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…
At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida–land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. By the end of the decade, very few natives remained anywhere in the southeastern United States.
Working on behalf of white settlers who wanted to grow cotton on the Indians’ land, the federal government forced them to leave their homelands and walk hundreds or even thousands of miles to a specially designated “Indian territory” across the Mississippi River (where Oklahoma is today). This difficult and sometimes deadly journey is known as the Trail of Tears.
Little Turtle was a Miami chief, who fought several battles with the United States in the 1790s, which was referred to at the time as Little Turtle's War (now known as the Northwest Indian War). In 1791, his warriors defeated General St. Clair, who lost 623 men, the most decisive loss by the US against Native American forces ever.
Chief Black Kettle (Mo'ohtavetoo'o) (born ca. 1803, killed November 27, 1868) was a leader of the Southern Cheyenne after 1854. He was known as a peacemaker who accepted numerous treaties to protect his people. He survived the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864. He and his wife were among those killed in 1868 at the Battle of Washita River, in a US Army attack on their camp by George Armstrong Custer. They were shot in the back.
Tecumseh was a Shawnee war chief who attempted to assemble a confederation of tribes to resist white settlement into the Ohio and Mississippi valleys in the early 1800s.
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. He was noted chiefly as the principal leader of the Indian forces in the battle with General Wayne of August 20, 1794, at Presque Isle, Ohio.