30 Indigenous Leaders

1. Alanis Obomsawin (born 31 August 1932)

Alanis Obomsawin is a renowned documentary filmmaker, storyteller and singer. Working with the National Film Board, Obomsawin has made documentary films that represent topics of importance to Indigenous peoples from their perspectives. She has received numerous awards for her work, including being a Companion of the Order of Canada and a Grand Officer of the Ordre national du Québec.

2. Bernelda Wheeler (born 8 April 1937; died 10 September 2005)

Bernelda Wheeler was a broadcaster and journalist who was the host of Our Native Land on CBC for 10 years. She was one of the first female Indigenous journalists in Canada. In addition to her journalism, Wheeler was an accomplished author of children’s books and social activist who spoke about her experiences in residential schools.

3. Catherine Sutton (Nahneebahwequa) (born 1824; died 26 September 1865)

Catherine Sutton (Nahneebahwequa) was an Anishinaabe writer, Methodist missionary and advocate for the rights of Indigenous peoples. She fought for the rights of Indigenous women, like herself, who had their Indian Status taken from them for marrying non-status people. Her community chose her to petition the British Crown regarding issues they faced, including their legal right to own land.

4. Daphne Odjig (11 September 1919; died 1 October 2016)

Daphne Odjig was an Anishinaabe visual artist known for being a founding member of the Professional Native Indian Arts Inc., also known as the Indian Group of Seven. Her artistic work helped to promote Indigenous voices in contemporary Canadian art (see also Contemporary Indigenous Art in Canada).

5. Elijah Harper (born 3 March 1949; died 17 May 2013)

Elijah Harper was an Oji-Cree leader and politician. He served as Chief of Red Sucker Lake Indian Band (now Red Sucker Lake First Nation) and was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. He is best known for opposing the Meech Lake Accord in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly, contributing to the accord failing.

6. Eva Aariak (born 10 January 1955)

Eva Aariak is an Inuit leader and politician in Nunavut. She has worked to promote Inuktitut in Nunavut, including as the first language commissioner of Nunavut. She was the second premier of Nunavut and the first woman to hold the position of premier of Nunavut. In 2021, Aariak was appointed as commissioner of Nunavut, the federal government’s representative in the territory.

7. Francis Pegahmagabow (born 9 March 1891; died 5 August 1952)

Francis Pegahmagabow was an Anishinaabe leader and war hero from the First World War (see also Indigenous Peoples and the First World War). As a result of his service, Pegahmagabow was one of the most decorated Indigenous veterans of the First World War. After returning from the war, he was elected Chief of the Parry Island Band (now Wasauksing First Nation) and promoted the rights of Indigenous peoples.

8. Frank Calder (born 3 August 1915; died 4 November 2006)

Frank Calder was a Nisga’a politician and Chief. He is best known for being a leader in the Supreme Court challenge brought forward by the Nisga’a Tribal Council’s known as the Calder case. The case asserted Aboriginal title exists to traditional territories in Canadian law. Calder was also the first Indigenous person to serve in the British Columbia legislature.

9. Gabriel Dumont (born December 1837; died 19 May 1906)

Gabriel Dumont was a Métis leader who served as a hunt chief and military commander. He was a military leader and ally of Louis Riel during the 1885 North-West Resistance. As a military leader, Dumont led Métis soldiers in the Battle of Duck Lake, Battle of Fish Creek and the Battle of Batoche.

10. Georges Erasmus (born 8 August 1948)

Georges Erasmus is a Dene leader who was a co-chair of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Additionally, Erasmus served as a leader in multiple Indigenous political organizations, including as president of the Dene Nation (then known as the Indian Brotherhood of the Northwest Territories) and as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (see also Assembly of First Nations).

11. Harold Cardinal (born 27 January 1945; died 3 June 2005)

Harold Cardinal was a Cree chief and leader who is best known for being a prominent leader in the movement against the White Paper, 1969. In 1968, he was elected president of the Indian Association of Alberta. In this role, he helped write Citizens Plus, also known as The Red Paper, a counterpoint to the White Paper, 1969. Additionally, Cardinal wrote The Unjust Society (1969) and The Rebirth of Canada’s Indians (1977).

12. Harry Daniels (born 16 September 1940; died 6 September 2004)

Harry Daniels was a Métis politician and leader. He worked towards the recognition of the rights of Métis people. Daniels served as the president of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples from 1976 to 1981 and again from 1997 to 2000. He was a leader in the Supreme Court case Daniels v. Canada, which ultimately recognized that Métis and Non-Status Indian people should be considered “Indian” under section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867.

13. Jeannette Corbiere Lavell (born 21 June 1942)

Jeanette Corbiere Lavell is Anishinaabe activist, educator and community worker who challenged discrimination against Indigenous women in the Indian Act (see also Women and the Indian Act). Her work challenging this discrimination, along with that of other Indigenous women, ultimately led to the passing of Bill C-31, which attempted to remove this form of discrimination from the Indian Act. She is a founding member of the Ontario Native Women’s Association.

14. Saint Kateri Tekakwitha (born 1656; died 17 April 1680)

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha was the first Indigenous person in North America to be canonised by the Catholic Church. Tekakwitha was a Kanyen’kehà:ka (Mohawk) woman who was baptized into the Catholic Church. While she was still alive, Christian Haudenosaunee people and Catholic missionaries attributed spiritual powers to Tekakwitha. After her death, miracles were attributed to her that resulted in her canonization as a saint. She is also known as the “Lily of the Mohawks.”

