just sort of thought that people

449
00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:31,600
Speaker 1: were trying to work with everyone's best interests. But that

450
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:36,400
Speaker 1: opinion really started to shift after her husband's death. One

451
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:39,480
Speaker 1: reason was that he had left their children and inheritance,

452
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:42,520
Speaker 1: but government officials were trying to give a distant male

453
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 1: relative control over it while trying to get control of

454
00:26:46,119 --> 00:26:49,440
Speaker 1: her son's money. She wrote a letter saying, quote, it

455
00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:52,080
Speaker 1: is strange that I a mother and one who has

456
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:55,920
Speaker 1: worked hard to support herself and children, and bitterly opposed

457
00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:59,040
Speaker 1: to whiskey in any form should be denied the right

458
00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:01,359
Speaker 1: to care for her children his money, and it should

459
00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:03,359
Speaker 1: be given into the care of a man who is

460
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:06,440
Speaker 1: a hard drinker and who has seen these children only

461
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:09,840
Speaker 1: once in his life, and who resides in another state.

462
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:13,480
Speaker 1: Some of her other opinions were shifting as well. As

463
00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:16,959
Speaker 1: we said earlier, Susan was a devout Christian, and her

464
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:20,040
Speaker 1: father had converted to Christianity during his time as chief

465
00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:23,240
Speaker 1: as well. Joseph la Flesh had made it a point

466
00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 1: not to proselytize and not to discourage traditional Omaha ceremonies

467
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:30,800
Speaker 1: and observances like he wanted the Omaha to retain as

468
00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:33,959
Speaker 1: much of their cultural identity as possible, and Susan had

469
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:36,920
Speaker 1: mostly done the same, but she had definitely talked about

470
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:40,840
Speaker 1: things like temperance from a very Christian viewpoint. So when

471
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:44,160
Speaker 1: the religious use of peyote started to become more popular

472
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:48,359
Speaker 1: among the Omaha, at first, Pacott was vocally against it,

473
00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:52,320
Speaker 1: but that changed after her husband's death, especially as she

474
00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 1: began to hear from people that payotism had helped them

475
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:58,840
Speaker 1: to give up alcohol and to reconnect with their traditional

476
00:27:58,920 --> 00:28:03,800
Speaker 1: beliefs and practices. Is She ultimately advocated against laws outlawing

477
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:07,680
Speaker 1: peyote use, especially in the context of Native American religion.

478
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:11,080
Speaker 1: In nineteen o nine, the Department of the Interior made

479
00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:13,960
Speaker 1: a number of new policies that related to the Omaha

480
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:18,560
Speaker 1: without actually consulting the Omaha on any of them. One

481
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:22,280
Speaker 1: was that they consolidated the Omaha and Winnebago agencies, and

482
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:25,680
Speaker 1: that gave agency doctors and other officials a lot more

483
00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:29,159
Speaker 1: territory and people to try to cover. Becott wrote a

484
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:32,760
Speaker 1: number of letters explaining the strain that this merger would

485
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,320
Speaker 1: put on the people who were working in these agencies.

486
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,400
Speaker 1: They also revisited the trust period that had been outlined

487
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:43,840
Speaker 1: in the Omaha Allotment Act of eighty two. That twenty

488
00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:47,040
Speaker 1: five year trust period was expiring, which meant that people

489
00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:49,200
Speaker 1: who had been on their land for twenty five years

490
00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:52,480
Speaker 1: were supposed to be evaluated for their competence, and if

491
00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:54,920
Speaker 1: they were competent, the land was supposed to be theirs.

492
00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:59,840
Speaker 1: Competence under this definition included things like self sufficiency and

493
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,200
Speaker 1: the ability to speak English. But instead of starting the

494
00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 1: evaluation process, the government added ten more years to the

495
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:10,920
Speaker 1: timeline across the board. Dr Pocott was selected to lead

496
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,240
Speaker 1: the Omaha Tribal delegation to Washington, d C. To try

497
00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:17,680
Speaker 1: to address all of these policies and issues. Her mother

498
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:21,000
Speaker 1: had died that year. She was also very ill, and

499
00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:23,440
Speaker 1: so she had started off not by planning to go

500
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:25,720
Speaker 1: in person, but by writing a lot of letters to

501
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:28,800
Speaker 1: government officials. But when people told her they were going

502
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:31,520
Speaker 1: to carry her bodily to the train if she didn't

503
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:34,520
Speaker 1: go herself, she went to Washington in person with the delegation.

