Native American Leaders

A Legend in Bronze A visual essay on the new Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte sculpture. Against the Current As a child on the Nebraska frontier, Susan La Flesche Picotte witnessed the death of a tribal member because the agency doctor never showed up.   The experience drove her to accomplish the seemingly impossible to become the first Native American doctor and to build her own hospital on the Omaha reservation. Return of the Pawnees Once exiled from Nebraska, the Pawnees are regaining a presence in their homeland due to a remarkable act of reconciliation. In 2007, writer Roger Welsch and his artist wife, Linda, did what few descendants of European immigrants have ever done in the 500-year history of America. They returned their parcel of land that rests along the Loup River near Dannebrog to its original owners, the Pawnees. The Chief Goes to Washington On September 18, 2019, a new statue of Chief Standing Bear was unveiled in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. This historic event was set in motion two years earlier when the Nebraska Legislature passed a bill to replace William Jennings Bryan with Ponca Chief Standing Bear as one of two heroic figures representing the state.