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
Spouse(s)	Charles Hill, m. 1905, d. 1916
Parent	Joshua Gibbons Allen, physician and obstetrician (father)

Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill (August 30, 1875 – March 18, 1952) was an American physician of self-identified Mohawk descent.

For decades she operated a "kitchen clinic" at her house, on the Oneida 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 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" or "she who serves".

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. Minoka-Hill's difficult childhood began with her birth, soon after which her mother, who was a Mohawk woman, 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, "as Native American girls with no other means of support often did" or she may have made and sold handcrafted goods of the Eastern Woodlands with her mother. Allen was a Quaker, obstetrician, and a bachelor, and unknown to her throughout her childhood, he was her father. Joshua Gibbons Allen (1832-1903) was a Quaker physician, obstetrician, and gynecological expert who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Medical School in 1856. For 23 years, he was the Physician-in-Chief at the Lying-in-Charity in Philadelphia.

Because of her parents heritage and Mohawk blood quantum laws, Hill was not a citizen of any Native American tribe. Lillie lived with her maternal Mohawk 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 and avoided the traveler's gazes.

Thinking that she was "too dark to be a lily", 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 Native Americans and taught her about the Mohawk people, and what he knew about their history and lifestyle. She learned that Quakers valued caring and kindness. Minoka studied French in Quebec for one year when she was thirteen. After she returned to Philadelphia, Minoka-Hill converted to Catholicism. Her father respected her decision.

In 1895, when Minoka was 18, Allen let her know that he was her father and that she was not misbegotten. He would not tell her about her mother, though.

Medical school and early career

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 and he paid for her education. Minoka attended the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania (now part of Drexel University). She began to write her name L. Rosa Minoka and 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).

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. At the Women's Clinic, she treated poor women.

Her father died in September 1903, but not before declaring that Minoka was his daughter in a newspaper notice. She was left his estate valued at about $50,000 (equivalent to $1,695,556 in 2023) in the form of a trust fund. Feeling insecure, she shared the information about her father, her mother, and her birth.

Marriage and family

In June 1905, Minoka-Hill married Charles Hill in Philadelphia, and they lived in Oneida, Wisconsin on his farm alotment on the reservation. Charles established a farm and built a two-story house. He wanted a farmer's wife, though she wanted to stay active in her medical practice.

Minoka-Hill, having been raised with modern conveniences of a city, grew accustomed to living in the beautiful countryside of northern Wisconsin. She learned traditional Oneida medical practices from Charles' grandmother, like the curative powers of plants, wildflowers, and roots. She integrated that information with the medical training that she received and her clinical experiences. Without a Wisconsin medical license, Minoka-Hill worked without pay for family and friends, which prevented legal issues.

Minoka-Hill and Charles had six children, Rosa Melissa, Charles Allen, Norbert, Alfred Grahame, and twins, Jane Frances and Josephine.

In 1916, Charles died on Easter Sunday of a appendicitis. She was left with the responsibility of raising six children, five of whom were less than six years old, and taking care of the farm and its animals. The winter of 1917–1918, their children contracted influenza during the international epidemic, but all survived. She took care of her neighbors and friends and relied upon their payments in food for her family.

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.

In 1934, Minoka-Hill gained her medical license. Being licensed allowed her to admit patients to the hospital, charge fees, and prescribe medicine. She received her Wisconsin license and attained a job as a local health officer. With an office in town she saw white and Native American patients.

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 in her home, until her death in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin on March 18, 1952 of a heart attack.

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" or "she who serves".
• 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.
• 1954, 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.
• Stille, Darlene R. (November 1, 1997). Extraordinary Women Of Medicine (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Extraordinary People). Turtleback. ISBN 978-0-613-13504-7.

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