Medicine Woman

This documentary features historic and contemporary profiles of female healers, starting with Susan La Flesche Picotte of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska. Doctor Picotte studied medicine at a time when few women dared. She graduated first in her class and served as doctor to her Omaha tribe. It was a heartbreaking, violent time but she never gave up hope. The reverberations from her shattered world continue today as Native Americans suffer from alarming rates of disease, suicide and mental illness. Like Susan, these modern day medicine women from the Omaha, Lakota and Navajo tribes are fighting a war and sharing a confident approach to the work of healing.