Indigenous Firsts

<p><b>A celebration of achievement accomplishments and courage!</b></p><p><span>Native American Medal of Honor recipients Heisman Trophy recipients U.S. Olympians a U.S. vice president Congressional representatives NASA astronauts Pulitzer Prize recipients U.S. poet laureates Oscar winners and more. The first Native magician all-Native comedy show architects attorneys bloggers chefs cartoonists psychologists religious leaders filmmakers educators physicians code talkers and inventors. Luminaries like Jim Thorpe King Kamehameha Debra Haaland and Will Rogers along with less familiar notables such as Native Hawaiian language professor and radio host Larry Lindsey Kimura and Cree/Mohawk forensic pathologist Dr. Kona Williams. Their stories plus the stories of 2000 other people events and places are presented in<b><i> Indigenous Firsts: A History of Native American Achievements and Events</i></b> including …</span><br></p><ul><li>Suzanne Van Cooten Ph.D. Chickasaw Nation the first Native female meteorologist in the country</li><li>Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck Wampanoag from Martha's Vineyard graduate of Harvard College in 1665</li><li>Debra Haaland the Pueblo of Laguna U.S. Congresswoman and Secretary of the Interior</li><li>Sam Campos the Native Hawaiian who developed the Hawaiian superhero Pineapple Man</li><li>Thomas L. Sloan Omaha was the first Native American to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court</li><li>William R. Pogue Choctaw astronaut</li><li>Johnston Murray Chickasaw the first person of Native American descent to be elected governor in the United States holding the office in Oklahoma from 1951 to 1955</li><li>The Cherokee Phoenix published its first edition February 21 1828 making it the first tribal newspaper in North America and the first to be published in an Indigenous language</li><li>The National Native American Honor Society was founded by acclaimed geneticist Dr. Frank C. Dukepoo the first Hopi to earn a Ph.D.</li><li>Louis Sockalexis Penobscot became the first Native American in the National Baseball League in 1897 as an outfielder with the Cleveland Spiders</li><li>Jock Soto Navajo/Puerto Rican the youngest-ever man to be the principal dancer with the New York City Ballet</li><li>The Seminole Tribe of Florida was the first Nation to own and operate an airplane manufacturing company</li><li>Warrior's Circle of Honor the National Native American Veterans Memorial in Washington DC on the grounds of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian</li><li>The Iolani Palace constructed 1879-1882 the home of the Hawaiian royal family in Honolulu</li><li>Loriene Roy Anishinaabe White Earth Nation professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information former president of the American Library Association</li><li>Ben Nighthorse Campbell Northern Cheyenne U.S. representative and U.S. senator from Colorado</li><li>Hanay Geiogamah Kiowa /Delaware founded the American Indian Theatre Ensemble</li><li>Gerald Vizenor White Earth Nation writer literary critic and journalist for the Minneapolis Tribune</li><li>Ely S. Parker (Hasanoanda later Donehogawa) Tonawanda Seneca lieutenant colonel in the Union Army serving as General Ulysses S. Grant’s military secretary</li><li>Fritz Scholder Luiseno painter inducted into the California Hall of Fame</li><li>The Native American Women Warriors the first all Native American female color guard</li><li>Lori Arviso Alvord the first Navajo woman to become a board-certified surgeon</li><li>Kay Kaibah C. Bennett Navajo teacher author and the first woman to run for the presidency of the Navajo Nation</li><li>Sandra Sunrising Osawa Makah Indian Nation the first Native American to have a series on commercial television</li><li>The Choctaw people’s 1847 donation to aid the Irish people suffering from the great famine</li><li>Otakuye Conroy-Ben Oglala Lakota