This Day in History: 2017-09-29
September 21, 2004 – “National Museum of the American Indian Opens”“The National Museum of the American Indian opened in Washington, D.C. It contains one of the world’s largest and most diverse collections of Native American artificats and history. The museum actually has three facilities – one in D.C., another in New York City and a third in Suitland, Maryland. The foundations for the present collection were first established at the Museum of the American Indian in New York City, which has been open since 1916.”
November 23, 2002 - "First Native American Travels to Space"
John Herrington, a registered member of the Chickasaw Nation, was the first Native American to travel into space as the mission specialist for STS-113, the 16th mission to the International Space Station. During his mission, Herrington performed three spacewalks that totaled 19 hours and 55 minutes. The length of his mission was 13 days, 18 hours and 47 minutes. Herrington was inducted to the Chickasaw Hall of Fame the same year he went into space. William Pogue, a crewman aboard Skylab 4 in 1973-1974, had Choctaw ancestry, but was not an enrolled member of the Choctaw.