As a young woman, Susette La Flesche became more interested in politics and soon graduated and learned how to speak English. She first worked as a teacher on the Omaha reservation. She had always wanted to become a teacher and after graduating from school at the Elizabeth Institute for Young Ladies in New Jersey, she returned home and was told she could not teach on the reservation. She then wrote to the Indian Commissioner who told her she could not teach without a certificate. She then requested the Indian agent on the Omaha reservation if she could leave the reservation so she could take the exam to get her certificate. He refused to give her permission but she left anyway and asked the Superintendent of Schools to give her the teaching tests. She received her certificate, submitted it to the Indian Commissioner who refused her again and then told her that she needed a "certificate of 'good moral character'" (Starita 2010). She then wrote her teachers at the New Jersey school and received letters documenting her "good moral character." She then dutifully sent her letters and certificate to the Indian Commissioner. He did not respond. She wrote again and threatened to take this story to the newspapers to which he finally relented and gave her a building and $20 a month. She gathered some Omaha students and became the first American Indian teacher on the Omaha reservation. She also wanted to teach them music and so she saved and bought an organ (paraphrased from Starita 2010).