Indigenous Firsts: A History of Native American Achievements and Events

Suzanne
Van Cooten, Ph.D., Chickasaw Nation, the first Native female
meteorologist in the country

Caleb
Cheeshahteaumuck, Wampanoag from Martha's Vineyard, graduate of
Harvard College in 1665

Debra
Haaland, the Pueblo of Laguna, U.S. Congresswoman and Secretary of
the Interior

Sam
Campos, the Native Hawaiian who developed the Hawaiian superhero
Pineapple Man

Thomas
L. Sloan, Omaha, was the first Native American to argue a case
before the U.S. Supreme Court

William
R. Pogue, Choctaw, astronaut

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

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

The
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
Spiders

Jock
Soto, Navajo/Puerto Rican, the youngest-ever man to be the principal
dancer with the New York City Ballet

The
Seminole Tribe of Florida was the first Nation to own and operate an
airplane manufacturing company

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

The
Iolani Palace, constructed 1879-1882, the home of the Hawaiian
royal family in Honolulu

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

Ben
Nighthorse Campbell, Northern Cheyenne, U.S. representative and U.S.
senator from Colorado

Hanay
Geiogamah, Kiowa /Delaware, founded the American Indian Theatre
Ensemble

Gerald
Vizenor, White Earth Nation, writer, literary critic, and journalist
for the Minneapolis Tribune

Ely
S. Parker (Hasanoanda, later Donehogawa), Tonawanda Seneca,
lieutenant colonel in the Union Army, serving as General Ulysses S.
Grant's military secretary

Fritz
Scholder, Luiseno, painter inducted into the California Hall of Fame

The
Native American Women Warriors, the first all Native American female
color guard

Lori
Arviso Alvord, the first Navajo woman to become a board-certified
surgeon

Kay
"Kaibah" C. Bennett, Navajo, teacher, author, and the first
woman to run for the presidency of the Navajo Nation

Sandra
Sunrising Osawa, Makah Indian Nation, the first Native American to
have a series on commercial television

The
Choctaw people's 1847 donation to aid the Irish people suffering
from the great famine

Otakuye
Conroy-Ben, Oglala Lakota, first to earn an environmental
engineering Ph.D. at the University of Arizona

Diane
J. Willis, Kiowa, former President of the Society of Pediatric
Psychology and founding editor of the Journal
of Pediatric Psychology

Shelly
Niro, Mohawk, winner of Canada's top photography prize, the
Scotiabank Photography Award

Loren
Leman, Alutiiq/Russian-Polish, was the first Alaska Native elected
lieutenant governor

Kim
TallBear, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, the first recipient of the Canada
Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Environment

Carissa
Moore, Native Hawaiian, won the Gold Medal in Surfing at the 2020
Tokyo Olympics

Will
Rogers, Cherokee, actor, performer, humorist was named the first
honorary mayor of Beverly Hills