The Friends of the Columbus Public Library are thrilled to bring Joe Starita to the lower level art gallery for a presentation at 2:00 PM on Sunday, February 12th. He will be discussing his newest book "A Warrior of the People: The Indomitable Courage of Susan La Flesche - America's First Indian Doctor".
On March 14, 1889, Susan La Flesche received her medical degree becoming the first Native American doctor in U.S. history. She earned her degree thirty-one years before women could vote and thirty-five years before Indians could become citizens in their own country. By age twenty-six, this fragile but indomitable Indian woman became the doctor to her tribe. Overnight, she acquired 1,244 patients scattered across 850 square miles of rolling Nebraska countryside with few roads. Her patients often were desperately poor and desperately sick?tuberculosis, small pox, measles, influenza?families scattered miles apart, whose last hope was a young woman who spoke their language and knew their customs. This book is a companion to the recent NET documentary, "Medicine Woman". A University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, Joe Starita also wrote “I Am a Man: Chief Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice” in 2009.