Mary Riddle

{{Infobox person

| name = Mary Riddle

| image = MarryRiddle.png

| alt =

| caption = Mary Riddle posing with her plane.

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1902|04|22}}

| birth_place =Bruceport, Washington

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1981|10|25|1902|04|22}}

| death_place =Portland, Oregon

| nationality = Quinault, American

| other_names = Kus-de-cha

| occupation =

| years_active =

| known_for = Second Native American woman airplane pilot

| notable_works =

}}

Mary Riddle, also known as Kus-de-cha or Kingfisher,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6448514//|title=To Dare Death Here|date=20 May 1937|work=The Bismarck Tribune|access-date=31 August 2016|via=Newspapers.com}} (April 22, 1902 – October 25, 1981) was the second Native American woman to earn a pilot's license.{{Cite web|url=http://www.oneofmanyfeathers.com/mary_riddle_first_native_american_woman_aviator.html|title=Mary Riddle, First Native American Woman Aviator|website=One of Many Feathers|access-date=31 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202001351/http://www.oneofmanyfeathers.com/mary_riddle_first_native_american_woman_aviator.html|archive-date=2 February 2017|url-status=dead}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6448726//|title=Future Beauty Queen: Wins French Crown: To-morrow's Citizen|date=10 June 1930|work=The Ottawa Journal|access-date=31 August 2016|via=Newspapers.com}} Bessie Coleman was the first to earn a license.{{cite web |url=https://indianpueblo.org/indigenous-connections-collections-2/ |title=INDIGENOUS CONNECTIONS AND COLLECTIONS LIBRARY BLOG – BESSIE COLEMAN AEROSPACE LEGACY|website=Indian Pueblo Cultural Center|access-date=February 2, 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/bessie-coleman|title=Bessie Coleman (1892-1926)|last=Alexander|first=Kerri Lee|year=2022|website=National Women's History Museum|access-date=February 25, 2024}} Soon after earning her pilot's license she also earned her commercial license.{{Cite web|url=http://www.oneofmanyfeathers.com/mary_riddle_first_native_american_woman_aviator.html|title=Mary Riddle, First Native American Woman Aviator|website=www.oneofmanyfeathers.com|access-date=2017-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202001351/http://www.oneofmanyfeathers.com/mary_riddle_first_native_american_woman_aviator.html|archive-date=2017-02-02|url-status=dead}}

Early life

Riddle was a member of the Clatsop Tribe in Oregon and the Quinault Indian Nation in Washington.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6448582//|title=Indian Girl is Full-Fledged Flyer|date=11 July 1930|work=Rock Valley Bee|access-date=31 August 2016|via=Newspapers.com}} She was born on April 22, 1902 in Bruceport, Washington to parents Albert "Doc" Riddell and Elizabeth Salikike.{{cite journal |last1=de Danaan |first1=Llyn |title=Filling the Sky With Thunderbirds |journal=Montana The Magazine of Western History |date=Summer 2019 |volume=69 |issue=2 |page=53 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45200802 |access-date=3 December 2023}} Elizabeth Salikike's family name was also spelled as Salikie and Silackie in various sources.{{cite web |title=Joseph George |url=https://chinookstory.org/chinook/people-joseph-george/ |website=Chinook Story |access-date=3 December 2023}}

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.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26617773/stunt_flier_quits_thrills_to_serve_us/|title=Stunt Flier Quits Thrills To Serve US|date=25 May 1943|work=Jefferson City Post-Tribune|access-date=29 December 2018|via=Newspapers.com}} Anthropologist Llyn de Danaan states that the word 'kus-de-cha' does not appear in the Chinook, Clatsop, or Lower Chehalis languages.{{cite journal |last1=de Danaan |first1=Llyn |title=Filling the Sky With Thunderbirds |journal=Montana The Magazine of Western History |date=2019 |volume=69 |issue=2 |page=92 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45200802 |access-date=3 December 2023}} However, 'kuśdecá' is listed as the Dakota word for kingfisher in the book An English and Dakota Vocabulary.{{cite book |last1=Riggs |first1=Mary Ann Clark |title=An English and Dakota Vocabulary |date=1852 |publisher=R. Craighead |location=New York |page=60 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/05041124/}}

Riddle had two brothers, Thomas and Valentine. After their mother's death in 1905, Riddle and her brothers were placed in the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon. In 1911, Riddle was transferred to the Sisters of the Valley Academy in Beaverton, Oregon. Riddle's father died in 1912.

