Sinte Gleska was a Brulé Lakota tribal chief. Although a great warrior in his youth, he declined to participate in Red Cloud's War, having become convinced of the pointlessness of opposing the white incursions into his beloved homeland; he became a statesman, speaking for peace and defending the rights of his tribe.

Crazy Horse (ca. 1840 - September 5, 1877) was a respected war leader of the Oglala Lakota, who fought against the U.S. federal government in an effort to preserve the traditions and values of the Lakota way of life.

Major Ridge was a Cherokee Indian leader and protoge, along with Charles R. Hicks, of the noted figure James Vann.

James Vann, part Cherokee, part Scottish, was the son of a fur trader surnamed Vann (James, Clement, or John Joseph; various sources name a different brother) and the Cherokee Wah-Li (b. February 1768 - d. in Buffington’s Tavern on the old Federal Road in Forsyth County, Georgia, February 19, 1809).

Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota chief and holy man. He is notable in American and Native American history in large part for his major victory at the Battle of Little Big Horn against Custer’s 7th Cavalry, where his premonition of defeating them became reality. Even today, his name is synonymous with Native American culture, and he is considered to be one of the most famous Native Americans in history.

Anna Mae Aquash (also Anna Mae Pictou Aquash or Anna Mae Pictou; first name also spelled Annie Mae; Mi'kmaq name Naguset Eask) (b. in a small Indian village near Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, Canada, March 27, 1945; d. mid-December 1975) was a Mi'kmaq activist from Nova Scotia, Canada who became one of the most active and prominent female members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) during the early 1970s.

Big Foot (Si Thanka) (1824? - December 29, 1890), also known as Spotted Elk, was the name of a chief of a sub-group of the Lakota Sioux. He was son of chief Lone Horn, and became a chief upon the death of his father. He was a highly renowned chief, with skills in war and negotiations. He was killed in 1890 in South Dakota, along with almost 300 other members of his tribe, …

Pontiac or Obwandiyag, was an Ottawa leader who became famous for his role in Pontiac's Rebellion (1763–1766), an American Indian struggle against the British military occupation of the Great Lakes region following the British victory in the French and Indian War. Historians disagree about Pontiac's importance in the war that bears his name. Nineteenth century accounts portrayed him as the mastermind and leader of the revolt, …

Ingrid Washinawatok El-Issa (also known as "O'Peqtaw-Metamoh" and "Flying Eagle Woman") was born in 1957. She was an internationally-known member of the Menominee Nation of upper Wisconsin, assassinated by FARC guerrillas in Colombia in 1999. At the time of her death she was forty-one years old, a wife and mother of a 14-year-old son. Washinawatok was the Chair of the NGO Committee on the United Nations International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, …

Hokoleskwa or Cornstalk (c.1720 - November 10, 1777) was a prominent leader of the Shawnee people in the era of the American Revolution. His name in his own language meant "blade of corn", and was rendered in innumerable variations by contemporary chroniclers, including Colesqua and Keigh-tugh-qua. Cornstalk's murder by American militiamen during the American Revolutionary War outraged American Indians and whites alike, …

Chief Black Kettle (born 1801 - 1807, died November 27, 1868) was a Cheyenne leader who unsuccessfully attempted to resist white settlement from Kansas and Colorado territories. He survived the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 but died in the 1868 Battle of Washita River.

Mahaska, or White Cloud, (1784 - 1834) was a chief of the Native American Iowa tribe. Mahaska became chief at an early age after killing several enemy Dakota to avenge his father’s death. He was later imprisoned in St. Louis, Missouri for killing a French trader, before he escaped and led a raid against the Osage. Afterward, he decided that his father’s death was finally avenged, so he laid down his arms and adopted the lifestyle of the white settlers, …

John Ridge (1792 - June 22, 1839, Translated Cherokee Name: Yellow Bird) was the son of Major Ridge and a member of the Cherokee Tribe. He married Sarah Bird Northup and had close to 23 children. His son John Rollin Ridge wrote the pseudo-biography of Joaquin Murieta that inspired the Zorro legend. John Ridge was a part of the Ridge Party, a group that advocated for the removal of the Cherokee Indians to Oklahoma.

