OKLAHOMA CITY – A Cherokee Nation citizen who recently graduated from medical school is one step closer to his dream of becoming a reconstructive surgery specialist.
Dakota St. Pierre, 26, of Stilwell, graduated in May from the University of Oklahoma’s College of Medicine in Oklahoma City.
“Technically, I’m a physician now but I have more training before I can actually practice on my own,” he said, noting that his residency will take place at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. “I’m like super excited. Whenever I applied to residency, I think I got 24 interview offers and then I ended up interviewing at 14 places. So, of the 14 all across the country, that was my No. 1 pick. This is my first big move, so I’m excited about it.”
St. Pierre attended Stilwell High School, and while there took concurrent classes at Northeastern State University, then attended the University of Oklahoma in Norman before spending another four years in medical school. His specialization in plastic and reconstructive surgery will take another six to seven years, he said.
“My interests right now within plastic surgery are going to be breast reconstruction … for patients who experience breast cancer and have to have removal surgeries and things,” St. Pierre said. “I’m also super interested in hand surgery, which you can do through plastic surgery, also. It’s two very different specialties of plastic surgery, but I guess that’s what the next six years are to figure out.”
With “zero exposure” to plastic surgery prior to medical school, St. Pierre was initially unsure if it was a path he wanted to take but chose the specialization after seeing how it positively impacted patients’ lives.
“It’s our No. 1 goal to restore function and improve a patient’s way of life,” he said. “But really, plastics has a significant impact on the psychological and emotional rehabilitation. I feel like every day I walk in the hospital and see a new patient going into a new surgery, it just kind of reinvigorates that initial plan of wanting to care for people. I think plastics offers a very unique opportunity for that.”
The first surgery he attended was for breast reconstruction.
“That was like a 12-hour-long case,” he said. “From there I went into the clinics and saw how plastic surgeons handle complex facial trauma, hand trauma. They take care of burn patients. They’re doing extremity reconstruction. I got to see all of that. I just never have been squeamish around it, which is good. I felt like the first time I ever shadowed in the operating room after I got an interest in plastics, I was like this is what I’m going to have to do.”
At the beginning of his journey toward becoming a doctor in 2021, St. Pierre said his passion was to ensure Native American communities have access to medicine.
“I would love to ultimately return home to work in Cherokee Nation hospitals to provide aid to my people, but I also recognize that there may be other Native American populations that are suffering worse than our own,” he said at the time.
He also hoped to inspire others and recruit the next generation of Native American physicians.
“Too often I see kids think that just because they are from a small town, they cannot go off and achieve something like a medical degree,” he said. “But I would love to show them that it is definitely within their grasp as long as they take the necessary steps and are willing to put in the work.”
Today, he remains determined to help his own tribe in the future.
“My long-term goals have been wanting to return back to specifically Cherokee Nation, wanting to work in one of their hospitals,” he said. “Cherokee Nation – I guess Indian Health Service as a whole – has an extreme lack of access to services provided by plastic and reconstructive surgeons. So, long-term, I would like to end up back home to give back to my community. I look forward to possibly building my practice as an attending and then looking to expand that and return home one day.”
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