Native biography

Famous native americans.

Native american biographies for kids

This wide-ranging and reliable encyclopedia offers the most up-to-date information on prominent and lesser-known Native American military leaders, chiefs.

Famous native americans

Native Books is an independent bookstore and publisher focused on books and literature from Hawaiʻi and the Pacific.

Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Sacagawea, and others fought for recognition, respect, and rights for their people—a struggle that continues today.

12 Influential Native American Leaders

While our Founding Fathers, presidents, and military leaders are remembered as heroes of American culture, it’s often overlooked how indigenous people contributed to many of the major events in U.S.

history. Here are a dozen Native Americans who left a lasting mark with their leadership, bravery, and innovations.

Powhatan

Christopher Newport offers a crown and other gifts to Chief Powhatan.

Also known by his proper name of Wahunsenacawh, Powhatan is perhaps best remembered as the father of Pocahontas, a woman (also called Matoaka) known for her role in English colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, in the early 1600s.

He was also a massively powerful chief at the time, his authority extending over 30 tribes and some 15,000 Algonquian-speaking people of the coastal Virginia area. Powhatan had a mixed relationship with the newcomers; his early assistance gave way to open warfare as they battled for control over the territory, tho