504
00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:38,160
Speaker 1: She and three other members of the delegation spent about

505
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:41,400
Speaker 1: three weeks there, including appearing before the Secretary of the

506
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:45,040
Speaker 1: Interior and the United States Attorney General. A big focus

507
00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:48,200
Speaker 1: of the meeting was the land allotment. In one meeting,

508
00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:51,760
Speaker 1: Pacott said quote, we have suffered enough from your experiments.

509
00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:55,560
Speaker 1: We are weary of hardships needlessly endured. We have been

510
00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 1: practically robbed of our rights by the government. Therefore, in

511
00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:02,080
Speaker 1: the name of justice and humanity, and because we want

512
00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:06,200
Speaker 1: to become a self reliant, independent, self sustaining people, we

513
00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:09,880
Speaker 1: ask for a more liberal interpretation of the law. So,

514
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:14,000
Speaker 1: in one way, this delegation was successful. The Competency Commission

515
00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 1: did reverse that decision to just add a blanket ten

516
00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 1: years to the trust period across the board, but in

517
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:23,960
Speaker 1: another way, it wasn't. The government was once again under

518
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:26,800
Speaker 1: huge pressure from people who wanted to be able to

519
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:31,160
Speaker 1: buy the land in question, and local governments were really

520
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:33,800
Speaker 1: eager for the land to be released because that would

521
00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:36,800
Speaker 1: make it part of the local tax base. So instead

522
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:39,960
Speaker 1: of actually examining the competence of all the people who

523
00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:44,000
Speaker 1: had been allotted land, the Competency Commission just approved the

524
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:48,080
Speaker 1: release of hundreds of allotments, including ones that belonged to

525
00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 1: people who had specifically said they were not ready. This

526
00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:55,720
Speaker 1: was once again disastrous, and over the next five years,

527
00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:58,920
Speaker 1: the vast majority of people who had received land allotments

528
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:02,960
Speaker 1: lost their land. In nineteen Pacott completed a project that

529
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:06,520
Speaker 1: had been a lifelong dream. She opened a hospital in

530
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:09,880
Speaker 1: Walt Hill, Nebraska. This was the first hospital on a

531
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 1: reservation that wasn't funded by government money. Pacott used her

532
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:16,880
Speaker 1: own money and raised the money she didn't have herself.

533
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:21,200
Speaker 1: In addition to general patient wards, the hospital also had

534
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:25,160
Speaker 1: a maternity ward and an operating room. But sadly, Susan

535
00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:27,920
Speaker 1: La Flesh Pacott didn't live very long after her hospital

536
00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:31,360
Speaker 1: was opened. She had been having trouble with pain in

537
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:34,640
Speaker 1: her head, neck, and ears for years. We talked about

538
00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 1: it earlier on the show, and this pain got cyclically worse.

539
00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:41,280
Speaker 1: She also progressively lost her hearing, and in nineteen fourteen

540
00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:44,520
Speaker 1: she had a series of operations which did alleviate some

541
00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 1: of the pain, but also revealed that she probably had

542
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 1: bone cancer. Doctors tried every treatment they could think of,

543
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:54,240
Speaker 1: including using a radium pellet that was sent by Marie

544
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:57,840
Speaker 1: Curie on request from Susan's brother in law. Susan La

545
00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 1: Flesh Pacott died on September eighteen, nineteen fifteen. Her funeral

546
00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:06,360
Speaker 1: was conducted by three Presbyterian ministers, with an Omaha elder

547
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:09,360
Speaker 1: giving the final prayer. She was buried next to her

548
00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:12,880
Speaker 1: late husband. She was only fifty when she died, so

549
00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:15,680
Speaker 1: this is an incredible amount that she was able to

550
00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:20,400
Speaker 1: accomplish in a relatively short life. The hospital she established

551
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:23,520
Speaker 1: continued to operate until the nineteen forties, and the building

552
00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:27,240
Speaker 1: still exists today. It's on the National Register of Historic Places.

