12 Influential Native Americans Leaders

While our Founding Fathers, presidents and military leaders are remembered as heroes of American culture, it's often overlooked how indigenous people contributed to many of the major events in the nation's history. Here are a dozen Native Americans who left a lasting mark with their leadership, bravery and innovations:

Powhatan

Also known by his proper name of Wahunsenacawh, Powhatan is perhaps best remembered as the father of Pocahontas, the female lead of the romanticized version of the Jamestown settlement in the early 1600s. He was also a massively powerful chief at the time, his authority extending over 30 tribes and some 15,000 Algonquian-speaking people of the coastal Virginia area. Powhatan had a mixed relationship with the newcomers, his early assistance giving way to open warfare as they battled for control over the territory, though their relations were largely peaceful by the time of his death in 1618.

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