wi_mburns_studio_595

Manitowish River Studio, WI
Mary Burns, weaver. Ancestral Women Project: handwoven jacquard portraits.
Dr. Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill - Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin 31″ x 42″

From CVA's booklet (Wausau, WI):
Dr. Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill, Youdagent, “She who carries aid”Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin Dr. Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill became the second female Native American doctor in the United States in 1902.

Born a Mohawk Indian in 1876, she married Charles Hill, an Oneida Indian, and moved with him back to Oneida, WI, where he had built a house on a farm. Dr. Hill practiced medicine but didn’t have a Wisconsin license, so she practiced informally in her kitchen. She practiced in an “inconspicuous way” – she gave without demanding payment. The doctor on the Oneida reservation left to serve in World War I, and so more and more people came to her. Influenza was rampant and she and her six children became sick, too. Charles contracted appendicitis and died in 1916, leaving Rosa to raise their small children, run the farm, and doctor all those who came to her. In this era, Native people were denied access to hospitals and health education – child mortality was three times the national average.

Dr. Hill learned herbal remedies from Oneida medicine men and women and incorporated those skills into her kitchen clinic for 40 years. She made house calls, taught preventative medicine, and accepted food as payment for her services.Though she had a heart attack in 1946 that left her blind in one eye, she continued practicing from her home. In 1949, she received the “Doctor of the Year” award from the American Medical Association. That same year she was named “Indian of the Year” in Chicago. Perhaps most importantly to her, that year she was also adopted as a tribal member of the Oneida and given a new name – Youdagent – “she who carries aid. ”Dr. Hill died in 1952, and two years later, the Oneida church community erected a monument in memory of Rosa. 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.”

Mary’s design depicts Dr. Hill’s adoption, as requested by her family, showing her with Melissa O. Cornelius. In the background Mary included portions of the Oneida tribal logo and Tribal Belt, important symbols to the tribe

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