Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
In 1943, James Joseph “Jim” Leftwich became the youngest known enlistee in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). Leftwich, a member of the Chickasaw Nation (a federally recognized tribe), was only 14 at the time. In a 1968 interview with Baltimore Sun reporter Alan Z. Forman, Leftwich addressed how -- despite being younger than the legal... Continue Reading →
Shirley Reilly, who is of Iñupiat descent, has compiled a noteworthy record as a world-class wheelchair racer. (The Iñupiat are a group of Alaska Natives; their wide-ranging traditional territory extends from Norton Sound, an inlet of the Bering Sea, to the United States’ border with Canada.) Shirley Reilly was born in Anchorage on May 29,... Continue Reading →
Robbie Hood, a member of the Cherokee Nation, has made notable flight-oriented contributions as an atmospheric scientist. She is a direct descendant of John Ross (1790-1866), whose tenure as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828 to 1866 was the longest of anyone serving in that role. Ross achieved lasting prominence for his pivotal... Continue Reading →
Edward Olney was born on July 26, 1799, in the town of Union in Maine’s mid-coast region. He was a member of the Penobscot Tribe, which is now formally called the Penobscot Nation. Olney first enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1843. Olney eventually left this military branch but rejoined it in 1863 in the... Continue Reading →
Charles Robinson, who had a longtime career with life-saving stations in his home state of Michigan, was born on May 5, 1874, in the city of Grand Haven on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan and in the west-central section of the Wolverine State’s Lower Peninsula. Robinson was partly of Odawa ancestry. The Odawa --... Continue Reading →
During World War II, Mildred Cleghorn Womack became one of six Native American women from Oklahoma to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Women’s Reserve. This unit, which was best known as the SPARS (the acronym for “Semper Paratus – Always Ready”), was established in 1942 as the women’s branch of the USCG Reserve.... Continue Reading →
David Moses Bridges was a member of the federally recognized Passamaquoddy Tribe on the Passamaquoddy Pleasant Point Reservation in the eastern part of Maine. The Passamaquoddy people constitute one of the Eastern Algonquian nations that form the Wabanaki Confederacy, which encompasses various tribes within both the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Bridges was born... Continue Reading →
Harold Tantaquidgeon was born on June 18. 1904, in the Mohegan Indian Reservation in southeastern Connecticut’s village of Uncasville. He was the fourth of the seven children of John and Harriet Tantaquidgeon. Harold was a direct descendant of Uncas, a 17th century sachem (chief) of the Mohegans and the person for whom Uncasville was named.... Continue Reading →
Francis J. Mee, whose service in the U.S. Navy spanned more than three decades, was born on August 11, 1899, on the White Earth Indian Reservation in northwest Minnesota. This reservation is home to the federally recognized White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (also known as the White Earth Nation). Mee’s mother was... Continue Reading →
Aerospace engineer Powtawche N. Valerino, who has been extensively involved in various space exploration efforts, is an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (one of three federally recognized tribes of the Choctaw people). She was born to a Mississippi Choctaw mother and an African American father. Valerino has emphasized the extent... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 