Riddle's interest in aviation began when she first saw an airplane while on a trip home from the Sisters of the Valley Academy.{{cite news |last1=Rummel |first1=Dick |title=Indian Girl Has Yearn For Sky, Becomes Pilot |publisher=Oregon Daily Journal |date=5 June 1930}} When Riddle was seventeen, she saw a woman fatally crash an airplane.{{Cite web|url=https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/native-american-women-aviation-pioneers|title=Native American Women Aviation Pioneers|last=Bulman|first=Morgan|date=22 November 2017|website=Smithsonian Air and Space Museum|access-date=29 December 2018}} The incident made her determined to prove women could fly well.

Aviation career

= Pilot =

Riddle saved money for two years{{Cite news|title=Indian Girl Has Yearn For Sky; Becomes Pilot|last=Rummel|first=Dick|date=5 June 1930|work=The Oregon Daily Journal}} to attend the Rankin Flying School in Portland, run by noted aviator Tex Rankin.{{Cite journal|last=Speirs|first=Jim|date=28 May 2010|title=Tex Rankin's Flying School, and the Golden Age of Women aviators|url=http://www.stjohnsreview.com/sourcefiles/2010/May%2028%202010.pdf|journal=St. Johns Review|volume=107|issue=11|page=1|access-date=31 August 2016}} 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.{{Cite news|title=If The Hereafter Has Rules, Leah Hing's Breaking Them|last=Boule|first=Margie|date=29 July 2001|work=The Oregonian}} She flew solo for the first time on May 10, 1930. "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." She featured in an airshow at the 1930 Portland Rose Festival, riding up to her plane on horseback and in "full tribal costume."{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26617800/crowds_acclaim_floral_parade/|title=Crowds Acclaim Floral Parade|date=14 June 1930|work=The Klamath News|access-date=30 December 2018|via=Newspapers.com}} Riddle was one of three female pilots in the show: the others were Dorothy Hester and Edith Foltz.{{Cite news|title=Aviator Thrills Crowd|date=14 June 1930|work=The Oregonian|page=12}} 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."{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26618082/indian_girl_pilot_to_fly_east/|title=Indian Girl Pilot To Fly East|date=3 August 1930|work=Daily News|access-date=30 December 2018|page=3|via=Newspapers.com}} Riddle earned a limited commercial pilot's license in 1933.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26617642/indian_girl_wins_flyers_license/|title=Indian Girl Wins Flyers License|date=19 September 1933|work=The Los Angeles Times|access-date=29 December 2018|page=6|via=Newspapers.com}} In June 1934, she was featured on the 99's magazine, The 99er.{{Cite journal|last=French|first=Jack|date=2011|title=Lady Aviators: In History and Popular Fiction from the 1700s to World War II|url=http://volcanoseven.com/YouFlyGirl/JackFrench.html|journal=Winged Victory|access-date=31 August 2016}} An all-around athlete, she enjoyed swimming, riding, "golf, tennis, and ice skating."{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2318280/mary_riddle_kusdecha/|title=A.W. Lucas Co. Sponsoring Spectacular Parachute Jump|date=21 May 1937|work=The Bismarck Tribune|access-date=30 December 2018|page=5|via=Newspapers.com}}

= Parachutist =

Riddle later went to the Spartan School in Tulsa to learn parachute jumping.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6448787//|title=A. W. Lucas Co. Sponsoring Spectacular Parachute Jump by Princess Kus-de-cha|date=21 May 1937|work=The Bismarck Tribune|access-date=31 August 2016|via=Newspapers.com}} Though the school was all-male at the time, Riddle convinced them to admit her and graduated with honors. By 1937 she was performing as a parachutist{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6448868//|title=A look back...|date=28 April 1977|work=The Daily News|access-date=31 August 2016|via=newspapers.com}} while touring the United States on "The Voice of Washington," advertised as the largest tri-motored plane in the world,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13287719/st_cloud_times/|title=Air Circus Here|date=5 June 1937|work=St. Cloud Times|access-date=4 November 2018|via=Newspapers.com}} on which she also served as chief stewardess. Press described her as quiet and charming. Riddle did forty parachute jumps. In 1937, she almost died when her parachute, which had not opened correctly, became tangled with her legs. The next year, a back injury caused her to quit parachuting.

= Aircraft Inspector =

World War II restrictions on civilian aircraft forced Riddle to give up flying. 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." She was recruited by the government to inspect civilian aircraft and work as an aircraft maintenance advisor. Riddle recalled, "I was a sort of guinea pig, really, on account of being the only woman, but I got along fine."{{Cite news|title=Pilot Called First Licensed Indian Woman|last=Rothert|first=Yvonne|date=6 February 1975|work=The Oregonian}}