- Louise Erdrich
The earth was full of life and there were dandelions growing out the window, thick as thieves, already seeded, fat as big yellow plungers. She let my hand go. I got up. "I'll go out and dig a few dandelions," I told her. Outside, the sun was hot and heavy as a hand on my back. I felt it flow down my arms, out my fingers, arrowing through the ends of the fork into the earth. With every root I prized up there was a return, as if I was kin to its secret lesson. - Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier is a Native American activist and member of the American Indian Movement. In 1977 he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for murdering two FBI Agents who died during a 1975 shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. There has been considerable debate over Peltier’s guilt and the fairness of his trial. Some supporters and organizations, including Amnesty International, consider him to be a political prisoner. - Ted Nolan
Ted Nolan (Born - April 7, 1958, on the Garden River Ojibwa First Nation Reserve outside of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada) is the Head Coach of the New York Islanders. Nolan, a retired Canadian professional hockey Left Winger played 3 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins. He also coached for 2 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Buffalo Sabres, … - Norval Morrisseau
Norval Morrisseau, also known as Copper Thunderbird, is an Aboriginal Canadian artist. In his works he depicted the legends of his people, the cultural and political contransts between native Canadian and European traditions, his existential struggles, and his deep spirituality and mysticism. His style is characterized by thick black outlines and bright colors. - Winona Laduke
Winona LaDuke , 37 years old, lives on the White Earth Chippewa Reservation in Northern Minnesota with her two children. LaDuke began working on Indian issues at a young age and spoke before the United Nations when just 18 years old. - George Copway
George Copway (1818 - January 1869) was a Mississauga Ojibwa writer, lecturer, and advocate of Native Americans. His Ojibwa name was "Kah-Ge-Ga-Gah-Bowh" or "Standing Firm" or "He who stands firm". Copway was born near Trenton, Ontario, into a traditional Ojibwa family who later converted to Methodism. After conversion, he attended the local mission school and eventually became a missionary for the Methodist church. - Alexander Henry
Alexander Henry (August 1739-April 4, 1824) was a fur trader and entrepreneur. Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey in what was then British North America, he became a fur-trader at Fort Michilimackinac (Mackinaw City, Michigan) in 1761. Captured by Native Americans in 1763 in connection with the operations unleashed by Pontiac, he was rescued by Wawatam, an Ojibwa, who had adopted him as a brother. - Gerald Vizenor
Gerald Robert Vizenor (born 1934) is a Native American (Anishinaabe) writer, and an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation. One of the most prolific Native American writers, with over 25 books to his name, Vizenor also taught for many years at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was Director of Native American Studies. Vizenor is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, … - Lawrence
Lawrence (Pun) Plamondon was a 1960s left-wing activist who was one of the founders of the White Panther Party. He was the first hippie to be listed on the FBI's Most Wanted List. Pun's father was a half-Ottawa Indian and his mother was part-Ojibwa Indian, but he was unaware of this early in life. These facts were revealed to him only by investigative papers turned over to his lawyers during his prosecution. - John Tanner
John Tanner ("c." 1780 - d. in or after 1846) was the son of the Rev. John Tanner of Virginia. He was born in 1780 and his family moved to the dangerous Indian country on the Ohio River in Kentucky in 1789. In 1790 he was stolen by an Shawnee Indian and began a life amongst the natives and was later thoroughly assimilated into their lifestyles when he was sold to an Ojibwa tribe. He travelled as far west as the Little Saskatchewan River, … - Drew Hayden Taylor
Drew Hayden Taylor is a Canadian playwright, author and journalist. Born in Curve Lake, Ontario, Taylor is part Ojibwa and part Caucasian. About his background Taylor says: "I plan to start my own nation. Because I am half Ojibway half Caucasian, we will be called the occasions. And of course, since I’m founding the new nation, I will be a special occasion." He writes predominantly about First Nations culture, … - Jeff Weise
Jeffrey James Weise (August 8, 1988 - March 21, 2005) was a high school student of Red Lake, Minnesota responsible for the shooting deaths of his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend and the Red Lake High School massacre, a school shooting in which he killed nine people and injured more than a dozen others before committing suicide. He left many postings across the Internet on websites such as nazi.org, … - Keith Secola
Keith Secola is an award-winning figure in contemporary Native American music. He is an Ojibwa originally from Minnesota. Keith Secola plays guitar, flute, and also sings. In 1982 he graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in American Indian Studies. He has a band that's had the names; the Wild Band of Indians, the Wild Javelinas, and Wild Onions. His influences include reggae, folk music, and rock and roll. - Chief Buffalo
