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A public domain portrait Drawing photo of Nanye-hi by

10 Famous Native American Women you should know about

Germany Kent once said, “You don’t know the background story of resilience, struggles and strength of beautiful and outgoing women. All you see is what is showcased.” Which I agree with remarkably merely any objection. America is a wonderful nation which so far is among the best-ranked nations where women are empowered.

So, as long the American history as been in existed, active American women have along the American history been wonderful characters in American history. Some Native women have been political leaders, activists, artists, healers and many other leading roles in society. In the article are ten famous American native women you should know about.

1. Nanye-hi

A public domain portrait Drawing photo of Nanye-hi by

Nanye-hi is also known in English as Nancy Ward. She was born in c. 1738 and died between 1822 and 1824. Nanye-hi means “One who goes about” he was a Beloved Woman and political leader of the Cherokee.

She advocated for peaceful coexistence with European Americans and, late in life, spoke out for Cherokee retention of tribal lands. She is credited with the introduction of dairy products to the Cherokee economy.

The Cherokee had to face multiple issues during the Revolutionary War. Most were allied with the British against the rebel colonists. They wanted to expel the settlers from their lands. Ward’s cousin, Dragging Canoe, wanted to ally with the British against the immigrants, but Nanyehi was trying to support the rebels.

2. Louise Abeita

Louise Abeita Chewiwi was born on 9 September 1926 and died on 21 July 2014. She was a Puebloan writer, poet, and educator, who was an enrolled member of Isleta Pueblo. Diego showcased his daughter’s poems by bringing together artists from Navajo, Apache and Pueblo communities to print a book based on them.

This group formed the National Gallery of the American Indian (NGAI) and published Abeita’s illustrated book. To be exact, Louise was 13 years old at the time when he father showcased her poems. I am a Pueblo Indian Girl (1939) has been described as the “first truly Indian book” by historians Gretchen Bataille and Laurie Lisa.

The book depicts the life of Abeita through prose and poetry. Themes throughout the book touch on Pueblo traditions, with illustrations by artists from NGAI complimenting her writing. This book is considered to be the first effort in the Pueblo community to document their art and culture for non-Native viewers.

3. Margarete Bagshaw

Margarete Bagshaw was born on 11 November 1964 and died on 19 March 2015. She was an American artist known for her paintings and pottery. She was descended from the Tewa people of K’apovi or the Kha’p’oo Owinge, Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico.

Throughout her 20-year career, she was known for using colour, composition and texture. Bagshaw was featured in many publications including The SantaFean magazine, The Essential Guide magazine, Southwest Art magazine,[ Native Peoples magazine, the New Mexico Magazine and recently both the Albuquerque Journal and ABQ Arts.

Bagshaw took part in over a dozen major museum exhibitions, including the Eiteljorge Museum Of American and Western Art in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Hamden Museum in Virginia, and numerous invitational shows with the Museum of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

4. Sophia Alice Callahan

Sophia Alice Callahan was born on 1 January 1868 and died on 7 January 1894. She was a novelist and teacher of Muscogee heritage. Her novel, Wynema, a Child of the Forest (1891) is thought “to be the first novel written by a Native American woman.”

Callahan wrote in a romantic novel style but she also clearly intended what has been called a “reform novel,”. She identifies many wrongs suffered by Native Americans in United States society in her novel. After being discovered in the late 20th century, the novel was reprinted in 1997. It has been the subject of scholarly studies.

5. Nellie Charlie

A photo of Nellie Charlie by Yosemite Mono Lake Paiute Native American History –

Nellie Charlie was born in 1867 and died in 1965. She was a Mono Lake Paiute – Kucadikadi basketmaker associated with Yosemite National Park. She was born in Lee Vining, California, the daughter of tribal headman Pete Jim, and his wife Patsy, also a basket maker. She married Young Charlie, a Mono Lake Paiute – Kucadikadi man from Yosemite, and they had six children. Her Paiute name was Besa-Yoona.

She worked in both traditional and modern basket styles and participated in the annual Indian Field Days competition in Yosemite in the 1920s. Her daughter, Daisy Mallory, became a prominent weaver. Nellie was among a group of Paiute women who became known for their exceedingly fine, visually stunning and complex polychrome baskets.

6. Cecilia Fire Thunder

Cecilia Fire Thunder born Cecilia Apple on 24 October 1946 is a nurse, community health planner and tribal leader of the Oglala Sioux. On November 2, 2004, she was the first woman elected as president of the Tribe. She served until being impeached on June 29, 2006, several months short of the two-year term.

The major controversy was over her effort to build a Planned Parenthood clinic on the reservation after the South Dakota legislature banned most abortions throughout the state. The tribal council impeached her for proceeding without gaining their consensus.

Fire Thunder was among the founders of the Oglala Lakota Women’s Society after her return to the reservation in 1986. She serves on the National Advisory Board of the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS) and has worked at a shelter for domestic abuse. She is the coordinator of the Native Women’s Society of the Great Plains.

7. Martha George

Martha George was born on 28 April 1892 and died on 7 January 1987. She was repeatedly elected chairperson of the Suquamish tribe, serving from the late 1920s to the early 1940s.

She was a descendant of Chief Seattle in present-day Washington state. She founded the Small Tribes Organization of Western Washington. Martha was a famous basketweaver, who taught master weaver Peg Deam.

8. Debora Iyall

Debora Kay Iyall was born on 29 April 1954. She is a Cowlitz Native American artist and was the lead singer for the new wave band Romeo Void. Iyall got her surname from her family adopting their ancestor Iyallwahawa’s “first” name written at the time as Ayiel.

She joined Frank Zincavage and Peter Woods to create Romeo Void in 1979 while attending the San Francisco Art Institute. The band was remarkable for their modernization of the punk sound, and Iyall’s forceful, half-spoken delivery.

Romeo Void parted ways in 1985, and the following year Iyall released her debut solo album Strange Language on Columbia Records. After a lukewarm reception of the album, Iyall returned to her first love, as an artist and art instructor. Throughout the 1990s she taught art at the 29 Palms Cultural Center and for the Arts Council for San Bernardino.

9. Sarah James

Sarah Agnes James born in 1946 is a native Neets’aii Gwich’in from Arctic Village, Alaska, USA, and a board member of the International Indian Treaty Council. She was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2002.

She received the prize for their efforts to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) from plans of oil exploration and drilling. Oil and gas exploration would disturb the life cycle of the Porcupine caribou, which has been a foundation for the Gwich’in culture since approximately 18,000 BC.

10. Yvonne Kauger

Yvonne Kauger was born on 3 August 1937. She is an associate justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, was appointed to the Court’s District 4 seat by Governor George Nigh in 1984, and served as chief justice from 1997 to 1998. She was born in New Cordell, Oklahoma, and grew up in Colony, Oklahoma, and is an honorary member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma.

Kauger founded the Gallery of the Plains Indian in Colony, Oklahoma and is also the co-founder of the Red Earth organization. Kauger also serves as Symposium Coordinator of the Sovereignty Symposium. Kauger was inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame in 2001.