Mary Riddle | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | October 25, 1981 | (aged 79)
Nationality | Quinault, American |
Other names | Kus-de-cha |
Known for | Second Native American woman airplane pilot |
Mary Riddle, also known as Kus-de-cha or Kingfisher, [1] (April 22, 1902 – October 25, 1981) was the second Native American woman to earn a pilot's license [2] [3] Bessie Coleman was the first to earn a license. [4] [5] Soon after earning her pilot's license she also earned her commercial license. [6]
Riddle was a member of the Clatsop Tribe in Oregon [2] and the Quinault Indian Nation in Washington. [7] She was born on April 22, 1902 in Bruceport, Washington to parents Albert "Doc" Riddell and Elizabeth Salikike. [8] Elizabeth Salikike's family name was also spelled as Salikie and Silackie in various sources. [9]
Riddle said that her grandmother gave her the name Kus-de-cha, meaning 'kingfisher', after noting that her cries sounded like a kingfisher's call. [10] Anthropologist Llyn de Danaan states that the word 'kus-de-cha' does not appear in the Chinook, Clatsop, or Lower Chehalis languages. [11] However, 'kuśdecá' is listed as the Dakota word for kingfisher in the book An English and Dakota Vocabulary. [12]
Riddle had two brothers, Thomas and Valentine. [8] After their mother's death in 1905, Riddle and her brothers were placed in the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon. [8] In 1911, Riddle was transferred to the Sisters of the Valley Academy in Beaverton, Oregon. Riddle's father died in 1912. [8]
Riddle's interest in aviation began when she first saw an airplane while on a trip home from the Sisters of the Valley Academy. [13] When Riddle was seventeen, she saw a woman fatally crash an airplane. [14] The incident made her determined to prove women could fly well. [14]
Riddle saved money for two years [15] to attend the Rankin Flying School in Portland, run by noted aviator Tex Rankin. [16] Rankin, who also taught Chinese-American pilot Leah Hing, was interested in creating "a 'rainbow', all-female stunt team," but Riddle declined to participate, and the idea fizzled out. [17] She flew solo for the first time on May 10, 1930. [15] "I wasn't scared," said Riddle one month later. "On that first trip alone I just missed the weight of the instructor in the plane." [15] She featured in an airshow at the 1930 Portland Rose Festival, riding up to her plane on horseback and in "full tribal costume". [18] Riddle was one of three female pilots in the show: the others were Dorothy Hester and Edith Foltz. [19] In August of that year, she made plans to fly to Washington, D.C., with "beaded gifts from Indian tribes of the Northwest", to be delivered to for "President Hoover and others". [20] Riddle earned a limited commercial pilot's license in 1933. [21] In June 1934, she was featured on the 99's magazine, The 99er. [22] An all-around athlete, she enjoyed swimming, riding, "golf, tennis, and ice skating." [23]
Riddle later went to the Spartan School in Tulsa to learn parachute jumping. [24] Though the school was all-male at the time, Riddle convinced them to admit her and graduated with honors. [24] By 1937 she was performing as a parachutist [25] while touring the United States on The Voice of Washington, advertised as the largest tri-motored plane in the world, [26] on which she also served as chief stewardess. [1] Press described her as quiet and charming. [23] Riddle did forty parachute jumps. [16] In 1937, she almost died when her parachute, which had not opened correctly, became tangled with her legs. [26] The next year, a back injury caused her to quit parachuting. [10]
World War II restrictions on civilian aircraft forced Riddle to give up flying. [10] She began working with aluminum sheet metal as part of the U.S. Air Force's Civil Service, reasoning, "I just had to be near airplanes- even if I could not fly them." [10] She was recruited by the government to inspect civilian aircraft and work as an aircraft maintenance advisor. [16] Riddle recalled, "I was a sort of guinea pig, really, on account of being the only woman, but I got along fine." [27]
After the war, Riddle became a receptionist at the Gibbs and Hill firm in New York City, but continued to fly on occasion and to visit the Northwest. [27]