Chief Buffalo was an Ojibwe leader from La Pointe, Wisconsin USA. He is most widely known for persuading President Millard Fillmore to allow the Ojibwe to stay on their lands on the south shore of Lake Superior. - Jim Northrup
Jim Northrup (born 1943) is an Anishinaabe (Native American) newspaper columnist, poet, performer and political commentator from the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation in Minnesota. His Anishinaabe name is "Chibenashi" (from "Chi-bineshiinh" "Big little-bird"). - Dudley George
Anthony O'Brien "Dudley" George was an Ojibwa protestor who was shot and killed by Ontario Provincial Police Sergeant Kenneth Deane (who was later found criminally negligent) near Ipperwash Provincial Park in Ontario in 1995 during the Ipperwash Crisis. George was one of a group of natives protesting the Canadian government's seizure of the Stoney Point land. - Francis Pegahmagabow
Corporal Francis Pegahmagabow, MM and two bars, (March 9, 1891 - August 5, 1952) was the aboriginal soldier most highly decorated for bravery in Canadian military history and the most effective sniper of World War I. Three times awarded the Military Medal and twice seriously wounded, he was an expert marksman and scout, credited with killing up to 378 Germans and capturing 300 more. Later in life, he served as chief and a councillor for his band, … - David Treuer
David Treuer (born 1970) is a writer of Ojibwe and Jewish descent. He was born in Washington, D.C. and raised on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. He attended Princeton University and was graduated in 1992 after writing two senior theses, one in the anthropology department and one in the Princeton Program in Creative Writing. While at Princeton he studied with Joanna Scott and Paul Muldoon and his thesis advisor was the Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison. - Basil H. Johnston
Basil H. Johnston, Anishinaabe writer, storyteller, language teacher and scholar, was born on the Parry Island Indian Reserve in Ontario, Canada, on July 13 1929, to Mary (Lafreniere) and Rufus Johnston. He is a member of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation (formerly known as the "Cape Croker Band of Ojibwa"). He graduated from Loyola College, Montreal, Quebec, cum laude in 1954. In 1969, he joined the ethnology department of Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, … - Benjamin Chee Chee
Benjamin Chee Chee, artist, of Ojibwa descent, born Kenneth Thomas Benjamin at Temagami, Ontario 26 March 1944; died at Ottawa 14 March 1977. His early life was troubled and he lost track of his mother, who he spent many years searching for. He moved to Montreal in 1965 where he developed his love of drawing, moving back to Ottawa in 1973. - Chief Bender
Charles Albert "Chief" Bender (May 5, 1884 <sup>1<;/sup> - May 22, 1954) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball during the first two decades of the 20th century. He is also a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Bender was born in Crow Wing County, Minnesota as a member of the Ojibwa tribe - he faced discrimination throughout his career, not least of which was the stereotyped nickname ("Chief") by which he is almost exclusively known today. - Maude Kegg
- James Bartleman
James Karl Bartleman KStJ, O.Ont, BA (born 24 December, 1939, in Orillia, Ontario) is a Canadian diplomat, author, and the 27th Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. His term of office will end on July 31, 2007, when he will be replaced by journalist David Onley. James Bartleman grew up in the Muskoka town of Port Carling, and is a member of the Mnjikaning First Nation. - Edmonia Lewis
Edmonia Lewis was the first African American and Native American woman to gain fame and recognition as a sculptor. At a time in America when slaves were just freed, she found inspiration in the lives of abolitionists and Civil War heroes. In a world which didn’t encourage women of color, through incredible determination and sense of purpose, Edmonia Lewis created great art and received world acclaim. The daughter of a Chippewa Indian woman and an African American man, … - Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut
Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut (c. 1639 - 25 February 1710) was a French soldier and explorer who is the first European known to have visited the area where the city of Duluth, Minnesota is now located and the headwaters of the Mississippi River near Grand Rapids. His name is sometimes anglicized as "DuLuth" and is the namesake of Duluth, Minnesota. He was born in Saint-Germain-Laval, near Lyon, France, and first visited New France in 1674. - Wawatam
Wawatam (fl. 1762 - 1764) was an Ojibwa chief at Michilimackinac. He is known through his rescue of British trader Alexander Henry from the Ojibwas' capture of Fort Michilimackinac in 1763. The 1700s fort, scene of the capture and rescue, was reconstructed on its original site in the second half of the 1900s. The site is located near Mackinaw City, Michigan. - Carole Lafavor
Carole LaFavor is an Ojibwe novelist, activist, nurse, and mother. She is Two-Spirit and Lesbian identified and was a member of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS from 1995-1997. She was featured in Mona Smith's 1988 film "Her Giveway" (Women Make Movies) about her experiences as a person living with AIDS. - Hanging Cloud
