Native American Heritage Month Spotlight: Jerry Chris Elliott-High Eagle

Jerry Chris Elliott-High Eagle (Osage and Cherokee) was born in 1943. In 1966, he received a degree in physics with a minor in mathematics as the first indigenous Native American to obtain a degree from the department of physics from the University of Oklahoma.

Elliott, who was hired by NASA in 1966, admits he faced various forms of racism during his time there, especially in the early years. But he never let those hurdles stand in the way of the important work he felt was ultimately his life’s purpose.

While at NASA, Elliott was involved in 11 different Apollo missions, including Apollo 13, where he played a crucial role as the prime Retrofire Officer. He assisted with the rescue plan that helped bring the crew back to Earth safely after the mission was aborted due to problems with its oxygen supply and electrical power. For their successful efforts in returning Apollo 13, Elliott and members of the Mission Control operations team were awarded the highest U.S. civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1970.

Until his retirement in 2007, Elliott played key roles in basically every project NASA launched, including Skylab, America’s first space station; Apollo-Soyuz, the first manned space mission in partnership with the Soviet Union; Space Station Freedom; the Space Shuttle Program; and the International Space Station.

In 1975, Elliott and OU engineering alumnus George Thomas, a Cherokee, founded the National Society of American Indian Engineers to encourage Native American students into the fields of science and engineering. Today, the organization is known as the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. Elliott also wrote the draft for Senate Joint Resolution 209, which authorized President Gerald R. Ford to proclaim the nation’s first “Native American Awareness Week” in 1976.

Elliott’s company, High Eagle Technologies, received a patent for a device to treat cancer and blood-related diseases in 2019. The device works in a similar way to a dialysis machine: the blood is removed from the patient, heated and oxygenized, then returned during the process. Because it gets oxygen directly into the bloodstream without taxing the lungs, Elliott believes it also shows promise in treating COVID.

Learn more about Jerry Chris Elliott-High Eagle.