Indian Chiefs


Book Description

Intended as a literary study guide with activities designed for group and individual projects. Includes a book summary, author information, vocabulary builders, comprehension and discussion questions and cross-curricular activities. Some pages are reproducible for classroom use.







American Indian Leaders


Book Description

Diverse patterns and goals of leadership are illuminated in portraits of twelve Indian leaders since the colonial era including Old Briton, Joseph Brant, Sitting Bull, Quanah Parker, Carlos Montezuma, and Peter MacDonald




Chiefs & Warriors


Book Description

This miniature gift book focuses on the subject of chiefs and warriors of native American life. It presents photographs found in Edward C. Curtis's 20-volume study of North American Indians, originally published at the beginning of this century.




Indian Oratory


Book Description

This collection of notable speeches by early-day leaders of twenty-two Indian tribes adds a new dimension to our knowledge of the original Americans and their own view of the tide of history engulfing them. Little written record of their oratory exists, although Indians made much use of publics address. Around the council fires tribal affairs were settled without benefit of the written word, and young men attended to hear the speeches, observe their delivery, and consider the weight of reasoned argument. Some of the early white men who traveled and lived among the Indians left transcriptions of tribal council meetings and speeches, and other orations were translated at treaty council meetings with delegates of the United States government. From these scattered reports and the few other existing sources this book presents a reconstruction of contemporary thought of the leading men of many tribes. Chronologically, the selections range from the days of early contact with the whites in the 1750’s to a speech by Quanah Parker in 1910. Several of the orations were delivered at the famous Medicine Lodge Council in 1867. A short biography of each orator states the conditions under which the speeches were made, locates the place of the council or meeting, and includes a photograph or copy of a painting of the speaker. Speakers chosen to represent the tribes at treaty council were all orators of great natural ability, well trained in the Indian oral traditions. Acutely conscious that they were the selected representatives of their people, these men delivered eloquent, moving speeches, often using wit and sarcasm to good effect. They were well aware of all the issues involved, and they bargained with great statesmanship for survival of their traditional way of life.




Cochise


Book Description

When it acquired New Mexico and Arizona, the United States inherited the territory of a people who had been a thorn in side of Mexico since 1821 and Spain before that. Known collectively as Apaches, these Indians lived in diverse, widely scattered groups with many names—Mescaleros, Chiricahuas, and Jicarillas, to name but three. Much has been written about them and their leaders, such as Geronimo, Juh, Nana, Victorio, and Mangas Coloradas, but no one wrote extensively about the greatest leader of them all: Cochise. Now, however, Edwin R. Sweeney has remedied this deficiency with his definitive biography. Cochise, a Chiricahua, was said to be the most resourceful, most brutal, most feared Apache. He and his warriors raided in both Mexico and the United States, crossing the border both ways to obtain sanctuary after raids for cattle, horses, and other livestock. Once only he was captured and imprisoned; on the day he was freed he vowed never to be taken again. From that day he gave no quarter and asked none. Always at the head of his warriors in battle, he led a charmed life, being wounded several times but always surviving. In 1861, when his brother was executed by Americans at Apache Pass, Cochise declared war. He fought relentlessly for a decade, and then only in the face of overwhelming military superiority did he agree to a peace and accept the reservation. Nevertheless, even though he was blamed for virtually every subsequent Apache depredation in Arizona and New Mexico, he faithfully kept that peace until his death in 1874. Sweeney has traced Cochise’s activities in exhaustive detail in both United States and Mexican Archives. We are not likely to learn more about Cochise than he has given us. His biography will stand as the major source for all that is yet to be written on Cochise.




The Potawatomi Indians


Book Description




Famous Indian Chiefs I Have Known


Book Description

In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant sent O.O. Howard, widely known as the "Christian general", as an ambassador of peace to the western Indian tribes. Famous Indians Chiefs I Have Known is Howard's account of his journey. He tells of his peace agreement with the great Apache chief Cochise; describes his pursuit of Joseph and the surrender of the Nez Perce chief, who became his friend; and provides a poignant glimpse of the defeated Apache war leader Geronimo, selling canes and autographs. Equally impressive are his portraits of Winnemucca of the Piutes, the Sioux chiefs Red Cloud and Sitting Bull, and his descriptions of meetings with Washakie of the Shoshones, Pasqual of the Yumas, Antonio of the Pimas, Santos and Pedros of the Apaches, Manuelito of the Navajos, three Indians women--Sarah Winnemucca, granddaughter of the Piute chief, and Mattie, her sister-in-law--both of them powerful peacemakes in their own right. Included are chapters on the Seminole chief Osceola and the Modoc chief Captain Jack, famed for their resistance to white domination. In the introduction, Bruce J. Dinges, editor of publications at the Arizona Historical Society, discusses Howard's career and sets his book in historical context. - Publisher.




