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Documents for "North American indigenous peoples: Biographies":
  • Black Kettle d. 1868, chief of the southern Cheyenne in Colorado. His attempt to make peace (1864) with the white men ended in the massacre of about half his people at Sand Creek. Despite this treachery on the part of the whites, he continued to seek peace with them, and in 1865 he signed the Treaty of the Little Arkansas. The government ignored its guarantees, and Black...
  • Brant, Joseph 1742-1807, chief of the Mohawk. His Mohawk name is usually rendered as Thayendanegea. He served under Sir William Johnson in the French and Indian War, and Johnson sent him (1761) to Eleazar Wheelock's school for Native Americans in Lebanon, Conn. Brant served (1763) under Johnson again in Pontiac's Rebellion. In the American Revolution he did much to bind the indigenous people to the British and Loyalist side. He fought (1777) at Oriskany in the Saratoga campaign. In 1778, leading the Native American...
  • Canonicus c.1565-1647, Native North American chief, who ruled the Narragansett when the Pilgrims landed in New England. He granted (1636) Rhode Island to Roger Williams and because of William's influence remained...
  • Captain Jack (d. 1873), subchief of the Modoc and leader of the hostile group in the Modoc War (1872-73). Jack, whose Modoc name was Kintpuash , had agreed (1864) to leave his ancestral home and live on a reservation with the Klamath. He found it impossible to live on friendly terms with his former enemies, and after killing a Klamath medicine man, Jack and a group of followers left the reservation. They resisted arrest (Nov.,...
  • Cochise c.1815-1874, chief of the Chiricahua group of Apache in Arizona. He was friendly with the whites until 1861, when some of his relatives were hanged by U.S. soldiers for a crime they did not commit. Afterward he waged relentless war against the U.S...
  • Cornplanter c.1740-1836, chief of the Seneca. The son of a Native American mother and a white father, he acquired great influence among the Seneca and in the American Revolution led war parties for the British...
  • Crazy Horse d. 1877, war chief of the Oglala Sioux. He was a prominent leader in the Sioux resistance to white encroachment in the mineral-rich Black Hills. When Crazy Horse and his people refused to go on a reservation, troops attacked (Mar. 17, 1876) their camp on Powder River. Crazy Horse was victorious in that battle as well as in his encounter...
  • Delaware Prophet dĕl´ewâr, -wer , fl. 18th cent., Native American leader. His real name is not known. He began preaching (c.1762) among the Delaware of the Muskingum valley in Ohio. He spoke against intertribal war, drunkenness,...
  • Gall c.1840-1894, war chief of the Sioux, b. South Dakota. He refused to accept the treaty of 1868 (by which he would have been confined to a reservation), joined Sitting Bull and other dissident chiefs, and was the chief military lieutenant of Sitting Bull in the great defeat of George Armstrong Custer in the battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. He retreated to Canada but,...
  • Geronimo c.1829-1909, leader of a Chiricahua group of the Apaches , b. Arizona. As a youth he participated in the forays of Cochise , Victorio , and other Apache leaders. When the Chiricahua Reservation was abolished (1876) and the Apaches removed to the arid San Carlos Agency in New Mexico, Geronimo led a group of followers into Mexico...
  • Handsome Lake 1735?-1815, Seneca religious prophet; half brother of Cornplanter. After a long illness he had a vision (c.1800) and began to preach new religious beliefs. His moral teachings showed a similarity to Christian ethics and had a profound effect among the Iroquois...
  • Hendrick c.1680-1755, chief of the Mohawks. He was known also as Tiyanoga. He became a Christian and was an ally of the British. He represented his people at the Albany Congress (1754). The next year he was...
  • Hiawatha fl. c.1550, legendary chief of the Onondaga of North America. He is credited with founding the Iroquois Confederacy. He is the hero of the well-known poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
  • Joseph (Chief Joseph), c.1840-1904, chief of a group of Nez Percé. On his father's death in 1871, Joseph became leader of one of the groups that refused to leave the land ceded to the United States by the fraudulently obtained treaty of 1863. Faced with forcible...
  • Keokuk c.1780-1848, Native American, chief of the Sac and Fox, b. near present-day Rock Island, Ill. When Black Hawk supported the British in the War of 1812, Keokuk refused to join him, thereby gaining...
  • Little Turtle c.1752-1812, chief of the Miami , born in a Miami village near present-day Fort Wayne, Ind. He was noted for his oratorical powers, military skill, and intelligence. He was a principal commander of the Native Americans in the...
  • Logan, James c.1725-1780, chief of the Mingo, b. Pennsylvania. He took his name from James Logan (1674-1751) and is frequently called simply Logan. He was a leader of the Native Americans on the Ohio and Scioto...
  • Lone Wolf d. 1879, Kiowa Chief. He led some Kiowas on raids in 1874 after his son had been killed by whites, but he was defeated and with a number of followers was deported to Florida, where he remained in military confinement for three years; he...
  • Mangas Coloradas [Span.,=red sleeves], c.1797-1863, chief of the Mimbrenos group of Apache of SW New Mexico. Many of the Mimbrenos were massacred by trappers in 1837 as a result of the bounty for Apache scalps...
  • Massasoit c.1580-1661, chief of the Wampanoag. He was also known as Ousamequin (spelled in various ways). One of the most powerful native rulers of New England, he went to Plymouth in 1621 and signed a...
  • McGillivray, Alexander 1759-93, Native American chief. He was born in the Creek country now within the borders of the state of Alabama, the son of Lachlan McGillivray, a Scots trader, and Sehoy Marchand, his...
