Great Native Americans

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 Kettle tried again to negotiate, signing the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867. The Cheyenne might have retired to the reservation provided for them, had it not been for Gen. George Armstrong Custer. On Nov. 27, 1868, Custer and his 7th Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's camp on the Washita River without warning and killed the chief and hundreds of Native Americans.

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. He was soon captured and returned to the new reservation, where he farmed for a while. In 1881 he escaped again with a group (including a son of Cochise) and led raids in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. He surrendered (1883) to forces under Gen. George Crook and was returned to the reservation. In 1885 he again left, and after almost a year of war he agreed to surrender to Crook, but at the last minute Geronimo fled. His escape led to censure of Crook's policy. Late in 1886, Geronimo and the remainder of his forces surrendered to Gen. Nelson Appleton Miles, Crook's successor. They were deported as prisoners of war to Florida; contrary to an agreement, they were not allowed to take their families with them. After a further period in prison in Alabama, Geronimo was placed under military confinement at Fort Sill, Okla., where he settled down, adopted Christianity, and became a prosperous farmer. He became a national celebrity when he appeared at the St. Louis World's Fair and in Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural procession. He dictated his autobiography to S. M. Barrett (1906, repr. 1970).

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 position of prominence among the Seminole and led the young warriors who denounced the treaties of 1832 and 1833, which provided for the removal of the Native Americans to the West. In Dec., 1835, Osceola's warriors killed Wiley Thompson, the Indian agent in charge of the removal. U.S. troops under General Jesup drove his band southward into the Everglades, but Osceola, skillfully using guerrilla tactics, resisted capture. Fighting ceased early in 1837, only to break out again in June. Overtures for peace were sent to Osceola, and he agreed to meet with Jesup in St. Augustine under a flag of truce. Jesup, never intending to discuss peace, had Osceola seized and imprisoned at Fort Moultrie, S.C., where he died shortly afterward.

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 uprising against the English colonists just after the French and Indian Wars is known as Pontiac's Rebellion or Pontiac's Conspiracy, Pontiac's role is uncertain. He definitely was present at the siege of Detroit, and encouraged other tribes to fight the British, but most of the actual fighting and strategy was probably planned independently by other Native American leaders. After the rebellion had failed and a treaty had been concluded (1766), Pontiac is supposed to have gone west and to have been murdered by Illinois at Cahokia. This story is, however, accepted by few authorities.

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 then in the hands of her father. At Jamestown she was converted to Christianity and baptized as Rebecca. John Rolfe, a settler, gained the permission of Powhatan and the governor, Sir Thomas Dale, and married her in Apr., 1614. The union brought peace with the Native Americans for eight years. With her husband and several other Native Americans, Pocahontas went to England in 1616. There she was received as a princess and presented to the king and queen. She started back to America in 1617 but was taken ill and died at Gravesend, where she was buried. Pocahontas bore one son, Thomas Rolfe, who was educated in England, went (1640) to Virginia, and gained considerable wealth.

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) of his daughter Pocahontas to John Rolfe kept peace with the English colonists.

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 his principle that all Native American land was the common possession of all the Native Americans and that land could not rightly be ceded by, or purchased from, an individual tribe, Tecumseh set out to bind together the Native Americans of the Old Northwest, the South, and the eastern Mississippi valley. His plan failed with the defeat of his brother, the Shawnee Prophet, at Tippecanoe (1811). Though Tippecanoe was, properly speaking, a drawn battle, it marked the collapse of the Native American military movement. In the War of 1812, Tecumseh allied himself with the British and was made a brigadier general. He led a large force of Native Americans in the siege of Fort Meigs, covered Gen. Henry Procter's retreat after the American victory on Lake Erie, and lost his life in the battle of the Thames (see Thames, battle of the), in which Gen. William Henry Harrison overwhelmed Procter and his Native American allies. Tecumseh had great ability as an organizer and a leader and is considered one of the outstanding Native Americans in American history.

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 Carlos, Victorio bolted (1880) for Mexico with a group of followers. He and his people terrorized the border country with repeated raids and massacres, always managing to elude their pursuers. It took the combined efforts of the Mexican army, the Texas Rangers, and c.2, 000 U.S. soldiers to defeat Victorio, a master strategist, and his warriors, who numbered less than 200. Victorio died in the battle.