15. Kenojuak Ashevak (born 3 October 1927; died 8 January 2013)

Kenojuak Ashevak was an Inuit artist. She was the first woman to become involved in the Cape Dorset printmaking shop (see Inuit Printmaking). Additionally, she is well-known for her print The Enchanted Owl, which was included on a Canada Post stamp. She was acknowledged for her work by being made a Companion of the Order of Canada and won a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.

16. Kent Monkman (born 3 November 1965)

Kent Monkman is a Cree artist. He works in multiple media, including painting, performance art and film. Much of his work address aspects of Indigenous histories in Canada. He also uses a trickster alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, in some performance art pieces and paintings.

17. Louis Riel (born 22 October 1844; died 16 November 1885)

Louis Riel was a Métis leader, a founder of Manitoba and a central figure in both the Red River Resistance and the North-West Resistance. Riel’s leadership as part of the Métis National Committee’s provisional government contributed to the creation of the Manitoba Act and the inclusion of Manitoba in Confederation.

18. Margaret Pictou LaBillois (born 10 July 1923; died 19 April 2013)

Margaret Pictou LaBillois was a Mi’kmaw chief, air force photographer and Elder. During the Second World War, Elder LaBillois served as an aircraftswoman first class in the RCAF Women’s Division. She was an aerial photographer whose work contributed to mapping the route of the Alaska Highway. After the Second World War ended, Elder LaBillois returned to her community of Eel River Bar First Nation and, in 1970, was elected as the first female Chief of a First Nation in New Brunswick.

19. Mary Two-Axe Earley (born 4 October 1911; died 21 August 1996)

Mary Two-Axe Earley was a Kanyen’kehá:ka Elder and human rights activist and an advocate for the rights of women. She challenged laws that discriminated against Indigenous women (see Women and the Indian Act). Elder Two-Axe Earley's work, and that of other Indigenous women, resulted in the passing of Bill C-31, which attempted to remove discrimination against Indigenous women in the Indian Act.

20. Mistahimaskwa (Big Bear) (died 17 January 1888)

Mistahimaskwa (Big Bear) was a Plains Cree chief who refused to sign Treaty 6 in 1876. Throughout the late 1800s, he worked to unite Cree nations and form alliances with the Métis to gain concessions from the federal government.

21. Murray Sinclair (born 1951; died 4 November 2024)

Murray Sinclair was an Anishinaabe lawyer, judge and chair of multiple inquiries. He was the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba and the second Indigenous judge in all of Canada. He was a commissioner for multiple inquiries, including the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry. He is likely best known as the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). After serving on the TRC, Sinclair was appointed to the Senate of Canada.

22. Nellie J. Cournoyea (born 4 March 1940)

Nellie J. Cournoyea is an Indigenous leader and politician. She was active in land claim processes in the 1970s and 1980s, including the final settlement of the Inuvialuit land claim in 1984. She became premier of the Northwest Territories in November 1991, becoming the first Indigenous woman to lead a provincial or territorial government in Canada.

23. Pitikwahanapiwiyin (Poundmaker) (born circa 1842; died 4 July 1886)

Pitikwahanapiwiyin (Poundmaker) was a Cree leader who worked to protect the rights of his people during the negotiations for Treaty 6. Pitikwahanapiwiyin was a Chief and is now recognized as a peacemaker who attempted to prevent violence during the North-West Resistance.

24. Ralph Garvin Steinhauer (born 8 June 1905; died 19 September 1987)

Ralph Garvin Steinhauer was a Cree leader who served as lieutenant-governor of Alberta. In this position, Steinhauer was the first Indigenous person to serve as lieutenant-governor of a Canadian province. Steinhauer was dedicated to promoting the rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada and served in leadership positions of the Indian Association of Alberta and his home community of Saddle Lake Cree Nation.

25. Richard Nerysoo (born 1953)

In 1984, Richard Nerysoo is an Indigenous leader and politician. He became the first Indigenous person to serve as premier of the Northwest Territories (then known as “government leader”). In addition to his work within the Government of the Northwest Territories, Nerysoo also participated in the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, Indian Brotherhood of the Northwest Territories and the Gwich’in Tribal Council.

26. Sandra Lovelace Nicholas (born 15 April 1948)

Sandra Lovelace Nicholas is a Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) Indigenous rights advocate. Lovelace Nicholas worked towards removing discrimination against Indigenous women in the Indian Act (see Women and the Indian Act). Her international work towards this goal contributed to the federal government’s decision to pass Bill C-31 to remove discrimination against Indigenous women from the Indian Act. In 2005, she was appointed to the Canadian Senate.

27. Sheila Watt-Cloutier (born 2 December 1953)

Sheila Watt-Cloutier is an Inuit leader and advocate. In 1995, she was elected as the president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council-Canada, following which she became the international chair of the council. She has also worked to fight climate change and protect the environment. Her activism resulted in her being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

28. Tecumseh (born circa 1768; died 5 October 1813)

Tecumseh was a Shawnee chief and leader of a confederacy of First Nations. As a leader, Tecumseh helped to establish a confederacy of First Nations to resist American incursions into First Nations territory. As a military leader, Tecumseh, along with the First Nations confederacy, allied with the British in the War of 1812.

29. Thanadelthur (born circa 1697; died 5 February 1717)

Thanadelthur was a Denesuline peacemaker who helped to establish peace between the Denesuline and Cree during the fur trade. She is also known for creating a relationship between the Denesuline and Hudson’s Bay Company and helping to expand the fur trade to what is now Churchill, Manitoba.

30. Tommy Prince (born 25 October 1915; died 25 November 1977)

Tommy Prince was an Indigenous war hero and advocate who is one of the most decorated Indigenous soldiers in Canadian history. As a soldier, Prince fought in the Second World War and the Korean War. After returning from the Second World War, Prince worked with the Manitoba Indian Association to lobby the federal government to alter the Indian Act.