Protector’s Clearing House -Tech Edition
Tools for culture and resource protectors- by Save Elati
The lie that Indigenous people can’t use modern technology if we protest the religious and cultural bigotry of those who misuse the sacred objects of the religious traditions of any of the MANY separate Indigenous American cultures hinges on the bigoted myth that Indigenous Americans played no part in the development of modern technology, which is patently untrue.
Not only was the first female engineer at Lockheed and NASA(1) a citizen of The Cherokee Nation, a Native American Tribe, but she -Mary Golda Ross- was a pioneer and founding member of the renowned and highly secretive Skunk Works project at Lockheed Corporation, the top-secret team that planned the early years of space exploration(2). She wasn’t just a Rocket Scientist she was one of the very first Rocket Scientists in human history and one of several Natives included in the following quote used to promote the US Mint’s 2019 gold $1 dollar coin celebrating the Natives of NASA- “American Indians have been on the modern frontier of spaceflight since the beginning of NASA,”(3)
Not only was the 1st female engineer at Lockheed & NASA a citizen of The Cherokee Nation but she was a pioneer & founding member of the renowned Skunk Works project at Lockheed, the top-secret team that planned the early years of space exploration. And not just any Rocket Scientist but 1 of the 1st in human history and 1 of several Natives included in the image on the US Mint’s coin celebrating the Natives of NASA.
Like Jerry Chris Elliott High Eagle, one of the first Native Americans who worked at NASA. He’s best known as the lead retrofire officer during Apollo 13, where his actions saved the lives of the 3 astronauts & earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom (5) but, though less famous, his pioneering work in telecommunications plays a bigger role in modern tech than his leadership role in the moon landing or lifesaving feats of engineering that averted a deadly tragedy on the Apollo 13 mission (8).
Then there’s Dr. Fred Begay/Young of the Los Alamos National Laboratory & part of a NASA-funded space physics research team on the origin of high energy gamma rays and solar neutrons in the 1960’s & 70’s whose research on lasers makes SO much tech possible (6).
And speaking of Navajo innovation, if you have ever wondered why computer circuits resemble Navajo weaving patterns then you will not be surprised to learn that this is not a coincidence but is in fact by intentional Navajo design. As one scholar put it upon discovering the connection “ I had no idea that indigenous people in the U.S. had played such an important role in the early history of computing devices. As an ethnic studies scholar I had some knowledge about Native American history, but I had never heard or imagined that such a thing could have existed. It flew in the face of all my knowledge about Silicon Valley and racial minorities.”(4)
Native Americans have contributed to every facet of modern technology since the very beginning of the industries involved; as IBM said first at trade shows and conferences in the 1970’s and (famously) in a national ad campaign in the early 1980’s, computers are Native American Craft. From the satellites that carry content to your screens from around the world to the code and components that make it possible, Indigenous innovation has played a major roll. It’s our technology as much ours as it is anyone else’s so we’ll keep using it while NOT disrespecting the sacred objects of your cultures and religions- the least you can do is show the same level of integrity and social skills.
Further reading and receipts
(1) https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/mary-ross-a-hidden-figure
(2) https://www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/mary-golda-ross-she-reached-stars
(3) http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-062117a-us-mint-2019-american-indians-space-dollar.html
(4) https://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/indigenous-circuits/
(5) https://transportationhistory.org/2018/11/07/national-native-american-heritage-month-jerry-c-elliott-aerospace-engineer/
(6) https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/nova/episodes-season-6/1000209823/
(7) https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/g29460020/indigenous-scientists/?slide=5
(8) https://books.google.com/books?id=YnjkepjCOCYC&q=Jerry+Elliott+High+Eagle&pg=PA100#v=snippet&q=Jerry%20Elliott%20High%20Eagle&f=false