Sacajawea (1784-1812?), (more accurately Sacagawea), from Hidatsa (?) tsakakawia, "Bird Woman," was an interpreter and the only woman on the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-0806. She was born into the Shoshoni tribe in the Rocky Mountains. The exact date has been variously reported as 1784 and 1788. Her Shoshoni name was Boinaiv, meaning "Grass Maiden". The matter of an accurate rendition of the name by which she is popularly known has long been a matter of argument. Today, an exact translation is impossible; a more accurate meaning seems to be "Boat Traveler," a reference to her appearance in the longboats which were being dragged through the shallows. In an effort to indicate the use of long oars, the tribe flapped their arms; Clark thought this meant birds or "Bird Women", hence the name which has come into common use.

Around the age of 12, Boinaiv was captured by some Crow warriors and sold to the Hidatsa on the Missouri River in North Dakota. Then she and another Native American girl were sold to a French-Canadian fur trader, Toussaint Charbonneau, who married them both. In 1804 Lewis and Clark hired him as a guide and interpreter for their western journey. Charbonneau took Sacajawea and her newborn baby, Baptiste, along; she proved to be a valuable intermediary between the explorers and the several native tribes they encountered, particularly in view of her knowledge of the Shoshoni language. When the expedition came to the Rockies and her home village, she had a joyous reunion with her people, and especially with her brother, now chief, Cameahwait, who greeted he as Wadze-wipe, Lost Women." This relationship was particularly helpful to the party. Although Cameahwait was initially hostile, intending to kill the Whites for their goods, he was dissuaded by the intercession of his sister, and eventually was willing to provide horses and supplies to the expedition in barter. At this time, Sacajawea adopted the son of her dead sister and named him Basil.

Sacajawea, as she was known by now (Lewis called her "Jenny" throughout his journal) accompanied the expedition across the Rockies and down the Columbia River to the Pacific, arriving there on November 7, 1805. Both Lewis and Clark testified to her fortitude, endurance and serenity; Clark was especially fond of her and her son. Eventually he transported the Charbonneau family to St. Louis in 1809 and helped them to set up a farm. In 1811 they left their son Baptiste with Clark, to return west with an expedition led by Manual Lisa; Clark adopted the son as his own.

The death of Sacajawea remains one of history's great mysteries. One account records Lissa'a clerk thusly: "This evening (December 12, 1812) the Wife of Charbonneau, a Snake Squaw, died…aged about 25 years." However, some other sources indicate that Sacajawea spent most of her life with her own people, moving with them to the Wind River Reservation and finally dying at Fort Washakie on April 9, 1884, aged about 100 years. In an effort to settle the question, Commissioner Charles H. Burke dispatched Inspector Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa) to locate the burial place. In a report sent to Burke on March 2, 1925, Eastman reported that he had interviewed many surviving people, had found the site and felt that it was indeed the resting place of "the real Sacajawea." However, at the present writing, the 1812 date seems to have stronger support.

Whatever the truth, and this may never be conclusively proven, that is no doubt that Sacajawea was a major key to the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Her role, however, has been less clearly perceived; she was not a guide, as is often claimed. Rather, she was particularly effective in providing help through he interpreting services with the tribes along the way - serving, as Lewis put it, as "…the inspiration, the genius of the occasion." She has been honored with many plaques and monuments throughout the Western States.

Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680), Tegaquitha, “Lily of the Mohawks,” as she was popularly known, was the first recorded Native American Roman Catholic nun in North America.  She was born in 1656 at Gandawague Castle near Fonda, New York, to a Mohawk father and a Christianized Algonquin mother of the Turtle clan.  During her childhood, her parents and a younger brother died from smallpox, and she was left a badly scarred and pockmarked orphan.  Never a pretty child, she was adopted by her uncle, a Mohawk chief, but left largely to herself.  She was always a “loner” who was apparently quite religiously inclined, and at the age of ten became strongly influenced by Jesuit missionaries.  Eventually on Easter Sunday, in 1635, she was baptized despite the strong opposition of her uncle and took the name Kateri (Catherine). After this event, she was shunned by most of her tribe, especially when she refused to work in the fields on Sundays.  In 1677, she escaped from her village and traveled the 200 miles by canoe to join a colony of Christian Native Americans at Sault St. Louis, not far from Montreal.  Here, her life was one of deep asceticism and piety.  She sought to establish a convent on Heron Island on the St. Lawrence River, but her plans were rejected by Church authorities; as a result she abandoned the project and became a nun.

