- Crazy Horse
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.
- Sitting Bull
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.
- Red Cloud
Red Cloud (Lakota: Makhpiya Luta), (1822-December 10, 1909) was a war leader of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux). One of the most capable enemies the U. S. military ever faced, he led the successful war in 1866-1868 known as Red Cloud's War over control of the Powder River Country in northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana. Later he led his people in reservation life.
- Black Elk
Black Elk (Hehaka Sapa) (c. December 1863 - August 17 or August 19, 1950 (sources differ) was a famous "Wichasha Wakan" (Medicine Man or Holy Man) of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux). He was a second cousin of Crazy Horse. Black Elk participated, at about the age of twelve, in the Battle of Little Big Horn of 1876, and was wounded in the massacre that occurred at Wounded Knee in 1890. In 1887, Black Elk travelled to England with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, …
- Lame Deer
Lame Deer, (in Lakota "Tahca Ushte"; 1900 or 1903-1976, sources differ), also known as John Fire, John (Fire) Lame Deer and later The Old Man, was a Lakota holy man. Lame Deer was an Oglala-Lakota Sioux born on the Rosebud reservation. His father was Silas Fire Let-Them-Have-Enough. His mother was Sally Red Blanket.
- American Horse
American Horse (ca. 1820?-1876) was a minor headman of the Miniconjou Lakota during the Plains Indian wars of the last half of the nineteenth century. More commonly known as Iron Plume, he was probably present at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and was mortally wounded at the Battle of Slim Buttes. Following the native victory over General George Armstrong Custer at the Little Bighorn in June 1876, the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne moved eastward where by early fall, …
- Wovoka
Wovoka (c. 1856 - September 20, 1932), also known as Jack Wilson, was the Northern Paiute religious leader who founded the Ghost Dance movement. Wovoka means "wood cutter" in the Northern Paiute language. Wovoka was born in the Smith Valley area southeast of Carson City, Nevada around the year 1856. Wovoka's father may have been the religious leader variously known as "Tavibo" or "Numu-Taibo" whose teachings were similar to those of Wovoka.
- Billy Mills
William ("Billy") Mills (born June 30, 1938) is the only American ever to win an Olympic gold medal in the 10,000 meter run which he did at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. That race has been called the greatest upset in Olympic history. Born in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Billy Mills, a Native American (Oglala Lakota (Sioux)), was raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He was orphaned at the age of 12. Mills took up running while attending the Haskell Institute, …
- Spotted Tail
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.
- Kevin Locke
Kevin Locke (Lakota name: Tokeya Inajin, meaning "The First to Arise") is a Lakota/Anishinaabe Native American flutist and hoop dancer. Locke has done much work to learn and record Lakota Sioux traditional flute music, especially Love songs. He is frequently cited as an ambassador of Native American culture to the rest of the United States, and the world. In fact, he has served as a cultural ambassador for the United States Information Service since 1980, …
- Joseph M. Marshall III
Joseph M. Marshall III is a Lakota historian, writer, teacher, craftsman, administrator, and public speaker. His first language is Lakota. He can craft a Lakota bow in the traditional style, has helped found a hospital and a university, and makes his home on the Northern Plains with his wife. Also, he helped in the cause to put wolves back into Yellowstone National Park. Joseph Marshall III has several notable television connections and appearances.
- Little Thunder
Wakinyan-cekala was a Brulé Lakota chief. Little Thunder was born about 1820. He took over as chief of the Brulé after the death of Conquering Bear in 1854. Little Thunder died about 1879 on the Rosebud Indian Reservation of the Dakota Territory.
- Frank Fools Crow
Frank Fools Crow, (died 1989) was a Native American Lakota Sioux spiritual leader. He was the nephew of Black Elk. He was the subject of a biography written by Thomas Mails. In 1975 he was invited to offer a prayer before the United States Senate. In 1983, he presented the fifth and current Chief Illiniwek Indian regalia to the University of Illinois.
- White Bull
White Bull (Sioux: "Pte-san-hunka") (April 1849 - June 21, 1947) was the nephew of Sitting Bull, and a famous warrior in his own right. White Bull participated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. For years it was said White Bull boasted of killing Lt. George Armstrong Custer at the infamous battle. Other sources say White Bull himself never made that claim but admitted to struggling with Custer.
