What can be said is that she was doing the advocacy work — the speaking, the scholarship funding, the organizational participation, the public example — during a period when the representation of Native Americans in STEM fields was extremely low and when the effort to improve that representation was in its early stages.

The programs and organizations that focus on Native STEM education have grown significantly since the 1970s.

They are not large enough.

The representation problem remains serious.

But the growth that has occurred is partly the result of people who, beginning in that period, dedicated sustained attention and resources to changing the conditions.

Mary Ross was one of those people.

She had the specific authority that comes from having done what she was advocating for — from having been a Native woman in a STEM field when being a Native woman in a STEM field was nearly unprecedented.

That authority is not transferable.