Most of the time, indigenous communities are only presented to people through the social sciences, that is, if an institution that teaches these things does not overlook people of color.
Because of this, the numerous contributions of natives are often forgotten and go uncredited, despite native innovation cultivating a deeper understanding of how tools can be used in our surroundings.
According to the National Museum of the American Indian, the Native American knowledge has created a global impact through their innovations and technologies, yet people know so little about them.
This problem shows just how important it is that the indigenous legacies in science and technology are shared in the classrooms, and are learned no matter how old a person is.
With this sentiment, commemorate these four indigenous Americans and their notable works in STEM in celebration of the National Native American Heritage Month.
1. Mary Golda Ross, Aerospace Engineer
Mary Gold Ross, born in the Cherokee Nation, was an engineer that worked at NASA to design planes and spacecrafts that influenced how they are built today.
Inverse writes that Ross developed some of the first concepts of the flyby missions that go beyond Venus and Mars, and the preliminary concepts for interplanetary space travels.
She was the only woman in the team at NASA that worked to complete equations for the operational requirements that led to the success of the Apollo missions program.
While pursuing a career in the male-dominated field, Ross upheld her Cherokee values as she kept honoring her indigenous identity and tribal traditions throughout her career.
During her life, she established scholarship programs for young women who wanted to pursue STEM fields, where Native American women were only 0.1% of scientists and engineers.
2. Aaron Yazzie, Mechanical Engineer
Born to the Dine Navajo Nation, Aaron Yazzie is an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA, where he designs mechanical systems used in the collection and analysis of planetary samples.
During his time at NASA, he worked with a team of scientists in Mars missions as a surface operations downlink chair for the Curiosity Rover after its landing in 2012.
Transportation History writes that a large part of Yazzie's contribution to the space sciences is his development of mechanical systems for the analysis of various samples from Mars.
Over the years, he has been instrumental not only in the discovery of new information about Mars, but also in the discovery of new Native American talents for careers at NASA.
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3. Thomas David Petite, Inventor
Thomas David Petite is an indienous inventor from the Fond du Lac Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa nation, who was responsible for the development of smart grids and wireless mesh technology.
He was the founder of the Smart IP Company, and the founder of the Native American Intellectual Property Enterprise Council that protects and patents Native Americans' intellectual properties.
According to US Inventor, Petite holds above 100 patents relating to wireless mesh technology, which allowed breakthroughs and innovations for wireless networking technologies people use today.
He had been at the forefront of developing the Internet of Things, the network of objects that are embedded with sensors and softwares needed to connect and let data flow on the internet.
4. Susan La Flesche Picotte, Physician
Susan La Flesche Picotte of the Omaha Nation was named the first Native American woman to pursue and earn a medical degree, pioneering the field of medicine and health care on reservations.
She was a trailblazer for the Omaha Tribe, which lived on the Omaha Reservation in Nebraska where she did most of her work after studying medicine.
Picotte overcame racism and gender inequality in order to improve the living conditions of the people in the reservation camp she grew up on, when it was getting plagued with numerous health concerns.
According to the Omaha Public Schools, with the help of her community, she was able to raise about $10,000 to open the first hospital in the reservation in 1913.
The opening of this hospital paved the way for more native Americans to get the medical attention denied from them at the time, and for women in the Omaha community to pursue a career in medicine.
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