- Zitkala-Sa
Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, better known by her pen name, Zitkala-Sa (Lakota: pronounced "zitkala-ŠA" (sha), and translates to "Red Bird"), was a Native American writer, editor, musician, teacher and political activist. She was born and raised on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota by her mother, Ellen Simmons, whose Yankton-Nakota name was Taté Iyòhiwin (Every Wind or Reaches for the Wind).
- Rain-In-The-Face
Rain-in-the-Face (also known as Ito-na-gaju or Exa-ma-gozua) (c. 1835 - September 14, 1905) was a warchief of the Lakota tribe of Native Americans. His mother was a Dakota related to the band of famous Chief Inkpaduta. He was among the Indian leaders who defeated George Armstrong Custer and the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment at the 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn. Born in the Dakota Territory near the forks of the Cheyenne River about 1835, …
- Kicking Bear
Kicking Bear (1846-1904), also called Mato Wanartaka, was an Oglala Lakota who became a band chief of the Minneconjou Lakota Sioux. He fought in several battles during the War for the Black Hills, including the Battle of Little Big Horn (Greasy Grass). Also a holy man, he was active in the Ghost Dance religious movement of 1890, and had traveled with fellow Lakota Short Bull to visit the movement's leader, Wovoka (a Paiute holy man living in Nevada).
- Short Bull
* Short Bull, Arnold, a member of the Sicangu (Brulé) Lakota tribe of Native Americans, instrumental in bringing the Ghost Dance movement to the Lakota living on reservations in South Dakota. * Short Bull, Grant (c1852-1935) was an Oglala Lakota, a member of the Soreback band and a brother of He Dog.
- John Two-Hawks
John Two-Hawks is an Oglala Lakota Native American musician who has been performing professionally in live concerts since the early 1990s. He can sing and play many instruments, but is best known for the Native American flute. He has produced a dozen CD recordings and a DVD, and has also written a number of books filled with Native American wisdom to accompany some of his CDs. He often guest lectures for schools and universities on Native American history and culture.
- He Dog
He Dog (Lakota: "Sunka Bloka") (ca. 1840-1936). A member of the Oglala Lakota, He Dog was closely associated with Crazy Horse during the Great Sioux War of 1876-77.
- Raymond J. Demallie
Raymond J. Mallie is an American anthropologist whose work focuses on the cultural history of the peoples of the Northern Plains, particularly the Lakota. His work is informed by interrelated archival, museum-based, and ethnographic research in a manner characteristic of the ethnohistorical method. Professor DeMallie was born in 1946 and raised in Rochester, New York. In 1964 he attend the Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture given by Fred Eggan.
- Little Hawk
Little Hawk (Lakota: Chetan-chikala), (1836-1895), Oglala Lakota War Chief and a half brother of Worm, father of Crazy Horse (Lakota: Tashunka-witko). In the Lakota extended family scheme, Crazy Horse was thus a 'son' of Little Hawk. Crazy Horse had a younger half-brother called Little Hawk as the namesake of their uncle. The elder Little Hawk took the name Long Face after bestowing his on his nephew, but when the half-brother was killed in battle in 1871, …
- Joseph Epes Brown
Joseph Epes Brown (1920-2000) was an American scholar whose lifelong dedication to Native American traditions helped to bring the study of American Indian religious traditions into higher education. His seminal work was a book entitled, "The Sacred Pipe," an account of his discussions with the Lakota holy man, Black Elk, regarding the religious rites of his people.
- Marcus Reno
Marcus Albert Reno (November 15, 1834 - March 30, 1889) was a career military officer in the American Civil War and in the Black Hills War against the Lakota (Sioux) and Northern Cheyenne. He is most noted for his role in the Battle of Little Big Horn.
- Conquering Bear
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, …
- Chief Gall
Gall (c. 1840 - 1895) (tribal name Pizi) was a battle leader of the Hunkpapa Lakota and was one of the commanders who took part in the Battle of Little Bighorn. Born in present day South Dakota around 1840, Gall was recognized as an accomplished warrior during his late teens and became a chief in his twenties. He served under Sitting Bull during the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, and later fled to Canada with him until his surrender.
- Raymond A. Bucko
Raymond A. Bucko, S. J., is an American Jesuit priest and anthropologist noted for his work among the Lakota Indians. Bucko received his Ph.D. in anthropology in 1992 from the University of Chicago, where he studied under Raymond D. Fogelson. In 1998 he published a book on the Lakota sweat lodge. He is professor of anthropology at Creighton University.
- Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (born 1930) is a Crow Creek Lakota Sioux editor, essayist, poet, novelist, and academic, whose trenchant views on Native American politics, particularly tribal sovereignty, have caused controversy. Cook-Lynn co-founded "Wicazo Sa Review", an academic journal devoted to the development of Native American studies as an academic discipline. She retired from her long academic career at Eastern Washington University in 1993, …
- Black Moon
Black Moon "Wi Sapa" (c1821--March 1, 1893). Miniconjou Lakota headman with the northern Lakota during the nineteenth century, not to be confused with the Hunkpapa leader by the same name.
- Delphine Red Shirt
Delphine Red Shirt (born 4 June 1957) is an Oglala Lakota Sioux writer. She has served as the Chairperson of the United Nations NGO Committee on the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People from 1995 to 1996, and as the United Nations Representative for the Four Directions Council: International Indigenous Organization from 1994 to 1997. She is currently a syndicated columnist for Indian Country Today, and the Hartford Courant.
- Goes Ahead
Goes Ahead was a Crow scout for George Armstrong Custer’s Seventh Cavalry during the 1876 campaign against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne. He was a survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and his accounts of the battle are valued by modern historians. Born into the Crow tribe, he was also known as The First One, Goes First, The One Ahead, Comes Leading, Man With Fur Belt, …
- Crow Foot
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.
- Frederick Benteen
Frederick William Benteen (August 24, 1834-June 221898) was a military officer during the American Civil War and then during the Black Hills War against the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne. He was in command of a battalion of the 7th U. S. Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
- Valentine McGillycuddy
Dr. Valentine Trant McGillycuddy (1849-1939) was a controversial pioneer of the effort to build a sustainable relationship between the United States and the Native American people. As the surveyor for the Newton-Jenney Party, McGillycuddy was the first known person to climb Harney Peak in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He then served as Contract Surgeon with General George Crook during the Battle of the Rosebud, the Battle of Slim Buttes, and the Horsemeat March.
- White Man Runs Him
White Man Runs Him - (c. 1858 - June 2, 1929) was a Crow scout serving with George Armstrong Custer’s 1876 expeditions against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne that culminated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. His accounts of the battle and the events leading up to the battle are invaluable to modern historians, but were largely ignored for nearly a hundred years.
- Black Buffalo Woman
Black Buffalo Woman was Crazy Horse's love interest, whom she had known since childhood. She was the daughter of Red Cloud's brother, and was the first cousin of He Dog and Red Heart Bull. Though she was married to a man named No Water, she married Crazy Horse in 1870 anyway as Lakota were allowed to divorce their husbands at any time for any reason. Despite this, No Water was enraged by his wife's elopement.
- Karina Lombard
Karina Lombard (born on January 21, 1964 in Tahiti) is an actress. Lombard's mother is from Tahiti. Lombard is a naturalized U.S. citizen, but when she was one, her father, who is of Russian, Italian and Swiss descent, took her to Barcelona, Spain. She later attended a number of Swiss boarding schools where she became fluent in Spanish, English, Italian, French, and German. She came to New York when she was 18 and began modeling and taking acting classes.
- Felipe Rose
Felipe Rose is, of course, best known as the Native American-clad performer in the sensationally popular disco group, the Village People; but this joyful Asbury Park resident is now spreading his wings as a gifted solo performer. Born in Manhattan and raised in Brooklyn, he was attracted to the arts as a child. In 1970, when Rose was 16 years old, he won a scholarship to study dance with the Ballet de Puerto Rico, with whom he participated in a dance-drama recital at Lincoln Center.
- Lone Horn
Lone Horn, also known as One Horn (Lakota: "Ha-wón-je-tah", c.1790 to 1875, born in present day South Dakota) was chief to the Minneconjou Teton Lakota. Lone Horn was father to Big Foot and Touch the Clouds, and was uncle of Crazy Horse. He participated in the signing of the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. He died peacefully at the Cheyenne River. After Lone Horn's death in 1875, Big Foot became the chief.
- Lame White Man
Lame White Man, or "Ve'ho'enohnenehe", was a Southern Cheyenne battle chief who fought at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, June 25, 1876 and was killed there. He was also known as Bearded Man (to the Lakota) and Mad Hearted Wolf ("Hahk o ni"). He was the husband of Twin Woman and father to Red Hat and Crane Woman. During the battle he wore a captured cavalry jacket found tied to the cantle of a saddle.