The New Warriors

Time and again, Native American leaders in the modern era have risen to combat intolerance and injustice, promote cross-cultural understanding, strive for better educational and economic opportunities, and fight for religious freedom and control of their heritage. These modern warriors have led and inspired through their writing, faith, tireless activism, educational training, political savvy, legal expertise, and charisma. An indispensable introduction to the rich variety of Native American leadership, this book profiles men and women who have played a significant role in the affairs of their communities and of the nation over the course of the twentieth century. The leaders showcased include the early twentieth-century writer and activist Zitkala-Sa; American Indian Movement leader Russell Means; political activists Ada Deer and LaDonna Harris; scholar and writer D'Arcy McNickle; orator and Crow Reservation superintendent Robert Yellowtail; U.S. Senators Charles Curtis and Ben Nighthorse Campbell; Episcopal priest Vine Deloria Sr.; chairman Howard Tommie, the champion of economic and cultural sovereignty for the Seminole Tribe of Florida; Cherokee chief Wilma Mankiller; Pawnee activist and lawyer Walter Echo-Hawk; Crow educator Janine Pease Pretty-on-Top; and Philip Martin, the driving force behind the economic revitalisation of the Mississippi Band of Choctaws. R. David Edmunds is Watson Professor of History at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is the editor of American Indian Leaders: Studies in Diversity (Nebraska 1980) and the author of several works including Tecumseh and the Quest for Indian Leadership, The Shawnee Prophet (Nebraska 1980), and The Potawatomis: Keepers of the Fire.