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Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte:

Legacy

The John G. Neihardt State Historic Site

The many accomplishments of Susan La Flesche Picotte, MD, and her family continue to inspire people of many nationalities and cultural heritages. Her legacy of advocacy and healing are echoed by many in the health sciences professions today. In the words of her friend, Harry Keefe, lawyer in Walthill, Nebraska, published in the local paper upon her death:

“We are confronted here with a character rising to greatness and to great deeds out of conditions which seldom produce more than mediocre men and women, achieving great and beneficent ends over obstacles almost insurmountable…In her death the Indians lose their best and truest friend; the community and the state sustains an irreparable loss; and there is ended one of the most fruitful, unselfish, and useful lives.”

The Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte Center

Courtesy of the Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte Center

The Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte Center honors the legacy of Dr. Picotte by restoring her 1913 hospital to create a community center and wellness clinic for the Omaha Tribe and the residents of the Walthill area. For more information, please visit www.picottecenter.org.

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Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte statue

Courtesy of Benjamin Victor

On October 11, 2021, a bronze sculpture of Susan La Flesche Picotte was unveiled by her descendants in Lincoln, Nebraska. It stands on the east side of Centennial Mall, between “L” and “M” streets, and opposite the state office building that houses the Department of Health and Human Services.

Benjamin Victor, one of the nation's leading figurative artists, was commissioned to create the piece. He is the same artist who in 2017 created the Chief Standing Bear sculpture that now sits on Centennial Mall, and another version of which stands in Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol in Washington, DC. Victor is recognized as being the youngest artist (at age 26) to have a sculpture in the National Statuary Hall and is also the only living artist to have three works exhibited there.

Neihardt Center

Courtesy of the John G. Neihardt State Historic Site

The John G. Neihardt State Historic Site

The John G. Neihardt State Historic Site is built on the site of John G. Neihardt’s Bancroft, Nebraska, home and commemorates his life and work as Poet Laureate in Perpetuity of Nebraska. Dr. Picotte described Neihardt’s writings as “the only Indians in literature from Cooper to Remington that had not been offensive to her…she could not understand how a white man could represent the Indian idiom so perfectly in the English language.” The Niehardt Historic Site is currently the caretaker of Dr. Picotte’s artifacts, held in custody during the Picotte Center’s renovation. For more information, please visit www.neihardtcenter.org

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UNMC Indigenous Medicine Garden

Created by Kayla Meyer, Landscape Architect at Ochsner Hare & Hare the Olsson Studio, and Archie Carpenter, UNMC Facilities Planner, in partnership with UNMC’s College of Public Health internal working group

The UNMC Indigenous Medicine Garden

The UNMC Indigenous Medicine Garden is a multi-organizational partnership between the College of Public Health (led by Regina Idoate, PhD, and doctoral student Aislinn Rookwood, MPH), Steve Tamayo (Sicangu Lakota and cultural education consultant), Mioux Stabler (Omaha Nation and Indigenous gardening consultant), Native American Community Partnership of Omaha Metro Area (NACPOMA), UNMC’s College of Public Health Wellness Committee, UNMC’s College of Public Health Ideas to Action Space/Place subcommittee, UNMC’s Department of Facilities Management and Planning, Ochsner Hare & Hare the Olsson Studio, and students from the Omaha Public Schools’ Native Indigenous Centered Education (NICE) program, UNMC’s Youth Enjoy Science (YES) program, and the UNMC student interest group Healthy Earth Alliance (HEAL).

The garden is planned for installation in the green space between the Center for Healthy Living and the College of Public Health on UNMC’s Omaha campus.

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Tribal C'Rona Comix

Art by Henry Payer and Bob Hall
Story by Judy gaiashkibos, Bob Hall, Liz VanWormer, Judy Diamond
This work is supported by the National Science Foundation through award DRL-2028026. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation

The Tribal C’rona Comix

The Tribal C’rona Comix is one of three comic series designed to teach young people about living through a pandemic. This series relates Dr. Picotte’s example of combatting disease among the Omaha and Winnebago Tribes with the current pandemic’s effect on tribal communities today. The entire C’rona Pandemic Comic is accessible online and published in book form by the University of Nebraska Press.

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