553
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:32,120
Speaker 1: A large scale fundraising effort started in early eighteen to

554
00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:35,400
Speaker 1: try to restore and preserve. The building and the Omaha

555
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:39,400
Speaker 1: tribe are included in the preservation efforts. In late June

556
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:42,400
Speaker 1: of eighteen, it was named one of the United states

557
00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:46,320
Speaker 1: eleven most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for

558
00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:50,680
Speaker 1: Historic Preservation, and Pocott Elementary School in Omaha is also

559
00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 1: named for her. There's also a really lovely documentary called

560
00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:59,040
Speaker 1: Medicine Woman, which weaves Susan La flesh Picott story with

561
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,000
Speaker 1: the stories of a group of Omaha, Lakota, and Navajo

562
00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 1: women who have become doctors and surgeons and healers. And

563
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:07,560
Speaker 1: one of the things that they talk about is how

564
00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:10,800
Speaker 1: Susan Flesh Picott has become a role model and an

565
00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:14,280
Speaker 1: inspiration for young Native women, both for people who want

566
00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:16,720
Speaker 1: to go into healthcare and wellness and then also just

567
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:21,520
Speaker 1: in terms of self determination, perseverance um. According to the

568
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:25,240
Speaker 1: PBS website, this documentary is going to be re airing

569
00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:29,160
Speaker 1: on PBS and November. I don't know the specific date

570
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:31,640
Speaker 1: or whether it will have passed by the time this

571
00:33:31,800 --> 00:33:35,520
Speaker 1: episode is out. You can also find it online. But

572
00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:38,680
Speaker 1: I really I'm very fascinated by Susan A. Flesh Picott

573
00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:42,400
Speaker 1: because it's she occupied the whole like one foot in

574
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:45,080
Speaker 1: each world. Description that a lot of people have used

575
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,200
Speaker 1: of her applies not just to the fact that of

576
00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:51,160
Speaker 1: the fact that she went to medical school and she

577
00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:55,680
Speaker 1: had like a formal education and was also the daughter

578
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:58,640
Speaker 1: of a chief, but also the fact that, like the

579
00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:02,160
Speaker 1: way she approached the world was sort of about trying

580
00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 1: to carve out a place for herself and for the

581
00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:09,800
Speaker 1: greater Omaha tribe while still trying to survive in a

582
00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:13,480
Speaker 1: world that was not really conducive to a lot of

583
00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:19,399
Speaker 1: more traditional tribal beliefs and practices and observances. So she's

584
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:23,839
Speaker 1: kind of a complicated and fascinating figure that way. Well,

585
00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:26,520
Speaker 1: and I wonder what it must have been like for

586
00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:30,280
Speaker 1: her to have, for quite some time put her trust

587
00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:34,080
Speaker 1: in what she believed to be the good intentions of people, yeah,

588
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:36,320
Speaker 1: in the government and that she was working with, and

589
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:40,080
Speaker 1: then to realize that that trust was not necessarily given

590
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:42,960
Speaker 1: always to the correct people. Yeah. And you can tell

591
00:34:43,160 --> 00:34:45,719
Speaker 1: in some of her writing that the older she got

592
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:48,800
Speaker 1: and the more experience that she had dealing directly with

593
00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:52,560
Speaker 1: like a government agents and policy and that kind of stuff,

594
00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:55,359
Speaker 1: she you can tell that she was sort of loose,

595
00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:58,640
Speaker 1: like she had been so patient, and she she was

596
00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:02,120
Speaker 1: reaching the end of her patients for some of those

597
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:05,560
Speaker 1: elements of what was going on in the world that

598
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:09,359
Speaker 1: she was living in. But seriously, like still, what an

599
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:12,400
Speaker 1: accomplishment to start your own hospital at the age of

600
00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:16,239
Speaker 1: I think forty eight when she finished the hospital. So

601
00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 1: I gotta get right to work on that. If I'm

602
00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:22,720
Speaker 1: gonna do anything close to I would never achieve anything

603
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:31,560
Speaker 1: close to it. So thanks so much for joining us

604
00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:34,680
Speaker 1: on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive,

605
00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:36,719
Speaker 1: if you heard an email address or a Facebook U

606
00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:39,000
Speaker 1: r L or something similar over the course of the show,

607
00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:43,040
Speaker 1: that could be obsolete now. Our current email address is

608
00:35:43,239 --> 00:35:47,680
Speaker 1: History Podcast at I heart radio dot com. Our old

609
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:50,960
Speaker 1: health stuff works email address no longer works, and you

610
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:53,520
Speaker 1: can find us all over social media at missed in

611
00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:57,520
Speaker 1: History and you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts,

612
00:35:57,560 --> 00:36:00,759
Speaker 1: Google podcasts, the I heart Radio app, and wherever else

613
00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:06,800
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts. Stuff You Missed in History Class

614
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:09,880
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts

615
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:12,359
Speaker 1: from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,

616
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:15,600
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

617
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:16,600
Speaker 1: H