Indigenous Firsts : A History of Native American Achievements and Events

A celebration of achievement, accomplishments, and courage!

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 people, events and places are presented in Indigenous Firsts: A History of Native American Achievements and Events, including …

Suzanne Van Cooten, Ph.D., Chickasaw Nation, the first Native female meteorologist in the countryCaleb Cheeshahteaumuck, Wampanoag from Martha's Vineyard, graduate of Harvard College in 1665Debra Haaland, the Pueblo of Laguna, U.S. Congresswoman and Secretary of the InteriorSam Campos, the Native Hawaiian who developed the Hawaiian superhero Pineapple ManThomas L. Sloan, Omaha, was the first Native American to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme CourtWilliam R. Pogue, Choctaw, astronautJohnston 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 1955The 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 languageThe National Native American Honor Society was founded by acclaimed geneticist Dr. Frank C. Dukepoo , the first Hopi to earn a Ph.D.Louis Sockalexis, Penobscot, became the first Native American in the National Baseball League in 1897 as an outfielder with the Cleveland SpidersJock Soto, Navajo/Puerto Rican, the youngest-ever man to be the principal dancer with the New York City BalletThe Seminole Tribe of Florida was the first Nation to own and operate an airplane manufacturing companyWarrior'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 IndianThe Iolani Palace, constructed 1879-1882, the home of the Hawaiian royal family in HonoluluLoriene Roy, Anishinaabe, White Earth Nation, professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information, former president of the American Library AssociationBen Nighthorse Campbell, Northern Cheyenne, U.S. representative and U.S. senator from ColoradoHanay Geiogamah, Kiowa /Delaware, founded the American Indian Theatre EnsembleGerald Vizenor, White Earth Nation, writer, literary critic, and journalist for the Minneapolis TribuneEly S. Parker (Hasanoanda, later Donehogawa), Tonawanda Seneca, lieutenant colonel in the Union Army, serving as General Ulysses S. Grant’s military secretaryFritz Scholder, Luiseno, painter inducted into the California Hall of FameThe Native American Women Warriors, the first all Native American female color guardLori Arviso Alvord, the first Navajo woman to become a board-certified surgeonKay "Kaibah" C. Bennett, Navajo, teacher, author, and the first woman to run for the presidency of the Navajo NationSandra Sunrising Osawa, Makah Indian Nation, the first Native American to have a series on commercial televisionThe Choctaw people’s 1847 donation to aid the Irish people suffering from the great famineOtakuye Conroy-Ben, Oglala Lakota, first