AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2021 - 42

BRIEFING
HISTORY /
Native American Heritage Month
Honoring Native American pilots and astronauts
BY DENNIS K. JOHNSON
IN 1990, PR ES I DENT George H.W. Bush approved the first
Congressional resolution proclaiming November as " National
American Indian Heritage Month " to celebrate the diverse
cultures and traditions of Native Americans. Since then, proclamations
under various names, such as " National American
Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month, " have been issued
annually. For pilots, it's a month to explore the history of pioneering
Native American pilots and two astronauts who carried
their heritage into space.
Bessie Coleman
Bessie Coleman was the first
person of Native American
descent to earn a pilot certificate.
Her father's grandparents had
been members of the Cherokee
tribe. Born in Texas on January
26, 1892, Coleman was working
as a manicurist in Chicago
during World War I when she
became interested in flying.
Since no American flight school
would accept her, because she
was an African American and a
woman, she traveled to France where she earned her license in
1921. Coleman began her career as a stunt flyer at an airshow at
Curtiss Field on Long Island, New York, the next year. The newspapers
named her " Queen Bess, " " Brave Bessie, " and " the world's
greatest woman flier. " Primarily, she flew Curtiss JN-4 Jenny
biplanes and other army surplus aircraft. For the next three and
a half years she flew the airshow circuit while planning to open
her own flight school.
On April 30, 1926, Coleman was in Jacksonville, Florida,
flying as a passenger in a Curtiss Jenny she'd bought, when it
went into an uncontrollable spin and she was thrown from the
cockpit. It was thought that a loose wrench left in the cockpit
jammed the controls. She died from the fall, age 34, and was
buried near Chicago.
Mary Riddle
The first woman enrolled in a Native American tribe to earn a
pilot certificate was Mary Riddle, a member of the Quinault
and Clatsop tribes in Washington. Tribal enrollment certifies a
proven ancestry or residency with a particular tribe. Many people
42
AOPA PILOT / November 2021
may be descended from Native
Americans, at least partially, but
never claim membership.
Born in 1902, Riddle was
given the tribal name " Kus-decha, "
which means Kingfisher, a
brightly colored bird. She earned
her pilot certificate in 1930 in
Portland, Oregon, and participated
in an airshow held during
the 1930 Portland Rose Festival,
riding to her airplane on horseback
in " full tribal costume. " She
was featured on the cover of the
June 1934 issue of The 99er, the magazine of the International
Organization of Women Pilots, now known as The Ninety-Nines
Inc. Although a pilot, she was best known as a parachutist. By 1937,
she was touring the United States and made more than 40 parachute
jumps at airshows before an injury forced her to quit. During
World War II, she was employed as a civilian aircraft inspector
and later worked in a New York City office. She flew occasionally
in her later years and died in 1981 at the age of 79.
William Pogue
William Pogue was born in
1930 in Okemah, Oklahoma, of
Choctaw ancestry. He joined the
U.S. Air Force in 1951 and flew 43
fighter-bomber combat missions
during the Korean War.
Pogue was selected as a
member of the U.S. Air Force
Thunderbirds air demonstration
squadron, taught mathematics at
the U.S. Air Force Academy, and
became a test pilot before joining
NASA as an astronaut for the
Apollo program in 1966. He was a member of the support crews
for Apollo 7, 11, and 14, and might have flown on Apollo 19, if it
had not been cancelled. Pogue flew as pilot of the Skylab 4 mission
in 1973-1974. The mission set a spaceflight duration record of
84 days aboard America's first space station, during which Pogue
made two spacewalks. It was his only flight into space. Pogue died
in 2014 at age 84.
COURTESY NASA
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2021

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