JOHN YANG: And tonight for our Hidden History series during Native American Heritage Month, the story of a decorated naval officer and trailblazing astronaut.

MAN: Two, one, and lift off.

Space Shuttle Endeavor.

JOHN YANG: In 2002, when John Herrington became the first Native American in space, he carried with him pieces of his heritage, including the flag of the Chickasaw Nation.

MAN: Three new residents headed for the International Space Station.

JOHN HERRINGTON, First Native American In Space: I also flew a flute and a feather.

The flute was made by a Cherokee friend who was an engineer at the Kennedy Space Center.

And Eagle Feather was given to me.

That was beaded Mother Earth and father sky and all the people of the world.

The only two items that I was actually able to take out during my mission and photograph.

JOHN YANG: Herrington was born in 1958 in Watumka, Oklahoma.

He grew up during the height of America's space race with the Soviet Union.

Like many children then, his heroes didn't wear capes.

They wore spacesuits.

Herrington's father was a flight instructor.

He spurred his son's interest in aviation by taking him flying.

JOHN HERRINGTON: Early on my brother and I would sit in the back and we fly to Oklahoma.

And then later on my dad bought a little Cessna 150 and we used to fly and he'd say, here, fly.

And I'd fly and he'd lean over me and take pictures out the window.

JOHN YANG: He graduated from college in 1983 and went to the Navy's aviation Officer Candidate School.

In 1985, he was commissioned as a naval aviator.

Over the next ten years, he had a variety of assignments in the Navy, logging more than 3,800 hours, flying more than 30 types of aircraft.

In 1996, a childhood dream came true.

NASA selected him from 2,500 applicants for one of the 35 slots in the new class of astronaut candidates.

MAN: This view of John Herrington working in the vicinity of the UHF antenna.

JOHN YANG: He went to space as a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Endeavor as it delivered a new crew to the International Space Station.

During the 13 day mission, Herrington completed three spacewalks.

His NASA career went from space to the depths of the ocean.

He spent 10 days in NASA's Underwater Aquarius lab to study survival techniques for space exploration.

For his achievements, Herrington is in the Chickasaw Nation hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Aviation and Space hall of Fame.

Now retired from NASA, he's an Indigenous scientific storyteller traveling the world, combining Chickasaw oral storytelling traditions with his love for science and space.

His new mission is not only to inspire more young Native Americans to study science, technology, and mathematics, but to burst preconceived notions about Native Americans.

JOHN HERRINGTON: A lot of people have a stereotypical view of what a Native American is, but reality.

We're engineers, we're scientists, we're doctors, we're lawyers.

We appreciate and we value our heritage.

Our ancestors provide us the opportunity to walk the Earth.

And so to be able to recognize that it's not just that we're proud of who we are, but proud of what we do.