Lillie Rosa Minoka Hill

Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill
Born	(1875-08-30)August 30, 1875 St. Regis Mohawk Indian Reservation (also known as Akwesasne) in northern New York
Died	March 18, 1952(1952-03-18) (aged 76) Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Education	Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania (now part of Drexel University) (1899)
Occupation	Physician
Known for	The second Native American female doctor in the United States, after Susan La Flesche Picotte (Omaha)
Spouse(s)	Charles Hill, m. 1905, d. 1916
Parents	Joshua Gibbons Allen, physician and obstetrician (father) Mohawk woman (mother)

Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill (1876–1952) was an American physician of Mohawk descent. Minnetoga, was her birth given last name according to an early record of her birth. Although, throughout her life, her name was changed three times; once at her birth, once when the Allen family forcefully adopted her, and a final time when she was given an Oneida name after working in the community for many years. Her favorite name to go by, was her third name, because it represented a high amount of honor that she had earned while treating the people, both white and non-white in Oneida. After her mother died, she was adopted by Joshua Allen, a Quaker in Philadelphia. She was born just after the Battle of Little Big Horn and died while forced displacement of Native Americans was still happening.

She graduated from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, becoming the second Native American female doctor in the United States, after Susan La Flesche Picotte (Omaha). She lived in a time of discrimination against women, and people of color, especially in the medical field.

She married an Oneida man, Charles Hill, in 1905 and returned with him to his reservation in Wisconsin. For decades she operated a "kitchen clinic" at her house, providing care for Oneida on the reservation. She gained her state medical license in Wisconsin in 1934 and, in her later years, was honored for her contributions to rural medical care. In 1946, a heart attack prevented her from making house calls, however, the kitchen-clinic remained open.

In 1947 she was adopted as an honorary member by the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, the only person so honored in the 20th century. They gave her the name Yo-da-gent, meaning "she who carries aid". Minoka-Hill operating her medical practice despite the hardships she endured.

Early life and education

Lillie Minnetoga, that she later changed to Minoka, was born August 30, 1875 on the Mohawk Nation on the St. Regis Mohawk Indian Reservation (also known as Akwesasne) in northern New York along the Saint Lawrence River. This birth information is according to a family story, and not based on an actual birth document, which would not be uncommon for Native Americans at the time.

Minoka-Hill's difficult childhood began with her birth, soon after which her mother died. Her mother somehow made it to Philadelphia where she was under the care of Dr. Joshua Allen. She may have been brought to the city to work as a domestic worker once she turned fourteen or she may have made and sold handcrafted goods of the Eastern Woodlands with her mother. Allen was a Quaker, obstetrician, and a bachelor. Her father was a Quaker physician from Philadelphia. Because of her parents heritage and the United States' blood quantum laws, Hill was not a citizen of any Native American tribe. and only Dr. Allen knew about the pregnancy, childbirth, death of Lillie's mother, and her name. Lillie lived with her loving maternal grandmother in a tent in Atlantic City, New Jersey and occasionally she was visited by Dr. Allen from Philadelphia.

According to plan, Lillie was removed from her home at five years of age. Allen had Lillie say good bye to her grandmother and took her by train to Philadelphia, during which she played "little wooden Indian" who stared straight ahead, avoiding the traveler's gazes.

Allen gave her the name Rosa and took her to a Quaker girl's boarding school, Grahame Institute. It was operated by Israel and Jane Grahame, who were caring to her. She was called "my little Mohawk daughter" and "my little gypsy" by Jane, which made her feel different. She learned the poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Allen, who let people believe that he was her benefactor, brought her books of Indians. She studied French in Quebec for one year when she was thirteen. Like most Mohawks, she converted to Catholicism.

In 1895, when Minoka was 18, Allen let her know that he was her father and that she was not misbegotten. Minoka decided to become a nurse after graduating from high school, but her father said that she should be a physician because of the education she had received. Minoka attended the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania (now part of Drexel University). Self-styled as L. Rosa Minoka, she made long-lasting friendships with able, determined women medical students. She earned her degree in 1899. Minoka was the second Native American woman in the United States to obtain a medical degree, after Susan La Flesche Picotte (Omaha).

Early career

After she and her friend Frances Tyson graduated, they also setup a private practice for walk-in patients. Minoka provided medical care for Native American students at the Lincoln Institute boarding school. Minoka made friends with the students there, like Anna Hill, an Oneida student at Lincoln Institute from Wisconsin. Anna introduced Minoka to her brother Charles Abram Hill. She also made friends with students at the Carlisle Institute, a boarding school for Native Americans. She secured her internship at the public Woman's Hospital in 1900.

Marriage and family

In 1905, Minoka-Hill married Charles Hill, and they lived in Oneida, Wisconsin on his rural, tribal reservation. Charles wanted a farmer's wife, though she wanted to stay active in her medical practice. They compromised and she became the sole physician in Oneida while also maintaining the house and children.

They had six children together, three boys and three girls. According to her children, much of her early life was not disclosed to them. Josephine Hill Cote was one of her youngest daughters, who was also a twin.

