Significant Figures in Medicine
Dr. Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa) (1958-1939) - Charles Eastman was a Santee Dakota physician, author, and Native American rights activist. After losing his mother at birth, Eastman was raised by his grandmother and given the Dakota name Ohiyesa ("Winner"). During the 1862 Dakota Conflict, they fled to Canada, where Eastman lived for ten years before reuniting with his father. His father sent him to boarding school, where he took the name Charles Eastman, and he attended Dartmouth College and medical school at Boston College. In 1889, he was appointed as a physician at the Pine Ridge Reservation, arriving just before the Wounded Knee Massacre. This traumatic event spurred Eastman to advocate for Native rights. Eastman began writing autobiographical stories and books about Dakota culture and history. His works include Indian Boyhood (1902), From the Deep Woods to Civilization (1916), and The Soul of the Indian (1911). He lectured widely to educate the public about Native American perspectives. Disenchanted with government policies, Eastman resigned from the Indian Service in 1893. He continued writing and organizing community programs on reservations. In 1923, he was appointed a U.S. Indian Inspector, advising on federal Indian policy. Eastman's life and work demonstrated the challenges of assimilating into White society while retaining his Santee Dakota identity. As an author and activist, he communicated Native American values to non-Native American audiences.
Miller, DR. Eastman, Charles. In: Encyclopedia of North American Indians. HarperCollins; 1996.
Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865-1915) - Susan La Flesche Picotte was the first Native American woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. Born in 1865 on the Omaha Reservation in Nebraska to Chief Joseph La Flesche and Mary Gale, she was inspired to become a doctor after witnessing the death of a sick Omaha woman who was denied care. La Flesche Picotte attended medical college and graduated from Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania at the top of her class in 1889. She returned to the reservation and tirelessly served the Omaha people for over 20 years, providing medical care and health education. In 1894, she married Henry Picotte and moved to Bancroft, Nebraska, where she set up a private practice treating Omaha and Winnebago patients while raising two sons. La Flesche Picotte lobbied against alcohol on the reservation and, in 1913, opened a hospital on the reservation to serve the Omaha and Winnebago tribes. She dedicated herself to making quality healthcare accessible until she died in 1915.
National Library of Medicine. Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte. Changing the Face of Medicine. Published June 3, 2015. Accessed October 10, 2023.
Dr. Carlos Montezuma (Wassaja) (1866?-1923) – Carlos Montezuma, named Wassaja at birth, overcame childhood tragedy to become a pioneering physician and activist. Captured by the Pima as a boy, he was sold to a photographer and taken from his Yavapai family in Arizona to Illinois. Adopted by a minister, he studied chemistry in college and earned his M.D. from Chicago Medical College in 1889. As a doctor in Chicago, Montezuma crusaded to reform federal Indian policy. He co-founded the Society of American Indians in 1911 to promote Native American self-determination. A staunch critic of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he argued for its abolition in his newsletter Wassaja. In later life, Montezuma reconnected with his Yavapai roots at the Fort McDowell Reservation. He defended Yavapai land and water rights and courageously challenged encroachment against the reservations. Despite illness, he returned to Fort McDowell until his death in 1923. Montezuma overcame childhood trauma to champion Yavapai sovereignty through medicine, activism, and writing.
Iverson P. Montezuma, Carlos. In: Encyclopedia of North American Indians. HarperCollins; 1996.
Dr. Connie Redbird Pinkerman-Uri (1930-2009) – Connie Redbird Pinkerman-Uri was a pioneering Choctaw/Cherokee physician and lawyer who championed Native American rights. Raised in a traditional Native American community, she earned a medical degree in 1955 and practiced medicine in Los Angeles for over 20 years. In 1979, she became the first Native American woman to hold dual degrees in medicine and law. Pinkerman-Uri's advocated for improved healthcare access and civil rights for Native American communities. She organized Los Angeles' first Indian Free Clinic in the 1960s and worked to convert an abandoned army hospital into a Native American hospital. Her investigations into forced sterilizations of Native American women catalyzed new regulations in 1979. During the Wounded Knee occupation, she arranged medical supplies and legal support. Throughout her legal and medical careers, she worked against racism and sexism in professional communities. Connie Redbird Pinkerman-Uri leveraged her expertise in medicine and law to champion health, justice, and empowerment for Native Americans.
Benson A. Pinkerman-Uri, Connie Redbird. In: Native American Women: A Biographical Dictionary. H. W. Wilson; 1993.
Shepherd S. The Enemy is the Knife: Native Americans, Medical Genocide, and the Prohibition of Nonconsensual Sterilizations. Michigan Journal of Race & Law. 2021;27(1):89-106.
Dr. Patricia Nez Henderson (b. 1965) - Patricia Nez Henderson is a Navajo physician and public health researcher devoted to improving healthcare for Native American communities. Inspired by her grandfather, a Navajo medicine man, she earned an MPH at Yale before becoming the first Native American woman to graduate from Yale Medical School in 2000. Her work has centered on reducing smoking rates and related mortality from cardiovascular disease and cancer among Native American populations. She co-founded the Black Hills Center for American Indian Health to serve the health needs of Northern Plains tribes. She played a key role in enacting the Navajo Nation's 2021 law prohibiting commercial tobacco use in enclosed public spaces. In 2022, Henderson was elected as the first Navajo American to serve as president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.
Dr. Patricia Nez Henderson elected president of Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. Navajo-Hopi Observer News. Published March 10, 2022. Accessed October 10, 2023.
National Library of Medicine. Patricia Nez Henderson. Changing the Face of Medicine. Published June 3, 2015. Accessed October 10, 2023.
