George Colbert was a Chickasaw chief who negotiated directly with President Andrew Jackson against the forced removal of the Chickasaw Nation. He died on the Trail of Tears in 1839.Continue to George Colbert: The Legacy of a Chickasaw Chief →
Stand Watie became the last major Confederate field commander to surrender to the Union, on June 23, 1865, which took place at Doaksville, in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. Watie, a Cherokee, was the only Native American on either side in the Civil War who attained the rank of brigadier general. Stand Watie’s surrender came 75 days after Robert E. Lee’s to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, 66 days after Joe Johnston’s to William Tecumseh Sherman, at Bentonville, North…
For a Cherokee wedding, the bride wears a special style of dress called a “tear dress.” The groom wears a ribbon shirt and black slacks. They both wear moccasins. In lieu of rings, the bride and groom exchange gift baskets.Continue to Cherokee Wedding Attire →
Frank Blackhorse (Francis DeLuca, Frank Leonard Deluca, Cherokee) is one of several aliases used by a member of the American Indian Movement. He is perhaps best known for his participation in the Wounded Knee incident, particularly his role in the shootout that left two FBI and one American Indian dead and for becoming a fugitive on the run who fled to Canada shortly after. Much of Blackhorse’s early and personal life is shrouded in mystery. According to one source, Frank Blackhorse was born Frank Leonard Deluca. However, another source identifies Frank…
A great deal about Cornstalk, a Shawnee chief, has been written, referring to him by at least three names. He was born ca 1720 in one of the Shawnee villages in the drainage of the upper Susquehanna River. Cornstalk is said to have been born in western Pennsylvania at least by 1720, but some sources say 1708, 1710, or 1715 and his current grave marker says 1727. He moved with his family when he was about 10 to Ohio.
At that time, the Shawnees were undergoing another of their migrations and his family moved to Ohio River country on it’s Scioto River tributary, in what is now southern Ohio.
By the end of the French and Indian War in the early 1760’s, he had become a principal leader of the Tribe and remained so until he was murdered by whites at Fort Randolph (Point Pleasant, now West Virginia) in 1777.
Blue Jacket or Weyapiersenwah (c. 1743 – c. 1810) was a war chief of the Shawnee people, known for his militant defense of Shawnee lands in the Ohio Country. Perhaps the preeminent American Indian leader in the Northwest Indian War, in which a pan-tribal confederacy fought several battles with the United States, he was an important predecessor of the famous Shawnee leader Tecumseh.
Continue to Blue Jacket or Weyapiersenwah (c. 1743 – c. 1810) →