| | |  Editorials | Opinions | November 2009 
Top 10 Kick-Ass Native Americans
 nativeamericans
Ryan McKee - AskMen.com
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November 25, 2009
The American Thanksgiving celebrates a heavily fictionalized story of pilgrims and Native Americans sitting down to a bountiful, peaceful feast. However, the first Thanksgiving probably consisted a handful of starving settlers dumbfounded that they were still alive and eating food previously thought to be inedible, like eel and corn.
Thankfully, they had Native Americans like Squanto to show them what to eat to survive. They repaid Squanto and his people by enslaving, massacring and destroying their entire way of life.
However, many great Native Americans refused to take it lying down. They fought back, proving themselves smarter and better warriors until the sheer number of Europeans and their diseases overwhelmed them.
There's a lot more to Native American culture than their prowess on the battlefield. For this feature, however, that's all we're going to be looking at: the most kick-ass men this culture produced. Here are the most legendary of those men.
 No.10 - Cowkeeper
While not as well known as other names on this list, Cowkeeper (aka Ahaya) was truly hardcore and one of the earliest known leaders of the Seminole tribe. When early Spaniards began attacking Indian settlements, he began raiding right back at them. He loathed the Spanish so much, he believed the only way to the afterlife was to kill 100 of them. However, his bloodlust didn’t extend to the British, who respected his tribes rebellious spirit. In 1783, after falling ill, he confessed that he had only killed 86 Spaniards and asked his sons to kill 15 in his name.
 No.9 - Tecumseh
Leader of the Shawnee and a large multi-tribal confederacy that opposed the U.S. in the War of 1812, the cause he propagated became known as Tecumseh’s War. He advocated a return to an ancestral lifestyle. They wanted the U.S. to give back their land and keep their white noses out of tribal business. William Henry Harrison thumbed his nose at this and a long series of battles around the Great Lakes followed. The man who killed Tecumseh, Richard Mentor Johnson, launched an entire political career off of that one deed and became Vice President of the U.S.
 No.8 - Red Cloud
Without a doubt, one of the best Native American war leaders the United States Army ever faced, Red Cloud organized 2,000 Arapaho, Sioux and Cheyenne in a successful bitch-slapping of U.S. forces out of the Lakota territory that is now Wyoming and southern Montana. Known as Red Cloud’s War, the two-year skirmish ended with the U.S. agreeing to completely withdraw from their area. Of course, they later broke that pact, so Red Cloud, head of the Oglala Lakota Sioux, put on his diplomat headdress and met with President Grant. He stood firm against the government, but ultimately had to lead his people to a reservation.
 No.7 - Black Hawk
By his 15th birthday he had already killed a man. By his 18th birthday, he had led multiple war parties to victory. Although not a hereditary chief of the Sauk, Black Hawk became war chief for his bravery. Even though his people had a treaty for land in Illinois, white settlers continued to move there. When Black Hawk started killing them off, the Black Hawk War began. It ended with the chief in jail, and bolstered the early career of Abraham Lincoln, but it took the Illinois Militia, Michigan Territory Militia, the U.S. Army, heir Indian allies, and a U.S. gunboat to finally bring him down.
 No.6 - Captain Jack
A chief of the Modoc tribe in California and Oregon, he utilized guerrilla tactics that nearly a century later were heralded as revolutionary. The Modoc were forced from their ancestral home to the Klamath Reservation. However, Captain Jack said “F*ck that!” and led the Modoc back home. When the U.S. Army showed up in 1872, Jack led an attack from the wastelands of what is now Lava Beds National Monument. They killed 35 servicemen and suffered no casualties. At a supposed peace treaty, Captain Jack and several Modoc pulled pistols and killed negotiators, including General Canby, the only general killed in the Indian Wars.
 No.5 - Sequoyah
A silversmith, Sequoyah created Cherokee syllabary in 1821, which made reading and writing in their native language possible. This is one of the only times in recorded history that a member of an illiterate people independently created an effective writing system. The Cherokee quickly realized the worth of his system and officially adopted it in 1825. Their literacy rate soared and surpassed that of surrounding European-American settlers, who had written language for centuries. His notoriety rose and he became a negotiator for the Cherokee in Washington, D.C.
 No.4 - Thayendanegea
Also known by his European name, Joseph Brant, this Mohawk leader became the most famous Native American of his time. “Monster Brant” is still remembered for the massacres and atrocities against settlers in the Mohawk Valley and his efforts to regain land for his people in Canada. Beginning at age 15, he fought in the French and Indian War. After receiving a British silver medal for his service, he went to Dartmouth College and married a white lady. However, he refused to completely integrate and did more for his people than any other leader at the time.
 No.3 - Sitting Bull
A Sioux holy man, Sitting Bull also swung a mean tomahawk, leading his people as a war chief during years of resistance to the United States. His forces defeated Custer at Little Bighorn. After his warrior years, he joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and reportedly cursed at audiences in his native tongue during performances. He returned to his tribe after touring with a circus horse. Police arrived to arrest the chief for past deeds, and the Sioux began shooting. By the end, 13 men were dead including Sitting Bull. His horse responded to its show cue and offered a hoof to “shake hands.”
 No.2 - Geronimo
The Apache were known as the fiercest warriors in the Southwestern United States and Geronimo became their most famous leader. He fought against both U.S. and Mexican government expansion for nearly 30 years, eluding capture or serious injury although greatly outnumbered. When the Mexican government put a bounty on Apache scalps, Geronimo’s raid became so numerous and brutal that no area felt safe. Though captured in 1886, he lived to be 79 years old and told his story to a biographer who published the famous book about his life.
 No.1 - Crazy Horse
The most famous war leader of the Lakota, he became feared by other tribes in the early 1850s for his skill in battle and continued fighting against U.S. expansion until his death. From a young age, he reportedly had trance visions of himself as a great warrior. He became an expert at luring cocky U.S. battalions into ambushes by pretending to be an injured, vulnerable target. Most famously, he led his tribe into the Battle of Little Bighorn, which left 268 soldiers dead including George Custer and two of his brothers. |
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