Walthill is a village in Thurston County that lies within the Omaha Reservation. It was platted in 1906 when the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was extended to the site, and it was named for Walter Hill, a son of the railroad executive James J. Hill. The Omaha Tribe of Nebraska has its seat of government at Macy, and reservation land also takes in Rosalie, Pender and the northern edge of Bancroft. Children in the village attend Walthill Public Schools.
The building most people come to see stands on Matthewson Street. Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte, an Omaha woman who graduated first in her class from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1889 and is widely described as the first Native American woman physician, raised the money for it privately rather than from the government, and it opened in 1913. William L. Steele designed it in an American Craftsman manner, with a low shingled roof and wide braced eaves. It treated Native and non-Native patients alike and worked as a hospital into the 1940s.
The hospital was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988 and named a National Historic Landmark in 1993. After a long restoration overseen by the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, with Omaha tribal members serving on the board, it reopened in June 2025 as the Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte Center, with room for a clinic, counseling, youth programming and a museum.
Visitor & Travel Categories
Business & Economic Categories
Walthill, an incorporated village within the Omaha Reservation, was platted in 1906 with the arrival of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and named for Walter Hill, son of railroad magnate James J. Hill. It is best known as the home of the Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte Memorial Hospital, a National Historic Landmark built in 1913 by the first Native American woman to earn a U.S. medical degree.
Home to roughly 700 residents, most of them Omaha Tribe members, Walthill's identity is closely tied to Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte's pioneering medical legacy on the Omaha Reservation as much as to its origins as a 1906 railroad town.
Navigate & Explore Walthill
Get directions: search "Walthill Nebraska" in Waze or Google Maps
Road Conditions: Nebraska 511 — 511.nebraska.gov
Thurston County County Cameras: View Thurston County County cameras