Famouse Native Americans

Crazy Horse (Tashunkewitko) was born on the Republican River about 1845. He was a Lakota who rebled against USA government. He was killed at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, in 1877, so that he lived barely thirty-three years.

He was an uncommonly handsome man. While not the equal of Gall in magnificence and imposing stature, he was physically perfect, an Apollo in symmetry. Furthermore he was a true type of Indian refinement and grace. He was modest and courteous as Chief Joseph; the difference is that he was a born warrior, while Joseph was not. However, he was a gentle warrior, a true brave, who stood for the highest ideal of the Sioux. Notwithstanding all that biased historians have said of him, it is only fair to judge a man by the estimate of his own people rather than that of his enemies.

The boyhood of Crazy Horse was passed in the days when the western Sioux saw a white man but seldom, and then it was usually a trader or a soldier. He was carefully brought up according to the tribal customs. At that period the Sioux prided themselves on the training and development of their sons and daughters, and not a step in that development was overlooked as an excuse to bring the child before the public by giving a feast in its honor. At such times the parents often gave so generously to the needy that they almost impoverished themselves, thus setting an example to the child of self-denial for the general good. His first step alone, the first word spoken, first game killed, the attainment of manhood or womanhood, each was the occasion of a feast and dance in his honor, at which the poor always benefited to the full extent of the parents' ability.

Sitting bull( Lakota Sioux)

itting-bull.jpg">itting-bull.jpg>

Sitting Bull (Sioux: Tatanka Iyotake or Tatanka Iyotanka orTa-Tanka I-Yotank, later named Hunkesni, Slow), (c. 1831 � December 15, 1890) was a Native American clergyman and leader of the Hunkpapa Sioux (see Lakota) who led 3,500 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors against the US 7th Cavalry under George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. Though he did not participate personally in the battle, the chiefs were spurred on by a dream that Sitting Bull had in which a group of American soldiers tumbled into his encampment.

Blamed for the ensuing massacre, Sitting Bull led his tribe into Canada, where they lived until 1881, when on July 20 he led the last of his fugitive people to surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford in Montana. The US government, however, granted him amnesty.

In later life, Sitting Bull toured with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, where he was a popular attraction. Often asked to address the audience, he frequently cursed them in his native Lakota language to the wild applause of his listeners.

Toward the end of his life, Sitting Bull was drawn to the mystical Ghost Dance as a way of repelling the white invaders from his people's land. Although he himself was not a follower, this was perceived as a threat by the American government, and a group of Indian police was sent to arrest him. In the ensuing scuffle, Sitting Bull and his son Crow Foot were killed.

Red Cloud( Lakota Sioux)

Red Cloud (Sioux: Makhpyia-luta), (1822 � December 10, 1909) was a chief of the Oglala Sioux. One of the deadliest enemies the American military ever faced, he led the successful war in 1866�1868 (known as Red Cloud's War) against the United States over control of the Powder River Country in northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana.

Geronimo (Apache)

Geronimo (Chiricahua Goyaa�� 'One Who Yawns'; often spelled Goyathlay in English), (June 16, 1829�February 17, 1909) was a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache who long warred against the encroachment of settlers of European descent on tribal lands.

Geronimo was born on Turkey Creek, a tributary of the Gila River in what is now the state of New Mexico, then part of Mexico, but which his family considered Bedonkohe Apache hell(tori) land. Geronimo himself was a Bedonkohe Apache. He grew up to be a respected medicine man and, later, an accomplished warrior who fought frequently with Mexican troops. Mexican soldiers massacred his first wife and three children during a supposedly peaceful trading session in 1858, and as a result he hated all Mexicans for the rest of his life. Mexicans gave him the nickname of "Ger�nimo". The reasons for this name are not known. Some believe it was a transcription of the Spanish attempt to pronounce the name Goyathlay. Others believe that his Spanish enemies called out to Saint Jerome for assistance while attacking or in the midst of violent defeat.

Ta-ayz-slath, wife of Geronimo, & child

Geronimo fought against ever increasing numbers of both Mexican and United States troops and became famous for his daring exploits and numerous escapes from capture. At the last, these 38 men, women and children evaded 5000 U.S. troops (one fourth of the army at the time) and the Mexican army for a year. His forces became the last major force of independent Indian warriors who refused to acknowledge the United States Government in the American West. This came to an end on September 4, 1886, when Geronimo surrendered to United States Army General Nelson A. Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona.

Geronimo was sent in as a prisoner to Fort Pickens, Florida. In 1894 he was moved to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In his old age Geronimo became something of a celebrity. He appeared at fairs, including the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, and selling souvenirs and photographs of himself. However, he was not allowed to return to the land of his birth. He rode in the United States President Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 inaugural parade. He died of pneumonia at Fort Sill, where he is now buried at the Apache Indian Prisoner of War cemetery.

Pope(Tewa)

One of the most prolonged Native American uprisings took place in the Southwest under the leadership of a Tewa medicine man named Pope, who in 1680 led the various indigenous peoples of present-day New Mexico in a rebellion against Spanish missionaries and conquistadors. The Native Americans drove the Spanish out and kept them at bay for more than a decade. During the Spanish reconquest, the Hopi burned one of their own villages and killed its converted inhabitants rather than allow the reestablishment of Christianity as the official religion. To this day the Hopi pueblos, or villages, resist the influence of Christian religions, although some Hopi have been attracted to the Mormon faith. In hundreds of other cases, indigenous peoples of North America have defied Christian control or endured its presence with only apparent compliance.

Tecumseh(Shawnee)

Tecumseh (1768?-1813), Shawnee leader, who fought against United States expansion into the Midwest in the early 19th century. Born in what is now Ohio, he was the son of a Shawnee chief who was killed fighting white settlers in the Battle of Point Pleasant (1774). In 1794 Tecumseh took part in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, in which a coalition of tribes was defeated by the U.S. general Anthony Wayne. Tecumseh became known for his opposition to any surrender of Native American land to whites, holding that a cession of land by any one tribe was illegal without the consent of all the others. He and his brother Tenskwatawa, a religious visionary known as The Prophet, preached against Native American adoption of white customs-especially the use of liquor. In 1808 they were forced out of Ohio and moved to Indiana, where they tried to form a broad alliance of Native American tribes with help from the British in Canada. Their plans were thwarted when Tenskwatawa was defeated by U.S. forces under William Henry Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Tecumseh fought on the British side in the War of 1812 and was killed in the Battle of the Thames, near Thamesville, Ontario, on October 5, 1813