There is no end to the contributions women have made over the centuries and often without the recognition and praise they deserve.  We honor them this month, the named and the unnamed.

Mary Golda Ross   (1908 – 2004)  From the Skunk Works to the stars: that was the trajectory of the remarkable and still partly secret career of Mary Golda Ross (Cherokee), the first Native aerospace engineer who was a member of the top-secret team planning the early years of space exploration. She is now being honored on a special $1 U.S. coin.

A Cherokee Education

Born in 1908, Mary Golda Ross grew up in Park Hill, Okla. Her great-great grandfather was Cherokee Chief John Ross, who led the Cherokee Nation during the traumatic and turbulent Indian Removal era of the 1830s that resulted in the forced relocation of thousands of Cherokee people to west of the Mississippi River in present-day Oklahoma.

Ross attributed her successes to the rich heritage of her Cherokee people and the importance of tribal emphasis on education. “I was brought up in the Cherokee tradition of equal education for boys and girls,” she said. “It did not bother me to be the only girl in the math class.” Her home town was the original site of the famed Cherokee Female Seminary, the first women’s institution of higher education west of the Mississippi. Its cornerstone was placed by Chief Ross in 1847, and it opened in 1851. The curriculum emphasized science, with courses in botany, chemistry and physics.

In 1909, the seminary became part of Oklahoma’s state educational system and was renamed the Northeastern State Teacher’s College. Mary Ross enrolled here at the age of 16 and graduated with a degree in mathematics. During the Great Depression, she taught science and math in rural Oklahoma. She put her skills to work on behalf of other Native people, first as a statistician for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and then as an advisor to girls at the Santa Fe Indian Boarding School in New Mexico. (The school later became the Institute of American Indian Arts.)

A Rocket Scientist

It’s a tribute to both Ross’s ability and the quality of her eduction that she was able to launch successfully into the next stage of her career. Pursuing a passion for astronomy, she took a master’s degree at the Colorado State College of Education (now Northern Colorado University).

After earning her degree, Ross joined Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in 1942, helping design the P-38 fighter airplane. Six years later, she was an integral part of what was later called the “space race.” As one of 40 engineers in Lockheed’s Advanced Development Programs, what became known as the Skunk Works, the company’s top-secret think tank, she was the only woman on the team aside from the secretary. She was also the only American Indian.

Much of her research and writing at the Skunk Works remains classified, even today. “It is closed even to me,” laughs Willis Jenkins, an engineer in NASA’s Heliophysics Division, “even though I am an official at NASA.” Jenkins was assigned to research Ross’s career, as liaison to the U.S. Mint’s commemorative coin project. Jenkins notes, “I sought to place myself in her shoes by performing calculations to see how I would get a rocket in space. I marveled at the work that had been done to get a rocket outside the Earth’s atmosphere, which is a magnificent accomplishment.

“I have an advantage of a calculator these days versus the slide rule I used in the 1960s, similar to what Mary used working on preliminary design concepts for interplanetary space travel, manned and unmanned earth-orbiting flights, and the earliest studies of orbiting satellites for both defense and civilian purposes.”

As the American missile program matured, Ross found herself immersed in researching and evaluating feasibility and performance of ballistic missiles and other defense systems. She also studied the distribution of pressure caused by ocean waves and how it affected submarinelaunched vehicles. Space flight made use of missile advances originally developed for military purposes, like the Agena rocket. Ross helped develop operational requirements for the spacecraft, which later became a vital part of the Apollo program. Says Jenkins, “Mary worked on the Agena rocket orbital dynamics, calculating the transfer orbit as the rocket left the Earth’s atmosphere. Today’s engineer would use the computer program, MATLAB, and insert the parameter to determine when the rocket would reach its destination.”

Over the years, Ross helped write NASA’s Planetary Flight Handbook, the agency’s comprehensive guide to space travel. She worked on preliminary concepts for flights to Mars and Venus, laying the groundwork for missions that have not yet come to fruition.

A California newspaper reporter who interviewed Ross in 1961 wrote that she was “possibly the most influential Indian maid since Pocahontas” and noted that she was “making her mark in outer space.” She told the reporter, “I think of myself as applying mathematics in a fascinating field.” Another article at the time noted that Ross, who had yet to witness a rocket launch, thought women would make “wonderful astronauts.” But she insisted, “I’d rather stay down here and analyze the data.”

