- Will Rogers
William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers (November 4, 1879 - August 15, 1935) was an American comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, and actor. He has been named Oklahoma's favorite son. - Jim Thorpe
Jacobus Franciscus "Jim" Thorpe (May 28 1888–March 28 1953) was an American athlete. Considered one of the most versatile athletes in modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon, played American football collegiately and professionally, and also played professional baseball and basketball. - Chuck Norris
Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris (born 10 March 1940) is an American martial artist, action star, and Hollywood actor who is known for playing Cordell Walker on "Walker, Texas Ranger". In 2006, he became the subject of an internet phenomenon known as Chuck Norris Facts. - Joy Harjo
The love of language that Harjo possesses comes from her father's grandfather who was a full-blood Creek Baptist minister and her mother who composed songs that could translate heartache. Other important influences include Leslie Silko , Simon Ortiz , Galway Kinnell, and Leo Remero . She attended class with Leslie Silko and Galway Kinnell which inspired her to become a poet and use the beauty of words to her advantage. - Linda Hogan
Linda Hogan (born 1947) is a Native American poet, storyteller, academic, playwright, novelist, environmentalist and writer of short stories. - Wes Studi
Born in Nofire Hollow, Oklahoma, Studi was schooled on a reservation. Until he attended grade school, he spoke only Cherokee. In 1967, he was drafted into the Army and served 18 months in Vietnam. After his discharge, Studi studied at Tulsa Junior College. He is best known for his roles as both brave and vicious Indians, in such roles as the Pawnee warrior in Dances With Wolves and as Magua in The Last of the Mohicans. - Black Kettle
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. - Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker (c. late 1840s - February 23, 1911) was a Native American leader, the son of Comanche chief Peta Nocona and "Anglo-Texan" Cynthia Ann Parker, and the last chief of the Quahadi Comanche Indians. - Maria Tallchief
Maria Tallchief (January 24, 1925) was an American ballerina. From 1942 to 1947 she danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, but she is best known for her time with the New York City Ballet from 1947 to 1965. She was born Elizabeth Marie Tall Chief in Fairfax, Oklahoma on January 24, 1925, to an Osage Nation father and a Scots-Irish mother. Her father was a chief of the tribe Osage. - Litefoot
Litefoot (born on August 5, 1972; also goes by the name G. Paul Davis) is a Native American rapper and the founder of the Red Vinyl record label. - Black Fox
- Tom Cole
Thomas Jeffery Cole (born April 28, 1949) is a politician from the state of Oklahoma, currently representing Oklahoma's 4th Congressional District (map) in the U.S. House of Representatives. Cole, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), is the fourth-ranking Republican leader in the House. He also serves on the Armed Services Committee and the Natural Resources Committee, and is a Deputy Minority Whip. - Sarah Vowell
Sarah Jane Vowell (born December 27, 1969) is an American author, journalist, humorist, and commentator. Often referred to as a "social observer", Vowell has authored several books and is a regular contributor to the radio program "This American Life" on Public Radio International. She was also the voice of Violet in the animated film "The Incredibles" and a short documentary, … - Daniel Heath Justice
Daniel Heath Justice is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and the author of "Our Fire Survives the Storm: A Cherokee Literary History" (University of Minnesota Press) as well as books one and two of The Way of Thorn & Thunder Series: "KYNSHIP" and "WYRWOOD", as well as the forthcoming conclusion "Dreyd", all published by (Kegedonce Press). He teaches Aboriginal literatures at the University of Toronto. - Oscar Howe
Oscar Howe (Yanktonai Dakota, May 13, 1915 - October 7, 1983) was an American artist who became well-known for his watercolor paintings. Descended from Sioux Chiefs, Howe was a graduate of Dorothy Dunn’s famous art program at the Santa Fe, New Mexico Indian School. He was a veteran of the Second World War, and held a masters degree in art from the University of Oklahoma. Howe was one of the first Native American modern artists. - W. Richard West Jr.
