Susan La Flesche Picotte Google doodle pays homage to first American Indian to earn her medical degree

Google is giving the public health advocate known as “Dr. Sue” prominent placement on their home page on what would have been her 152nd birthday.

Today’s Google doodle honors Dr. Susan La Flesch Picotte on what would have been her 152nd birthday.

Born on this date on the Omaha reservation in Nebraska in 1865, Picotte was encouraged by her father “to be somebody in the world.” According to Google, she did just that, leaving the reservation to attend the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania.

From the Google Doodle Blog:

She graduated at the top of her class. Despite receiving numerous prestigious job offers, Picotte chose to return to the reservation to provide the medical care that her tribe badly needed — tending to patients across 1,350 square miles on foot and horseback, in wind, snow, and rain.

Earning the affectionate moniker “Dr. Sue,” Picotte was not only a physician but an advocate for public health practices and social reform.

“Most notably, in 1913,” writes Google, “She personally raised the funds to build a modern hospital in her hometown.”

The hospital Picotte founded is featured in the doodle image to the right. The building on the left is the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania where she earned her medical degree. The doodle leads to a search for “Susan La Flesch Picotte” and is featured exclusively on Google’s US home page.