Linton, Marigold, 1936-

Marigold Linton (born 1936) is a cognitive psychologist and member of the Morongo Band of Cahuilla Mission Indians. In 1964 she became the first Native American to earn a doctorate in psychology. In 1974 she co–founded the National Indian Education Association. Her research in long term memory is widely cited in psychology. She is director for mathematics and science initiatives in the University of Texas system, where she is responsible for bringing minority students into those two fields. She has been president of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

A great-great granddaughter of Antonio Garra, war chief of the Cupeno who organized an 1847 Indian insurrection against Agoston Haraszthy, San Diego County's first sheriff, Marigold Linton was born on the Morongo Reservation in Southern California. Her grandfather was Sadakichi Hartmann. Raised in poverty, she overcame hardship and adversity to become in 1954 the first Indian from a California reservation to attend college. Attending the newly opened University of California, Riverside, she earned straight As to obtain her B.A. in Psychology and completed two publications by the time she entered graduate school at the University of Iowa, eventually obtaining her Ph.D. from UCLA. She received her PhD in 1964, and this made her the first Native American to earn a doctorate in psychology.