A WARRIOR OF THE PEOPLE

On March 14, 1889, Susan La Flesche graduated at the top of her medical class. At the time it was still rare for women to become doctors, since many believed women might become too easily alarmed and incapable of rendering proper medical treatment. But her graduation was even more notable because she was a member of the Omaha people, when Native Americans were considered by many to be lazy savages, or worse.

Armed with her degree, La Flesche returned home to care for her demoralized and destitute people. Overnight, she acquired 1,244 patients scattered across 850 square miles of rolling countryside with few roads. At the same time, she became a crusader against the injustice of federal policies that threatened to steal the land her people legally owned and railed against the whiskey peddlers preying on the Omaha, sowing disease and violence and domestic abuse—all for five hundred dollars a year. In the end, Susan La Flesche crashed through thick walls of ethnic, racial and gender prejudice, then spent the rest of her life using a unique bi-cultural identity to improve the lot of her people—physically, emotionally, politically, and spiritually.

Joe Starita is a veteran investigative reporter, the former New York Bureau Chief for Knight-Ridder newspapers and the acclaimed author of two previous books: THE DULL KNIFES OF PINE RIDGE: A Lakota Odyssey, and “I AM A MAN”: Chief Standing Bear's Journey for Justice. The Dull Knifes was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and is the focus of an upcoming PBS documentary. Since the release of I AM A MAN, Starita has given more than 120 talks and workshops, explaining to diverse audiences the legal, social and political significance of Standing Bear's 1879 landmark legal victory.