How to Get to Space

The design for the 2019 American Indian coin features an equation representative of Mary Golda Ross’s contribution to the U.S. space program and her skill in mathematics. Because much of her work remains classified, the U.S. Mint staff worked with Willis Jenkins, a NASA engineer from the agency’s Heliophysics Division, to determine an appropriate equation. The challenge was especially meaningful to Jenkins for two reasons. “Mary Golda Ross worked on designs for rockets and I have managed rockets in my career. Also, she was of Cherokee descent and I believe my mother’s family is as well.”

The equation, which is seen in the clouds on the design, was used to help determine the velocity needed to leave the Earth and travel to a distant planet such as Mars.

Jenkins identified the equation as “an example of a formula that Ms. Ross would have used to calculate interplanetary space travel, determine the departure plane orbit and transfer orbit energy.

V²∞ = V²- 2μ / r

V, is the speed of an orbiting body
V∞, is the orbit velocity when the orbit distance tends to infinity
μ = GM, is the standard gravitational parameter of the primary body, with mass M
r, is the distance of the orbiting body center

“Obviously,” says Jenkins, “there is no simple formula to be had for the complexity of going into space and reaching a planet. Several calculations are needed to reach space and the surrounding planets for which orbital dynamics play a major part in the operation. There are just too many variables.”

The Commemorative Coin

The earth-bound achievements of Mary Ross was the centerpiece in early 2019 of a new coin honoring American Indians in the Space Program. Each year since 2009, the United States Mint has produced and issued a $1 coin that celebrates significant contributions Indian tribes and persons have made to the history and development of the United States. Ross will represent both her own work and that of several other prominent Indians, such as astronaut John Herrington (Chickasaw) and flight controller Jerry C. Elliott High Eagle (Osage/Cherokee). Herrington manned the International Space Station in 2002. Elliott plotted the re-entry of the troubled Apollo 13 mission and received a Prsidential Medal of Freedom for his role in saving the astronauts.

The Ross proposal, like many of the Native American $1 coins, started as a narrative provided by and design concepts developed in consultation with the National Museum of the American Indian. The Native American $1 Coin Act requires consultation with the Committee on Indian Affairs of the Senate, the Congressional Native American Caucus of the House of Representatives, and the National Congress of American Indians. Once the design concepts are defined, the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) discusses them during its public meetings.

Emily Damstra, an American freelance science illustrator living in Guelph, Ont., was selected to create the design for the 2019 coin.

She explains, “I first learned about Mary Golda Ross upon receiving the assignment to design this coin celebrating the contributions of American Indians to the United States space program. Her achievements deeply impressed me, and I was excited for the opportunity to tell her story through numismatic art. From the beginning of my design process, before I had anything else worked out, I knew that my design would include a figure of her.” Damstra’s only regret is that she could not fit in a feather into her design.

A figure representing American Indian astronauts is included, she says, because, “I knew Ross was not the only American Indian who contributed to the space program. Though we don’t see his face, the astronaut in my design is outfitted as John Herrington would have been for extravehicular activity. I liked the idea of including an astronaut in space because such a feat was ultimately made possible by the work of people like Mary Golda Ross.

“I came up with the general design elements pretty quickly,” she admits, “but the details and configuration went through several iterations before being finalized. For example, I originally drew Ross using a Friden calculating machine, but it looked too much like a typewriter so I replaced it with paper, a pencil and a slide rule. Ross undoubtedly employed these tools while working on the Agena rocket program at Lockheed Martin. The small tools may not be obvious at coin size, but their purpose is evident in the large equation inscribed across the Atlas-Agena rocket exhaust behind Ross. I’m very grateful to NASA for providing that equation.”

Inspiring the Future

Although humble, Ross herself likely realized the important legacy of her work. After retiring from Lockheed at age 65, she pursued her interests in engineering by delivering lectures to high school and college groups to encourage young women and Native American youth to train for technical careers.

In 2004, at age 96, she attended the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian building on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Wearing a traditional green calico Cherokee dress she had asked a niece to make especially for the occasion, she marched in the opening procession of 25,000 Native people. Said a friend, “She felt she was a part of history being made, again.” She herself said, “The Museum will tell the true story of the Indian, not just the story of the past, but an ongoing story.” Ross died four years later, a few months before her 100th birthday. She lived long enough to see her work help launch an American Indian astronaut into orbit.

