Modern Native American Woman Warrior

Oklahoma Army National Guard Maj. Vickie Morgan Jones, a Seneca Indian, posed for this painting called "Heritage of Valor" by visual artist and Oklahoma state senator Enoch Kelly Haney. Haney painted Jones pictured as a Seneca woman righteously defending her camp with a club in hand. In the upper right of the painting is a shadow of helicopter pilot Jones in her flight suit as a 20th century Native American protecting her homeland. Photo of painting courtesy of Maj. Vickie Morgan Jones

Seneca Indian Army Maj. Vickie Morgan Jones, the first woman in Oklahoma and first American Indian woman in the nation to become a helicopter pilot. She said she was also the first woman to complete air assault school.

When she was 19, the Army major said, she considered following her father's footsteps into the Air Force, but decided she "wasn't mature enough to make a commitment like that." Then, a few years later during a time of "self- discovery," she joined the Oklahoma Army National Guard's 279th Infantry Regiment on March 24, 1978, and as her self-discovery evolved, she became heavily involved in American Indian religious ceremonies.

I did talks last year to schools in my area, educating them about Ira Hayes (a Pima Indian Marine who helped raise the American flag on Iwo Jima during World War II), Navajo code talkers and our Medal of Honor recipients," she noted. "Also, many individuals have never been to a powwow. We have beautiful dances that have meanings."

Her father, Carl Glass Sr., was a full-blooded Cherokee. He retired as an Air Force senior master sergeant in 1968. Her mother, Cordellia Bernice Conner, the product of the Seneca-Cayuga and Quapaw tribes, was a licensed practical nurse. "Both of my parents have left this world for one better," Jones said.