Fred C. Martinez, Jr. (May, 1985 - June 16, 2001) was a transgender Native American student of Navajo ancestry. Among Navajo people, a transgender like him is known as "nadleeh" or "two spirit." This is a positive term. Martinez was a student at Montezuma-Cortez High School in Cortez, Colorado, when he was attacked and beaten to death by 18-year old Shaun Murphy.

Mato Wayuhi was a Brulé Lakota chief who signed the Fort Laramie Treaty in 1851. He was killed in 1854 when troops from Fort Laramie stormed his encampment to arrest a Sioux who had shot a calf belonging to the Mormons. Little Thunder took over as chief after his death. Conquering Bear was born around 1800 a Brulé Lakota otherwise a Sioux. At the Fort Laramie treaty council in 1851, …

Bear Hunter (died January 27, 1863) was a Shoshone chief of the Great Basin who strongly resisted white colonization of the area in the 1860s. He and his war parties attacked Mormon colonists, telegraph workers, and wagon trains heading west while federal troops were preoccupied with the American Civil War. In 1862, a Californian volunteer infantry lead by Patrick Edward Connor established a fort on the Wasatch Range near Salt Lake City.

Mangas Coloradas or Dasoda-hae (known as the Red Sleeves) (born 1793? - died 1863), was an Apache tribal chief and a member of the Eastern Chiricahua nation, whose homeland stretched west from the Rio Grande to include most of what is present-day southwestern New Mexico.

Miantonomoh (1565?-1643), also spelled Miantonomo or Miantonomah, was a chief of the Narraganset tribe of New England Indians, nephew of their grand sachem, Canonicus (d. 1647). He seems to have been friendly to the English colonists of Massachusetts and Connecticut, though he was accused of being treacherous.

Taoyateduta (1810?-July 3, 1863) was a chief of the Mdewakanton Sioux tribe. His name means "His Red Nation," but he became known as Little Crow because of his father's name "Cetan Wakuwa Mani" (literally: "Hawk that chases/hunts walking") which was mistranslated to visiting whites.

Sassacus (Massachuset: " Sassakusu", which translates to "fierce", c. 1560 - June 1637, born near present day Groton, Connecticut) was a Pequot sachem. He became grand sachem after sachem Wopigwooit died in 1631, which caused a rivalry with sagamore (sub-sachem) Uncas. This rivalry would lead Uncas to form the Mohegan tribe, in 1637, who were hostile towards the Pequot tribe.

Elias Boudinot (1800-1839) was a Cherokee Indian who started and edited the tribe's first newspaper. He was born in Georgia as Gallegina Watie (also known as "Buck" Watie or Buck Oowatie), edited the "Cherokee Phoenix" in the New Echota, and died in Oklahoma. Gallegina means Deer, therefore, he was called "Buck" Watie before changing his name. He took the name "Elias Boudinot" from the man who paid for his education.

Kitsap or Ktsap was a war chief of the Suquamish Tribe. One source says that he was the most powerful chief on Puget Sound from 1790 to 1845. Kitsap County, Washington and the Kitsap Peninsula are named for him. Having been prominent before white settlement of Puget Sound began, oral history is the only basis for most of what can be said about Kitsap, and many reports offer conflicting information.

Crow Foot (1876? - December 15, 1890) was the son of Sitting Bull of the Lakota. He also had sisters named Standing Holy and Lodge. He had brothers named Henry, Little Soldier, Red Scont, and Theodore. His mother was either Seen By The Nation or Four Robert as Sitting Bull had two wives. He participated alongside his father in the surrender at Fort Buford in 1881. He was killed along with his father on December 15, 1890, by a group of Indian police.

Opechancanough or Opchanacanough (1554?-1644) was a tribal chief of the Powhatan Confederacy of what is now Virginia in the United States, and its leader from 1618 until his death in 1644. His name meant "He whose Soul is White" in the Algonquin language.

Sam Sixkiller was born in the Going Snake district of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory- now Adair County, Oklahoma. He served on both sides during the Civil War. He became the first Captain of the Indian Police after the war, over the lands of all 5 civilized tribes. He was also a Deputy US Marshal and a special agent for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad. He was murdered December 24, 1886, in Muskogee, Indian Territory.