It was a time of perfervid piety at Sault St. Louis, and in her zeal to obtain complete penance, Kateri persuaded a friend to whip her, in the custom of the day—a practice which she followed every Sunday for a year.  Although the savage whippings became too much for her body to withstand, she resolutely continued the practice.  Refusing any aid, she persevered in this mortification until she died at the age of 24 on April 17, 1680 at the Ville Marie of St. Francis Xavier.  She was buried near La Prairie, Quebec.  Her devotions and self-denial were so remarkable that many miraculous visions and cures were claimed in her name, and in 1884 she was proposed as a candidate for canonization, and in 1932 her name was formally presented to the Vatican for consideration.

Winema (ca. 1848-1932), Kaitchkona Winema, "The Storng Hearted Woman,"or less accurately, "The Little Woman Chief,"from the Modoc kitchkani laki shnawedsh, "female subchief,"was an important figure on the Modoc War of 1872-1873, and in other affairs of her tribe. The name Winema was apparently applied by Joaquin Miller. Born on the Link River in northern California in September 1848, she was early known as Nonooktowa, the "Strange Child"; her father was a Modoc man named Secot, but her mother's name is not recorded. Her early life was adventurous, and her fearless exploits, such as shooting a grizzly bear and fighting alongside the men in battle, were greatly admired. She seems to have been something of a tomboy, and once when she and some other girls who were canoeing got caught in the rapids, Winema manipulated the canoe brilliantly and all were saved. In late youth she fell in love with, and eventually married, a White miner from Kentucky named Frank Riddle, and the admiration of her people turned to scorn; only her brother Kintpuash and a warrior named Scarface Charlie remained loyal to her. Following her marriage she became known familiarly to Whites as Toby Riddle.

The 1860's saw growing friction between the Modoc people and the White Settlers moving into northern California in ever-increasing numbers. Winema served as an interpreter, with her husband, in the negotiations between the government and the Modoc which shortly led to the removal of the Indians to a reservation in Oregon. Many of the Modoc never agreed willingly to t his move, and Kintpuash and a group of followers frequently left the reservation to return to their traditional homelands. When they were finally pursued by government forces in an effort to round up the band and end the intermittent resistance, they fled to the nearby lava beds. Winema tried to act as a peacemaker between the warring parties, since she was trusted by both sides, and was fluent in Modoc and English. In February 1873, a peace commission attempted to resolve the situation and Winema was able to persuade Kintpuash to meet with them. However, other Modoc opposed the move, and convinced Kintpuash that the leader of the delegation, General Edward Canby, could not be trusted and must be killed.

Winema learned of the plot, and warned Canby, but he decided to go ahead with the peace talks. On April 11, 1873, Kintpuash and several warriors attached the camp, and killed Canby and another commissioner, Eleazar Thomas; a third commissioner, Albert Meacham, was badly injured, but Winema intervened and saved his life. With these murders, all-out war began, and although the Modoc held off the vastly superior Army forces for many months, they were finally defeated. Kintpuash and five other leaders were tried, convicted, and executed. Meacham, still a champion for the Indian position in spited of the attach upon him, took the story East in the form of a lecture-play entitled Winema; this play told of the War and reasons which led to the uprising. The troupe included Winema, Frank Riddle, and their son Jeff, and several other Modoc participants and toured during 1874 - 1881.

Following the successful tour of the group, Winema returned to Oregon where she lived quietly for many years. She died on the reservation on May 30, 1932, and was buried in the Modoc Cemetery. The Winema National Forest is named for her.

Queen Anne (ca. 1650-ca. 1725), the widow of Totopotomoi, the Pamunkey chief, Queen Anne became the chief of the tribe following the death of her husband during a battle in which he supported the English against other Indian warriors.  Due to her authoritative position, she was always called “Queen Anne” by the colonists.  In 1675 she was called upon to furnish warriors to fight with the Whites during Bacon’s Rebellion; this was her first appearance in colonial history.  Her appearance at the colonial Council, in which she scornfully rejected the request to furnish warriors for the Whites on the grounds that her people had been neglected for the past 20 years, in spite of their friendship to the Whites, was a dramatic confrontation between Indian and White.

            It was only after strong promises of better treatment by the colonists that Queen Anne agreed to provide the needed assistance.  Following the end of the Rebellion, a silver headband, or coronet, inscribed Quenn of Pamunkey was presented to her by King Charles II.  Little more is heard about her following this period, beyond an appearance in 1715, when she visited the colonial authorities to request fair treatment for her people.