Tried to Stop the Trail of Tears
John Ross, principal chief and national council president of the Cherokee, devoted his life to resisting the U.S. government seizure of his people’s land. Born to a Scottish father and Cherokee mother and educated in a white school, he straddled both worlds, helping draft a constitution and start a tribal newspaper. After rival Cherokee leaders signed a fraudulent treaty giving away ancestral homelands, Ross fought Washington for two years against his people’s removal, being imprisoned in the process. President Andrew Jackson refused his petitions, leading to the brutal forced migration known as the Trail of Tears; thousands died, including Ross’ wife. He served as chief of the new United Cherokee Nation for the remainder of his life, continuing to fight for his people’s needs in Washington actively.
Osceola (c. 1804-1838)
Fought to Protect Seminole Florida Homelands
Though not a formal chief, Osceola (“Black Drink Singer”) earned recognition as a prominent military tactician and leader who opposed the Treaty of Payne’s Landing, which sought to remove Seminole from their ancestral Florida lands. Believed to have been born to a Creek mother, Osceola led warriors from his adopted Seminole tribe into the Everglades, where they fought back against the U.S. government and provided refuge for tribal people who didn’t wish to leave, as well as escaped slaves. Eventually, Osceola was captured and imprisoned at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina, where he died in 1838.
Pi'tamaka / Running Eagle (died c. 1878)
Renowned Hunter and Warrior
Growing up, young Pi'tamaka (“Brown Weasel Woman”) preferred the activities of Native males and asked her father to teach her to hunt and fight. On one occasion, she risked her life to rescue him when he fell from his horse during an enemy attack. After he was killed by an enemy war party during a buffalo hunt, she assumed a leadership role, protecting horses from raiders and fighting many battles, including against the Crow. Chief Lone Walker gave her the name Running Eagle, an honor usually given to male warriors. She died in 1878 in a battle with Flathead warriors. Pitamakan Lake in Glacier National Park bears her name.
Manuelito (c. 1818 -1893)
Navajo Warrior and Resistance Leader
A leader of the Dine’ (Navajo) people, Manuelito led significant resistance to the U.S. government's efforts to relocate them to the arid Bosque Redondo reservation south of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After army troops destroyed tribal homes, crops and livestock, some two-thirds of the Navajo surrendered, undergoing the Long Walk of 1864, a brutal forced march to the reservation. Manuelito and thousands of other Dine’ refused to surrender, withdrawing into the mountains and becoming guerrilla fighters. But after U.S. Army Colonel Kit Carson led the destruction of their food sources, Manuelito surrendered. He eventually traveled to Washington and successfully petitioned for a new Navajo reservation sited on original tribal lands.
Red Cloud (1822-1909)
First Indian in the West to Win a War Against the US
A fearless warrior and raider in his youth, Red Cloud became a formidable opponent to the U.S. military in the Upper Plains—especially after the discovery of gold in Montana accelerated the influx of miners and other migrants, threatening the buffalo population and crucial Lakota hunting grounds. The fierce battles that ensued between Native warriors and the U.S. military in the years directly after the Civil War became known as Red Cloud’s War. In December of 1866, he led the Fetterman Massacre, a surprise attack on U.S. forces that killed more than 80 U.S. soldiers; it was the largest victory for Native Americans in the Plains prior to the Battle of Little Bighorn. After 1870, Red Cloud became a diplomat for his people, visiting Washington, D.C., repeatedly—and twice meeting with President Ulysses S. Grant.
Geronimo (1829-1909)