  • McIntosh, William c.1775-1825, Native American chief, b. in the Creek country now within the limits of Carroll co., Ga.; son of a British army officer and a Creek woman. Friendly to the Americans, McIntosh led the...
  • Miantonomo d. 1643, chief of the Narragansett; nephew of another chief, Canonicus. In 1637 he aided the English colonists in the Pequot War. The following year he was induced to make a treaty of peace with...
  • Osceola c.1800-1838, leader of the Seminole. He was also called Powell, the surname of his supposed white father. In the early 1830s, Osceola was living close to Fort King, near the site of Ocala, Fla. Although not a chief, he rose to a...
  • Parker, Quanah c.1852-1911, Native American chief, b. Texas; son of a Comanche chief, Peta Nocone, and Cynthia Ann Parker, a survivor of a massacre. In 1867 he became chief of the Comanche and until 1875 led...
  • Philip (King Philip), chief of the Wampanoags: see King Philip's War.
  • Pocahontas c.1595-1617, Native North American woman, daughter of Chief Powhatan. Pocahontas, meaning "playful one" (her real name was said to be Matoaka), used to visit the English in Virginia at Jamestown. According to the famous story, she saved the life of the captured Capt. John Smith just as he was about to have his head smashed at the direction of Powhatan. In 1613, Pocahontas was captured by Capt. Samuel Argall, taken to Jamestown, and held as a hostage for English prisoners...
  • Pontiac fl. 1760-66, Ottawa chief. He may have been the chief met by Robert Rogers in 1760 when Rogers was on his way to take possession of the Western forts for the English. Although the Native American...
  • Popé d. c.1690, medicine man of the Pueblo. In defiance of the Spanish conquerors, he practiced his traditional religion and preached the doctrine of independence from Spanish rule and the restoration of the old Pueblo life. In Aug., 1680,...
  • Powhatan d. 1618, Native North American chief of the Powhatan tribe in Virginia, whose personal name was Wahunsonacock. He greatly extended the dominion of the Powhatan Confederacy and after the marriage (1614)...
  • Red Cloud 1822-1909, Native North American chief, leader of the Oglala Sioux. He led the Native American warfare against the establishment of the Bozeman Trail (see Bozeman, John M.). The Fetterman Massacre (see Fetterman, William Judd ) in 1866 led to partial abandonment of the trail. Red Cloud's continual hostility led the government finally to abandon completely (1868) the trail and the forts built to protect it. After signing...
  • Red Jacket c.1758-1830, chief of the Seneca, b. probably Seneca co., N.Y. His Native American name was Otetiani, changed to Sagoyewatha when he became a chief. His English name came from the British redcoat...
  • Ross, John whose name in Cherokee is Kooweskoowe , 1790-1866, Native American chief, b. near Lookout Mt., Tenn., of Scottish and Cherokee parents. He was educated at Kingston, Tenn., and in the War of 1812 served under Andrew Jackson against the...
  • Sacajawea Sacagawea , or Sakakawea , c.1784-1884?, Native North American woman guide on the Lewis and Clark expedition and the only woman to accompany the party. She is generally called the Bird Woman in English, although this translation has been challenged, and there has been much dispute about the form of her...
  • Shawnee Prophet 1775?-1837?, Native North American of the Shawnee tribe; brother of Tecumseh. His Native American name was Tenskwautawa. He announced himself as a prophet bearing a revelation from the Native American master of life. The message urged the renunciation of the acquired ways...
  • Sitting Bull c.1831-1890, Native American chief, Sioux leader in the battle of the Little Bighorn. He rose to prominence in the Sioux warfare against the whites and the resistance of the Native Americans under...
  • Smohalla c.1815-1907, Native American prophet, chief of a small tribe (the Wanapun) of the Columbia River valley. He preached a religion based on a vision of returning to Native American modes of living...
  • Squanto or Tisquantum, d. 1622, Native North American of the Pawtuxet tribe. He is sometimes thought to be the Native American taken to England from the Maine coast by George Weymouth (1605) and returned by John Smith in...
  • Tecumseh 1768?-1813, chief of the Shawnee , b. probably in Clark co., Ohio. Among his people he became distinguished for his prowess in battle, but he opposed the practice of torturing prisoners. When the United States refused to recognize...
  • Uncas c.1588-c.1683, chief of the Mohegan. Uncas was a subchief of the Pequot , but because of trouble with the chief, Sassacus, he withdrew with his followers and formed a separate tribe, the Mohegan. These people flourished under Uncas's leadership. Uncas was ambitious and...
  • Victorio d. 1880, chief of the Ojo Caliente [warm spring] Apache, at one time a lieutenant of Mangas Coloradas. When his people were removed from their ancestral home to the desolate reservation at San...
  • Waubeshiek c.1794-c.1841, Native North American prophet, also known as White Cloud. He was a friend and adviser of Black Hawk and by prophesying victory was chiefly responsible for the continuance of the Black...
  • Weatherford, William c.1780-1824, Native American chief, b. present-day Alabama, also called Red Eagle. In the War of 1812 he led the Creek war party, stirred by Tecumseh , against the Americans. On Aug. 30, 1813, he attacked Fort Mims, a temporary stockade near the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers. There his warriors, refusing to heed his plea for...
  • Wovoka c.1858-1932, Paiute , prophet of a messianic religion sometimes called the Ghost Dance religion. Also known as Jack Wilson, he was influenced by his father (a mystic) as well as by the Christian family for whom he worked and the Shaker religion. Wovoka claimed that during an eclipse of the sun (Jan. 1, 1889) he had had a vision in which God had given him a message—the time was coming when the earth would die and come alive again;...
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