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A colleague of her brother's, the Harvard ethnographer Alice Cunningham Fletcher, helped Susan to obtain funds from the Connecticut branch of the Women's National Indian Association so that she could begin medical studies in 1886 at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, one of the first US medical schools for women. Susan's ability, piety, and commitment gained her the support of evangelical women's organisations dedicated to so-called reform of indigenous culture through promoting domestic economy, hygiene, and the Christian faith. If individuals could not attend her surgery, she would visit patients with tuberculosis, influenza, or dysentery in their homes, driving a horse and buggy over rutted roads, often in bitter weather.

At a time when many Native Americans were refused healthcare by racist White doctors, Susan La Flesche Picotte overcame gender discrimination to become the first indigenous woman in U.S. history to earn a medical degree.

A story is presented which is based on two intersecting sites of textual production in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The story is the beginning of what can be said about the alliance and adaptation tactics used by Susan La Flesche Picotte.

It will feature Swedish meatballs, Swedish potato sausage, smoked salmon, rolled ham, pickled herring, cheese, red potatoes, green beans with bacon, deviled eggs, cabbage slaw, a cranberry fluff salad, Swedish rice pudding, Swedish cardamom bread, Swedish rye bread, and fruit cups with spritz cookies.

The medical tradition began with Picotte's grandfather, Dr. John Gale, who was a surgeon with the 7th Calvary during the pre-Civil War years at Fort Crook in Nebraska. Based on history from the Nebraska Hall of Fame, Picotte stepped up her Native-related activities after her marriage. Along with being a tribal leader, she conducted religious services in the mission church and traveled to Washington, D.C., as the Omaha tribe delegate to lobby for a law to prohibit the sale of alcohol on the Omaha and Winnebago reservations. Picotte was a member of the Nebraska State Medical Society and chairwoman for health for the Nebraska Federation of Women's Club. She lobbied for state laws requiring health inspections for schools, the banning of public drinking cups, installation of drinking fountains, use of sanitary ice cream dishes and spoons, and was active in tuberculosis prevention.

Bright Eyes was \"discovered\" by Miss N.C. Read, who operated a girls' school in Elizabeth, N.J. Read was so impressed with her pupil she sent for her sisters [Rosalie] and Marguerite. For unknown reasons, [Susan LaFlesche Picotte] was sent in Rosalie's place. Susan began Pingree School at age 13 and from there was entered at the Hampton Institute in Hampton, Va., graduating in 1886. With Bright Eyes' help, financing was obtained for Susan's enrollment at the Philadelphia Woman's Medical School, where she completed the usual three-year course in two years and graduated No. 1 in her class of 36, becoming the first American Indian to earn a medical degree. In 1894 Susan married her brother-in-law Henry Picotte and soon had two sons. When Henry died in 1905, Susan and her sons moved to the new town of Walthill, where she began practicing and working for the establishment of a hospital. Marguerite and her second husband, Walter Diddock, donated a city lot and $5,000 while the Presbyterian Board of Missions gave $8,500 for the hospital, later named in Susan's honor.

[Susan LaFlesche Picotte] lived from 1865 to 1915, a difficult time for Native Americans being forced to transition into an unfamiliar and often deadly progressive society. An intelligent child, Susan embraced the rigor of school and went east to attend college, eventually graduating from Woman's Medical College in Philadelphia in 1889. She returned to Nebraska, setting up practice in Macy, and was soon caring for all 1,244 members of the Omaha tribe. Susan LaFlesche fought a losing battle against germs, transferred by flies and common drinking cups, and against alcoholism, two plagues -- relatively new to Native Americans -- that they were ill-equipped to guard against. Exhaustion caused her to cut back her practice in 1894 and, at this time, she married Henry Picotte and moved to Bancroft.

\"Susan La Flesche Picotte, M.D.: Omaha Indian Leader and Reformer\" by Benson Tong is reviewed.