In 1916, Charles died of a sudden attack of appendicitis. The farm and livestock were mortgaged, and Minoka-Hill had to manage the debt. When Charles Hill died, Minoka-Hill had six children, ranging in age from 5 months to 9 years, and a mortgaged farm with no running water or electricity. Although she could have returned to Philadelphia and received financial assistance from her family, she remained in Wisconsin as she saw helping Indians as her calling.

In 1918, their children contracted influenza during the international epidemic, but all survived. In 1922, their daughter Rosa Melissa Hill died from typhoid fever. She saw the majority of her patients after her husband passed away.

Medical practice

The reservation's physician, Dr. Josiah Powless served during World War I and she was the lone remaining physician in 1916 or 1917. Powless died just before the end of the war. After that, Minoka-Hill's services were even more critical; she tended to nearly all the tribe's local medical needs. She often spent entire nights at bedsides. She carried her heavy medical bag and walked to most of her patients over miles of dirt and gravel roads; in winter she used snowshoes. Minoka-Hill practiced medicine on a poor midwestern reservation, despite the high rates of influenza, pneumonia, and tuberculosis, which took the lives of many during this time.

She provided medical care out of her "kitchen clinic" for 40 years from her house. A wood-burning stove, water carried in from a hand-pump down the road, and, after 1946, an electric refrigerator for medicines: with this minimal equipment in her kitchen clinic. She incorporated herbal remedies learned from Oneida medicine men and women.

She taught people about preventive medicine, nutrition, and sanitation. If she needed to make a house call, she was able to get rides from her family members or community members, because she did not have a car. If getting a ride from her sons was not an option, she walked to the houses. Because cash was scarce in the rural economy, she accepted food, such as chickens, as payment for her services.

She took goods in exchange for money and adjusted her fees according to what the patient could pay: she sometimes charged $15 for the delivery of a baby, or two chickens, or $9, depending on the family's situation.

Popular among white and Oneida patients alike, Minoka-Hill earned the trust of local Oneidas who did not feel comfortable with the white doctors of Brown County. The local physicians were supportive of her work. She worked alongside a midwife named Priscilla Manders up until the 1940s, when her practice became illegal, most likely due to the absence of her medical license. Priscilla lived in the Oneida village, worked at a nearby museum, and spoke the language. She was no doubt an important character in the story of Minoka-Hill and her transition into Oneida and its medical practices.

In 1929, her trust fund, established by her father Joshua Allen, collapsed in the Stock Market Crash that began the Great Depression. Even though the federal government established a Relief Office in Oneida, they could neither send patients to Minoka-Hill, nor reimburse her for services rendered because she had never taken the time to obtain a Wisconsin medical license. Despite this, Minoka-Hill kept running her kitchen clinic.

In 1934, gained her medical license. Being licensed allowed her to admit patients to the hospital. After taking the necessary tests, she received the credential. She continued to practice for a humble price in order to continue to treat the low-income people on her reservation. She also thought that charging lower prices would help her get into heaven. At the age of 58, 35 years after medical school graduation, she received her Wisconsin license and continued her practice in Oneida.

In 1939, under programs of the New Deal of the President Franklin D. Roosevelt administration to improve conditions for Native Americans, a public health nurse and a government doctor were assigned to the reservation. That year, the federal government also started providing food supplements to combat malnutrition.

A heart attack in 1946 forced Minoka-Hill into semi-retirement, though she continued her kitchen clinic. She also set up a boarding school to help poor Native American children. She continued to practice medical services as best as she could, with her health in consideration, until her death in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin on March 18, 1952.

Legacy and honors

• 1947, she received the Indian Achievement Award from the Indian Fire Council of Chicago, for personal achievement and humanitarian service to her people.
• 1947, she was adopted as an honorary member by the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. They gave her the name Yo-da-gent, meaning "she who carries aid".
• 1948, a monument was erected in Oneida, Wisconsin in her honor.
• 1948, the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture recognized her for service to rural people.
• 1949, she was the honoree of the American Medical Association at its annual conference, held that year in Atlantic City.
• 1949, the Wisconsin Medical Association voted to award her a lifetime honorary membership.
• 1952, a granite monument was erected near Oneida in her honor. The inscription reads: “Physician, Good Samaritan, and friend of People of all religions in this community, erected to her memory by the Indians and white people.” It includes: “I was sick and you visited me.”
• 1959, Haskell Indian College named a new girl's dormitory as “Minoka Hall” in her honor.
• 1975, her son Norbert Hill established the Dr. Rosa Minoka Hill Fund, which grants college scholarships to Native Americans.

The historical figure, Charlie Hill, an Oneida comedian was the grandson of Dr. Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill. A granddaughter, now known as Roberta Hill Whiteman, became a poet and professor.

Bibliography

• Anderson, Greta (2004). More than petticoats. Remarkable Wisconsin women. Guilford, Connecticut: TwoDot. ISBN 978-0-7627-2529-8.

Further reading

• Hill, Roberta Jean (1998). Dr. Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill: Mohawk Woman Physician (Thesis). University of Minnesota. ProQuest 304437247.
• Scharf, John Thomas (1884). History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884. Philadelphia: Thompson Westcott. p. 1698.

External links

• "Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill", Women and Public Health, American Public Health Association