TAHLEQUAH â In 1958, a Cherokee woman from Los Altos, California, appeared on the television game show âWhatâs My Lineâ and stumped panelists who attempted to guess her occupation. They wondered what relation she had to rockets and missiles. Mary Golda Ross became a national icon for Cherokees and women for her work as the first Native American aerospace engineer. Ross was born in 1908 in Park Hill, and is the great-great granddaughter of Principal Chief John Ross. At 16, she was enrolled at Northeastern State Teacherâs College in Tahlequah. She graduated in 1928 with a mathematics degree and later taught math and science for a few years, according a National Museum of the American Indian Newservice article.