The Greatest Indian Chiefs: Biographies


Book Description

"The Greatest Indian Chiefs" is a collection of biographies of the influential and notable Native Americans such as King Philip, Pontiac, Black Hawk and Geronimo, just to name the few. The author also reviews different theories on the origin of Native Americans and their original homeland, prior to American continent. Contents: Cofachiqui, The Indian Princess Powhatan, or Wah-Un-So-Na-Cook Massasoit, The Friend of the Puritans King Philip, or Metacomet, The Last of the Wampanoaghs Pontiac, The Red Napoleon, Head Chief of the Ottawas and Organizer of the First Great Indian Confederation Logan, or Tal-Ga-Yee-Ta, The Cayuga (Mingo) Chief, Orator and Friend of the White Man. Also a Brief Sketch of Cornstalk Captain Joseph Brant, or Thay-En-Da-Ne-Gea, Principal Sachem of the Mohawks and Head Chief of the Iroquois Confederation Red Jacket, or Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha, "The Keeper Awake." The Indian Demosthenes, Chief of the Senecas Little Turtle, or Michikiniqua, War Chief of the Miamis, and Conqueror of Harmar and St. Clair Tecumseh, or "The Shooting Star," Famous War-chief of the Shawnees, Organizer of the Second Great Indian Confederation and General in the British Army in the War of 1812 Black Hawk, or Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, and His War Shabbona, or Built Like a Bear, The White Man's Friend, a Celebrated Pottawatomie Chief Sitting Bull, or Tatanka Yotanka, The Great Sioux Chief and Medicine Man Chief Joseph, of the Nez Perces, or Hin-Mah-Too-Yah-Lat-Kekt, Thunder Rolling in the Mountains, The Modern Xenophon Geronimo, or Go-Yat-Thlay, The Yawner, The Renowned Apache Chief and Medicine Man Quanah Parker, Head Chief of the Comanches, With, an Account of the Captivity of His Mother, Cynthia Anne Parker, Known as "The White Comanche" A Sheaf of Good Indian Stories From History Indian Anecdotes and Incidents, Humorous and Otherwise Whence Came the Aborigines of America?




The Peace Chiefs of the Cheyennes


Book Description

A Plains tribe that subsisted on the buffalo, the Cheyennes depended for survival on the valor and skill of their braves in the hunt and in battle. The fiery spirit of the young warriors was balanced by the calm wisdom of the tribal headmen, the peace chiefs, who met yearly as the Council of the Forty-four. "A Cheyenne chief was required to be a man of peace, to be brave, and to be of generous heart," writes Stan Hoig. "Of these qualities the first was unconditionally the most important, for upon it rested the moral restraint required for the warlike Cheyenne Nation." As the Cheyennes began to feel the westward crush of white civilization in the nineteenth century, a great burden fell to the peace chiefs. Reconciliation with the whites was the tribe's only hope for survival, and the chiefs were the buffers between their own warriors and the United States military, who were out to "win the West." The chiefs found themselves struggling to maintain the integrity of their people-struggling against overwhelming military forces, against disease, against the debauchery brought by "firewater," and against the irreversible decline of their source of livelihood, the buffalo. They were trapped by history in a nearly impossible position. Their story is a heroic epic and, oftentimes, a tragedy. No single book has dealt as intensively as this one with the institution of the peace chiefs. The author has gleaned significant material from all available published sources and from contemporary newspapers. A generous selection of photographs and extensive quotations from ninteteenth-century observers add to the authenticity of the text. Following a brief analysis of the Sweet Medicine legend and its relation to the Council of the Forty-four, the more prominent nineteenth-century chiefs are treated individually in a lucid, felicitous style that will appeal to both students and lay readers of Indian history. As adopted Cheyenne chief Boyce D. Timmons says in his preface to this volume, "Great wisdom, intellect, and love are expressed by the remarkable Cheyenne chiefs, and if you enter their tipi with an open heart and mind, you might have some understanding of the great 'Circle of Life.'"