AUTHOR: HERMAN VIOLA

Dr. Herman Viola serves as senior advisor for the Museum’s National Native American Veterans Memorial Project, is curator emeritus at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and is a member of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee.

by Glee Violette

I graduated high school in 1966. Abortion was outlawed then, of course. But even though birth control pills were starting to become available, only married women could get them, and only with written permission from their husbands. Many doctors refused to prescribe them. Taking them was a moral offense that would get you excommunicated from most religions. Many pharmacists would not fill the prescription. And when they did, whispers went around the drug store, and the pharmacist and the clerks would treat you with contempt. It was a big freaking intimidating deal.

If a girl or woman got groped or raped, she usually kept it to herself. She would be blamed, always, for wearing the wrong thing, being in the wrong place, and acting the wrong way. Always.

Even if she was a minor, and the offender was an older relative. Men were praised for being sexual. Women were shamed. Even married women could expect leers and slurs about her condition if she was pregnant. That's why maternity wear was so concealing and prudish then. It was considered disgusting for a very pregnant woman to be out in public. In most jobs women quit immediately when they found out they were pregnant. Or they would be fired. And there would be no unemployment benefits.

Women had to take the oath in the marriage service that she would "love, honor, and Obey". It was even in secular marriages by Justices of the Peace. It was taken for granted. Women had the relationship to her husband that a child had to his mother. Subordinate. Obedient. There were laws, but "slapping around" or spanking a wife who "got out of line", "forgot her place", and "tried to wear the pants in the family", was actually regarded as appropriate by most people. And even when a wife was beaten to the point of needing hospitalization, usually, her husband was merely warned by police to "take it easy on her", and it was the wife who faced interrogation by her clergy, the police, and the hospital about what SHE did to "set him off", and was counseled to change her attitude. She was NEVER to deny a husband his conjugal rights to her body.

Because women could not control pregnancy, even by choosing to abstain, she had no control of her life. The fact that her employment depended on it, meant that no financial institution could take a chance on her being to repay loans. She could not get credit, buy a house or a car, or take out a student loan, unless her husband or her father, somebody legally "responsible" for her, co-signed the loan.

Because she could not control pregnancy, she was denied most jobs in management or training. Companies did not want to invest in temporary employees. They did not want to have to rebuild organizations when key people left.

Colleges denied most applications from female high school graduates. The attitude was that girls were only there to find a husband, and that they would drop out when they married and had babies. (And girls and women who became pregnant out of wedlock were expelled from high school and college immediately). Colleges felt that every time they accepted a female, she was taking the place of a future male breadwinner. It was considered almost immoral in their eyes.

Besides, "everyone knew" that women were not as smart as men, anyway. The silly things had no common sense. They needed to be guided and protected. They were the weaker sex, both physically and mentally. Television and movies made constant fun of them, especially of women who were clever and tried to rise to the level of men, and do their jobs. Those who succeeded were called horrible names, and came to bad ends. Unless, of course, a man came along to put her back in her place and she smiled and went happily back to it. Ah, true love!

Because of all that, her temporary availability, her subordinate status. it was simply unthinkable to see women in positions of authority. Women in the police and the military wore skirts and heels and did not carry weapons, and mostly did secretarial work, or support work as drivers, communication messengers, crossing guards, etc. Women did not appear on media as experts, or host the nightly news. In business, women did not appear in the board room, except as secretaries, serving coffee, passing out papers, and getting touched inappropriately. "Working girls" were fair game.

Look at old video and you do not see any women in orchestras, except as the singer, or on any film crews except as the script girl, or on any newscasts except as the weather girl, in a perky revealing outfit to reflect the weather of the day.

This was the world I grew up in. Where little girls were admonished to pretend to be weak and clumsy and stupid so the boys would feel big and strong. So they would LIKE us. So that someday, one of them would choose us, and marry us.

Our only goal in life was to be a housewife and mother, after a temporary stint as a nurse, teacher, telephone operator, store clerk, waitress or secretary. We were discouraged from "racy" choices like airline stewardess, model, actress or musician, because people would get the "wrong idea" about us. (A girl who became a cocktail waitress or nightclub singer might as well just put a scarlet A on her chest.)

So when Ruth Bader Ginsburg graduated high school in 1951 and was accepted at Cornell University, that was a big deal. When she got accepted at Harvard University after marrying and becoming a mother, that was a HUGE deal. When she graduated TOP of her class at Columbia Law School, that was nothing less than astounding. And THEN, she became a PROFESSOR at Rutgers Law School in 1963 (where she was told she would be paid less because her husband had a good paying job). She was one of only 20 female law professors in the entire country.

