Susan la Flesche, a member of the Omaha Tribe in the Midwest, was the first indigenous person in the United States to receive a medical degree. Her father, who was half Omaha and half French Canadian, was the last chief of the Omaha Tribe and a proponent of assimilation, believing it was the only way for the tribe to survive. Although many Omaha people were understandably angry about this, the chief's children followed suit, assimilating into white society as best they could. This is when Susan began working toward her medical degree.

She graduated second in her class from what is now Hampton University and then attended the Women’s Medical School of Pennsylvania, where she graduated at the top of her class a year early. In 1889, at the age of 24, she returned to the reservation where she grew up in Nebraska to become the sole doctor for 1,200 people living across more than 400 square miles.

Through her work on the reservation, she improved hygiene, treated tuberculosis as best she could, addressed mental health issues, and managed many other medical needs. Susan also fought for the banning of alcohol sales on reservations as part of the temperance movement, recognizing how alcohol was destroying her community. Her husband even died from tuberculosis, which was exacerbated by whiskey. Despite the challenges of her day-to-day work, she established the first privately funded hospital on a Native American reservation, continuing the work she had started 24 years earlier. Later, the hospital was renamed in her honor.