9 Best Native American Biographies and Memoirs
In the early years of the 19th century, the land along the Missouri River Valley was changing. Fur traders, European settlers, and other outsiders were pouring in, and the growing United States was signing treaties and claiming land from the local tribes. In this illustrated history, illuminated with drawings by Brent Fredrickson, Gail Geo Holmes explores the lives of five very different men who led their people during this turbulent time.
From Billy Caldwell, the son of a Mohawk mother and a British Loyalist officer during the Revolutionary War, to Standing Bear, a civil rights leader who later argued in U.S. District Court that Native Americans are “persons within the meaning of the law,” becoming the first Native American judicially granted civil rights, these fascinating leaders represent not only their times but a changing world.
12 Influential Native American Leaders
While our Founding Fathers, presidents, and military leaders are remembered as heroes of American culture, it’s often overlooked how indigenous people contributed to many of the major events in U.S. history. Here are a dozen Native Americans who left a lasting mark with their leadership, bravery, and innovations.
Powhatan
Christopher Newport offers a crown and other gifts to Chief Powhatan.
Also known by his proper name of Wahunsenacawh, Powhatan is perhaps best remembered as the father of Pocahontas, a woman (also called Matoaka) known for her role in English colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, in the early s. He was also a massively powerful chief at the time, his authority extending over 30 tribes and some 15, Algonquian-speaking people of the coastal Virginia area. Powhatan had a mixed relationship with the newcomers; his early assistance gave way to open warfare as they battled for control over the territory, though relations between Indigenous people and European settlers were largely peaceful by the time of his death in
Read More About Powhatan
Tamanend
As with Powhatan, little is known of Tamanend’s life bey
| Tecumseh | |
|---|---|
| Native American Hero | |
| Born | Mar., On the Scioto River, near Chillicothe, Ohio |
| Died | Oct. 5, (at age 45) Moravian of the Thames (in modern Chatham-Kent, Ontario) |
| Nationality | Shawnee |
Tecumseh () was an intelligent and widely respected ruler of the native Shawnee Indians who inhabited regions of America in the early s. Available historical records state that he was probably born in March of near present day Springfield region in Ohio.
The name Tecumseh, in native Shawnee, loosely means “the shooting star” or “panther crouching in wait.” These two meanings to some extent signify his character as he was an aggressive, quick, and sharp leader.
Tecumseh&#;s father was called Puckshinwa, a war chief of the Shawnee people. Not many details are available about his mother, Methotaske, although it is widely believed that she had some Creek blood.
Tecumseh ruled shortly after the Revolutionary War, when American settlers were beginning to expand westward. He is listed as one of the shrewdest leaders who were opposed to the idea of foreigners inhabiting the native community&#;s land. Historical facts state that he led a group called Tecumseh&#;s confeder
Biographies of Famous Native Americans
Native Americans bios, from Alexie to Wovoka
A-G | H-M | O-R | S-W
Charles Curtis |
- Sherman Alexie, writer
- Paula Gunn Allen, Pueblo-Sioux poet, novelist, critic
- Dennis Banks, Anishinabe (Ojibwa) activist
- Adam Beach, Ojibwa actor
- Elias Boudinot, Cherokee leader in the American Revolution
- Joseph Brant, Mohawk chief
- Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Northern Cheyenne chief and U.S. senator from Colorado
- Billy Bowlegs (Holata Micco), Seminole leader
- Black Elk, Oglala Lakota holy man
- Black Hawk, Sauk Leader
- Black Kettle, Cheyenne chief
- Canonicus, Narragansett chief
- Captain Jack, Modoc subchief
- Cochise, Apache chief
- Cornplanter, Seneca chief
- Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux chief
- Charles Curtis, Kaw senator and vice president of the United States ()
- Delaware Prophet, Native American religious leade
- Vine Deloria, Jr., Leading Standing Rock Sioux scholar, writer and activist
- Michael Dorris, Modoc (ancestry) writer
- Louise Erdrich, Ojibway (ancestry) writer
- Chris Eyre, Cheyenne and Arapaho filmmaker
- Gall, Sioux chief
- Geronimo, Apache political leader
- Graham Greene, Oneida actor
N. Scott Momaday |
- Handsome Lake, S
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