The likeness of Cherokee Nation citizen and Native American aerospace engineer Mary Golda Ross will forever be memorialized as a statue at the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City.
Engineer Mary Golda Ross made lasting contributions to the United States aerospace industry while opening doors for women and Native students to pursue S.T.E.M. education and careers.
Traci Sorell
TAHLEQUAH â For Womenâs History Month, Cherokee author Traci Sorell published her fourth picture book titled âClassified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer,â which came out March 2.
The book follows the journey of Cherokee Nation citizen Mary Golda Ross from her birth in 1908 in Park Hill to her education and love for math and science to her career as she made history as the first Native American aerospace engineer.Â
âIt is a nonfiction picture book biography and it tells the story of Mary Ross, a Cherokee Nation citizen and her contributions in engineering, specifically aerospace engineering,â Sorell said. âMary was certainly encouraged in her love of math.â
TAHLEQUAH â In 1958, a Cherokee woman from Los Altos, California, appeared on the television game show âWhatâs My Lineâ and stumped panelists who attempted to guess her occupation. They wondered what relation she had to rockets and missiles.
Mary Golda Ross became a national icon for Cherokees and women for her work as the first Native American aerospace engineer.
Ross was born in 1908 in Park Hill, and is the great-great granddaughter of Principal Chief John Ross. At 16, she was enrolled at Northeastern State Teacherâs College in Tahlequah. She graduated in 1928 with a mathematics degree and later taught math and science for a few years, according a National Museum of the American Indian Newservice article.
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