The First American Indian Doctor: Unladylike 2020, American Masters, PBS, June 2020.
A brief documentary that tells the story os Susan La Flesche Picotte and her becoming a medical doctor She graduated in 1889 from Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. Rather than provide services in the East she decided to return to the reservation to serve her people. She also took a roll in public health among her people, and educated about good health practices to avoid spreading disease. She became the doctor for the Omaha reservation and the winebago reservation. She and her husband lived just off the reservation. She treated both native and white people. She left a lantern lit at her house so people would know she was available--all hours of the day or night. She did much more than doctoring. She started a children's library, she taught Sunday school, she started a quilting circle for Omaha women and she translated legal documents for members of the tribe. She advocated for a ban on alcohol. She did not like federal land allotment, through which much of the Indian land was lost. In 1913 she opened a privately funded hospital on the Omaha Indian Reservation. However just a couple years after opening the hospital, bone cancer claimed her life. The hospital continued to operate for 30 years. It is now open as a health clinic and community center and museum. It is now an historical landmark.
LaFlesche is quoted as saying, "I will always fight good and hard, even if I have to fight alone."
Cast: Narrator Julianna Margulies; Joe Starita, author book about LaFlesche; Renée Sans Sousi, Omaha Native educator; Dr. Yvette Roubideaux Sioux doctor Rosebud Reservation and head of Indian Health Services.