W. Richard West, Jr. (b. San Bernardino, California, January 6, 1943) is the founding and current director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. He is also a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and a Peace Chief of the Southern Cheyenne. West has devoted his professional life and much of his personal life to working with American Indians on cultural, educational, legal and governmental issues. - Ross Swimmer
Ross O. Swimmer is the "Special Trustee for American Indians" at the U.S. Department of the Interior. With his roots in Oklahoma, Swimmer attended Oklahoma University, where he received both his Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor degrees. While there, he was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity. - Robert Parish
Robert Lee Parish (born in Shreveport, Louisiana) is a retired American basketball center. His nickname was "The Chief", after the mute Native American in the film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". According to legend, former Celtics forward Cedric Maxwell gave Parish this nickname because of his stoic nature. After a modest career at Centenary College of Louisiana, … - Billy Bowlegs
Billy Bowlegs (ca. 1810 – ca. March 10, 1864) was a leader of the Seminoles in Florida during the Second and Third Seminole Wars against the United States. One of the last Seminole leaders to resist, he eventually moved to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), where he fought on the side of the Union Army during the American Civil War as a captain. - Robert S. Kerr
Robert S. Kerr, born September 11, 1896 in what is now Ada, Oklahoma and died on January 1, 1963 in Washington, D.C.. From humble beginnings he became a sucessful oilman, Governor of Oklahoma, and a United States Senator who worked to conserve natural resources and whose legacy includes water projects that link the Arkansas River to the oceans of the world. - Oconostota
Oconostota was the Warrior of Chota and the war chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1775 to 1780. On the flag of Nashville, Tennessee, he is believed to be the Native American on the central emblem. His Cherokee name, according to Mooney, was Aganstata, which he translates as "groundhog-sausage" ("agana" = groundhog, and "tsistau" = "I am pounding it" as in pounding meat in a mortar). It appears as "Oconastota" (with two "a"s) on his grave marker at the site of Chota. - Harvey Pratt
Harvey Phillip Pratt (born 1941) is a Native American artist. Celebrated as a painter and sculptor, he is also considered one of the leading forensic artists in the United States. Formerly retired as an Assistant Director with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, he is now employed with the agency as a full time forensic specialist. - William Hale
William Hale, the so-called "King of the Osage Hills," was a U.S. cattleman and convicted murderer. A power player in the Osage Indian Reservation in northern Oklahoma, Hale rose to local prominence in the late 1800s through years of bribery, intimidation, and extortion. In 1921, he ordered the murders of his nephew's wife and mother-in-law, followed by her cousin, sister and brother-in-law two years later, to gain control of their oil rights. - Little Turkey
- Clarence Ray Allen
Clarence Ray Allen (January 16, 1930 - January 17, 2006) was an American prison inmate who was executed by lethal injection on January 17, 2006 at San Quentin State Prison in California for the murders of three people. He became the second oldest inmate to be executed in the United States since 1976 (John Nixon of Mississippi was executed in December 2005 at age 77). While in prison, Allen claimed Choctaw heritage. He was born in Blair, Oklahoma. - Sonny Nevaquaya
Sonny Nevaquaya is a Comanche Native American flute player and maker from Oklahoma. He began his professional career in 1993 when he recorded an album entitled "Spirit of the Flute". His second album, "Viva Kokopelli" was released in 1996. He has also released an album in honor of his father, "Doc Tate Nevaquaya - Legend and Legacy". Nevaquaya currently lives in Florida. - Jeanette Littledove
Jeanette Littledove (born September 4 1966 in Cache, Oklahoma) is an American porn star. She is of Native American heritage: according to her agent, she is a full-blooded Cherokee. - Opothleyahola