She was also a volunteer attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. In 1972, Ginsburg co-founded the Women's Rights Project at the ACLU, and participated in more than 300 gender discrimination cases, and argued six gender discrimination cases before the Supreme Court between 1973 and 1976, winning five of them. She joined the ACLU board of directors and in 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where she served until her appointment to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993.

In the 54 years since I graduated high school, the social role, the opportunities, and the rights of women changed, thanks to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and other pioneers like her, from basically that of a child to that of an adult human being. We have almost gained equality to men in business and so many other fields. We still have a ways to go to be equal in pay. (And of course, women of color still are kept back at a much lower level than white women). We have only a tenuous hold on control of our own bodies. The same men who claim a mask is a violation of their civil rights to govern their own bodies, have no problem claiming the right to decide every aspect of ours.

The primary goal of McConnell and Trump, and the religious organizations that back them, is to overturn Roe v Wade, and LGBTQ rights, and then every advancement we have made in Civil Rights, Women's Rights, and Voting Rights in the Courts. They want to roll back the clock and re-establish white supremacy and religious authority to where they were in my day. In Ruth Bader Ginsburg's day.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg showed us that anything is possible if we are willing to put the will, the time, the effort, and the work into it. This tiny woman overcame every obstacle and achieved something for ALL of us living in this country today. We ALL need to step up now, and carry her torch forward. We stood on giant's shoulders. We must not fail her. We will not fall, but climb higher, to the place she led us to, the place she wanted us to go. 

VOTE.  Get everyone you know to vote.  Everything we ever fought for and won, is on the line.

María Rebecca Latigo de Hernández was born July 29, 1896 in Garza García, outside of Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, to Eduardo Frausto and Franscica (Medrano) Latigo.  She taught elementary school in Monterrey before immigrating to Texas as part of the flood of people leaving Mexico during the Mexican Revolution.

In 1915 she married Pedro Hernandez Barrera in Hebbronville, Texas.  They moved to San Antonio in 1918, where they opened a grocery store and bakery.  Their family would eventually grow to include 10 children.  They began their political activism in 1924 but did not become permanent residents until February 2, 1928. 

On January 10, 1929, they helped found the Orden Caballeros de America (the Order of Knights of America), an organization dedicated to activities for the benefit of Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants.  Under the auspices of the order, Maria Hernandez helped organize the Associacion Protectora de Madres, which provided financial assistance to expectant mothers.  The association operated until 1939 with the help of Dr. A.I. Mena.

Despite the pressures of the tumultuous 1930’s, Maria L. de Hernandez was fearless in her fight for civil rights.  Although Mexican Americans served as a convenient scapegoat during this period, Hernandez stood up and fought back.  In 1932 Hernandez became San Antonio’s first Mexican female radio announcer.  She was the only female speaker at the first meeting of the League of United Latin American Citizens in 1934.  She supported its work of promoting equality for Mexican Americans until 1940 and again in 1947 when it was reorganized.  In 1934 she helped organize La Liga de Defensa Pro-Escalar, an organization working for better facilities and better education for the West Side Mexican community.  When, in 1938, women workers demanded better pay and working conditions in the Pecan-Shellers’ Strike, Hernandez took up their cause.  She was one of the group of women who, in 1939, visited Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas to express goodwill between Mexico and Mexicans in the United States.

Hernandez’ essay “Mexico y Los Cuatro Poders Que Dirigen al Pueblo”, published in 1945, asserted that the domestic sphere was the foundation of society and mothers were the authority figures who molded nations.  Then she organized Club Liberal Pro-Cultura de la Mujer to build upon these ideas.

Through the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and even into the 70’s, Hernendez made hundreds of speeches in support of civil rights for Mexican Americans and African Americans.  She and her husband were invited to a hearing before the United States Commission on Civil Rights in 1968.  Continuing their political activism, they joined the Raza Unida party and toured much of Texas campaigning for gubernatorial candidate Ramsey Muniz and candidate for the State Board of Education Marta Cotera in 1972.

Maria Hernandez died of pneumonia on January 8,1986.  As a tribute to the respect and prestige she had earned through her life’s work she was buried in the plot of the Orden Caballeros de America outside Elmendorf.