Hanging Cloud (Ojibwa name Ah-shah-way-gee-she-go-qua ("Aazhawigiizhigokwe" in the contemporary spelling), meaning "Goes Across the Sky Woman") was an Ojibwa woman who was a full warrior ("ogichidaakwe" in Ojibwe) among her people, and was the only woman to ever become one. She wore war paint, carried full weapons, and took part in battles, raids and hunting parties. She was a full member of the war council, performed war dances, … - Tommy Prince
Thomas "Tommy" Prince, MM (October 25, 1915-November 25, 1977) was one of Canada's most decorated war heroes, serving in World War II and the Korean War. - Enmegahbowh
Enmegahbowh was the first Native American to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. His name means "The man who stands by his people." Enmegahbowh was also known as John Johnson. In 1851, James Lloyd Breck began a mission among the Ojibwa of Minnesota. Enmegahbowh was a catechumen there and was baptized by Breck. Enmegahbowh became a deacon and went to Crow Wing, Minnesota to assist in a new mission there in 1858. - William Benjamin Robinson
William Benjamin Robinson (December 22 1797 - July 18 1873) was a fur trader and political figure in Upper Canada. He was born in Kingston in 1797, the son of Christopher Robinson, and moved to York (Toronto) with his family in 1798. In 1802, his mother remarried after his father's death and moved to Newmarket, where he grew up. Robinson later took over his stepfather's mills and stores. He later joined his brother Peter in the fur trade, … - Adam Fortunate Eagle
Adam Fortunate Eagle (born Adam Nordwall) is a hereditary member of the Ojibway Nation, and was the principal organizer of the 1969 to 1971 occupation of Alcatraz Island by "Indians of All Tribes". He was the author of the "THE ALCATRAZ PROCLAMATION to the Great White Father and his People" which stated the goal of the occupiers to create a Center for Native American Studies, an American Indian Spiritual Center, an Indian Center of Ecology, … - E. Donald Two-Rivers
E. Donald "Ed" Two-Rivers (sometimes known as Donald Two-River) is Anishinaabe (the correct term for people from the Native American tribe also known as the Ojibwa/Chippewa). He is a noted poet, playwright and spoken-word performer. Brought up first on the reservation and then in the urban Native community in Chicago, Two-Rivers has been an activist for Native rights since the 1970's, for which he was awarded the Iron Eyes Cody Award for Peace in 1992. - George Morrison
George Morrison (1919-17 April, 2000) was an American landscape painter and sculptor. An Ojibwa born on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation near Chippewa City, Minnesota, he attended Grand Marais High School and then the Minnesota School of Art, now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. While a Fulbright scholar he studied in Paris and Antibes. Later in New York City he was part of a circle of abstract expressionists. - Rod Michano
Rod Michano, (born Toussaint Roderick Michano, April 19, 1964 in Thunder Bay, Ontario) is a noted Canadian First Nations HIV/AIDS activist and educator. He is a member of the Ojibway First Nation of Pic River in northern Ontario. His father, Toussaint Michano, a World War II veteran, was a former chief to the Ojibways of Pic River. His mother was Veronica Star. - Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre
Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre (October 24, 1701 - September 8, 1755) traced his lineage to a number of New France's prominent families. Most immediately however, his father Jean-Paul was an adventurer and had founded a post at Chagouamigon in Wisconsin. It is believed that Jacques spent a number of years there with his father where he obtained an excellent knowledge of the Indian languages and the business conducted in the trading posts. - Walter Bresette
Walter Bresette (July 4, 1947 - February 21, 1999) was a prominent Ojibwe activist, politician, and author most notable for work on environmental issues and Ojibwe treaty rights in Northern Wisconsin and the Lake Superior region. He founded or co-founded several organizations including Witness for Nonviolence, the Midwest Treaty Network, and the Wisconsin Green Party. - Andrew Blackbird
Andrew J. Blackbird (ca. 1815-1908) was an Ottawa tribe leader and historian. - Arthur Rankin
Arthur Rankin (1816 - March 13 1893) was a surveyor, entrepreneur and political figure in Canada West. He was born in Montreal in 1816, the son of Irish immigrants. He ran away from home and became a cabin boy. In 1835, he returned to Canada, then qualified as a surveyor and moved to the Windsor area. In 1837, he smuggled an escaped slave from Ohio to Upper Canada. He served in the militia during the 1837 Rebellions. - Aysh-Ke-Bah-Ke-Ko-Zhay
Aysh-ke-bah-ke-ko-zhay was a powerful Ojibwa chief who traveled to Washington in 1855 to negotiate the cession of ten million acres (40,000 km²) including the headwaters of the Mississippi in northern Minnesota. “Tell him I blame him for the children we have lost, for the sickness we have suffered, and for the hunger we have endured. The fault rests on his shoulders.” —Aysh-ke-bah-ke-ko-zhay, Leech Lake Ojibwa speaking of Territorial Governor Alexander Ramsey
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