Opothleyahola, also spelled Opothle Yohola, Opothleyoholo, Hu-pui-hilth Yahola, and Hopoeitheyohola, (about 1798 - March 27, 1863) was a Muscogee Creek Indian chief, noted as a brilliant orator and spokesperson of the Upper Creek Council. He fought against the United States government during the first two Seminole Wars, and then for the Union during the American Civil War. - Louis W. Ballard
Louis W. Ballard (July 8, 1931 - February 9, 2007) was a Native American composer, educator, author, artist, and journalist. Ballard, who was of Cherokee, Quapaw, French and Scottish heritage, was born in the Native American community of Devil's Promenade, located near Quapaw, in northeast Oklahoma. His Quapaw name was Honganozhe, meaning "Stands With Eagles." Ballard studied music at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Tulsa, … - Pamela Munro
Pamela Munro is an American linguist who specializes on Native American languages. She teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has published numerous articles and books on American Indian languages, and was instrumental in the creation of dictionaries for the Zapotec and Wolof languages. She also contributed to a book on college slang, "Slang U." - Hanging Maw
Hanging Maw was the leading chief of the Cherokee from 1780 to 1792. He became chief following the death of Oconostota, during the troubled period following the destruction of the tradition capital at Chota (also Echota, Chote, Chota-Tanasi, Chota-Tenase). His wife, Betsy, was the sister of Attacullaculla and a granddaughter of Moytoy I. She was killed in a raid by whites. - Alexander McGillivray
Alexander McGillivray (15 December 1750 - 17 February 1793) was a leader of the Creek (Muscogee) Indians during and after the American Revolution who worked to establish a Creek national identity and centralized leadership as a means of resisting American expansion onto Creek territory. McGillivray was born Hoboi-Hili-Miko ("Good Child King") at Little Tallassee in Alabama on the Coosa River. - Lewis Downing
Lewis Downing served as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1867 to 1872. - Joe Byrd
Joe Byrd was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1995 to 1999 and was defeated by Chief Chad Smith in the 1999 Cherokee Nation Elections. During his administration, the Cherokee Nation experienced a nationwide political scandal due to allegations of embezzlement, misuse of funds, abuses of unit power, and organized violence against the Cherokee People. Joe Byrd's private security force armed with rifles, shotguns, … - Jack Hoxie
Jack Hoxie (January 11, 1885 - March 28, 1965) was an American rodeo performer and motion picture actor whose career was most prominent in the silent film era of the 1910s through the 1930s. Hoxie is best recalled for his roles in Westerns and never strayed from the genre. - Attacullaculla
Attacullaculla of Chota-Tenase, Principal Chief of the Cherokee (ca. 1708-ca. 1777), also known as Little Carpenter, was a leading chief of the Cherokee Indians from 1761 to around 1775. He was sometimes known to the British as the "Prince of Chote-Tenase" because his grandfather, Moytoy of Chota, had been the chief of the capital city, Chota-Tenase. His name is also spelled Attakullakulla. His son was Dragging Canoe. - David A. Yeagley
Dr. David Anthony Yeagley (b. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, September 5, 1951) is an American composer, pianist, conservative commentator, and portrait artist. He also writes poetry and fiction, plays the Native American flute, and Gourd Dances. He lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. - William R. Pogue
William Reid Pogue (born January 23, 1930) is a retired American astronaut. - Jackson Narcomey
Jackson Narcomey was born on January 25, 1942 at W.W.Hastings Indian Hospital in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Jacksons Father and Mother, Rev. Raymond and Frances Narcomey raised Jackson and his siblings in Eufaula, Oklahoma the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Jackson returned to Tahlequah to live and attend Sequoyah Indian School, there he met his first artistic influence, Art Instructor Mr. Riley White, it was from Mr. - Chief Yellow Horse
Moses J. "Chief" Yellow Horse (January 28, 1898 – April 10, 1964), was an American baseball player who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, from 1921 until 1922. A Native American from the Pawnee tribe, he is the first full-blooded American Indian to have played in the Major Leagues.
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