Last updated: December 1, 2022
Place
Susan La Flesche Picotte House
Photograph by Jessie Nunn, courtesy of Nebraska State Historical Society
Quick Facts
Location:
Walthill, Nebraska
Significance:
Exploration/Settlement, Social History
Designation:
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, reference number: 09000905
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
MANAGED BY:
Private ownership
The Susan La Flesche House, located in Walthill, Nebraska, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its connection to its owner, who was the first Native American woman to graduate from medical school and was an advocate for the local community.
The house was completed in late 1907 and is a modest, Folk Victorian, two-and-a-half story, frame structure with simple classical detailing and overhanging eaves. It sits on a low concrete block foundation. A combination of returning eaves and a jerkinhead creates a unique trapezoidal roof shape that distinguishes this from the simple front gable house form. The Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte House is still clad in its original clapboard siding.
While Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte’s medical and activist activities are already recognized in the Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte Memorial Hospital NHL, Picotte was heavily involved in assisting with the day-to-day bureaucratic requirements of her fellow Omaha tribal members as they continued to transition from a traditional lifestyle to one dictated by Euro-American laws and regulations. Picotte's help unquestionably improved the lives of countless Omaha tribal members, who were forced to confront language and cultural barriers daily for even their most basic needs. Her assistance likely made the bureaucratic process necessary to Omaha survival at this point in tribal history a little less degrading and confusing. Picotte’s diary provides examples of the work she did to help members of her community in their day-to-day lives:
Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte made significant contributions to the history and development of Walthill and the Omaha Indian Reservation from 1907-1911. Motivated by a strong desire to secure the welfare of her fellow Omaha during a pivotal period of history, she served the local community and Omaha Tribe as a doctor, political activist, volunteer administrative assistant and hostess from her house at 100 Taft Street in Walthill.
On March 2, 1911, the association between Picotte's significance in the politics of social welfare and the Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte House reached a dramatic apex. Over 60 Omaha gathered there to meet representatives of the Nebraska House Judiciary Committee to discuss the Gallagher Bill, an attempt to protect the inheritance rights of Native American wives and their children. The Committee Chair was against the bill, but Picotte chose to address her people in Omaha not English. Her decision was both symbolic and practical, as it rendered her immune to interruptions from the Committee Chair.
Her house was directly associated with her productive life during this period as a place where Omaha tribal members felt comfortable seeking assistance and as a site for political meetings and cultural events.
More on Susan La Flesche Picotte
Picotte, Susan La Flesche, House National Register of Historic Places file: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/73921448
Picotte, Dr. Susan, Memorial Hospital National Historic Landmark file: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/73920026
The house was completed in late 1907 and is a modest, Folk Victorian, two-and-a-half story, frame structure with simple classical detailing and overhanging eaves. It sits on a low concrete block foundation. A combination of returning eaves and a jerkinhead creates a unique trapezoidal roof shape that distinguishes this from the simple front gable house form. The Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte House is still clad in its original clapboard siding.
While Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte’s medical and activist activities are already recognized in the Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte Memorial Hospital NHL, Picotte was heavily involved in assisting with the day-to-day bureaucratic requirements of her fellow Omaha tribal members as they continued to transition from a traditional lifestyle to one dictated by Euro-American laws and regulations. Picotte's help unquestionably improved the lives of countless Omaha tribal members, who were forced to confront language and cultural barriers daily for even their most basic needs. Her assistance likely made the bureaucratic process necessary to Omaha survival at this point in tribal history a little less degrading and confusing. Picotte’s diary provides examples of the work she did to help members of her community in their day-to-day lives:
White Horse came in to see me about the plans for the new house... Dan Wolf and his wife came in. He wanted me to interpret for him in his will. His wife asked me to look after her lands; that she had received no rent for 2 years.
Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte made significant contributions to the history and development of Walthill and the Omaha Indian Reservation from 1907-1911. Motivated by a strong desire to secure the welfare of her fellow Omaha during a pivotal period of history, she served the local community and Omaha Tribe as a doctor, political activist, volunteer administrative assistant and hostess from her house at 100 Taft Street in Walthill.
On March 2, 1911, the association between Picotte's significance in the politics of social welfare and the Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte House reached a dramatic apex. Over 60 Omaha gathered there to meet representatives of the Nebraska House Judiciary Committee to discuss the Gallagher Bill, an attempt to protect the inheritance rights of Native American wives and their children. The Committee Chair was against the bill, but Picotte chose to address her people in Omaha not English. Her decision was both symbolic and practical, as it rendered her immune to interruptions from the Committee Chair.
Her house was directly associated with her productive life during this period as a place where Omaha tribal members felt comfortable seeking assistance and as a site for political meetings and cultural events.
More on Susan La Flesche Picotte
Picotte, Susan La Flesche, House National Register of Historic Places file: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/73921448
Picotte, Dr. Susan, Memorial Hospital National Historic Landmark file: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/73920026