William Walker - Notable Native Americans
William Walker was a Wyandot Native American leader and the first provisional governor of Nebraska Territory , which also encompassed the present-day state of Kansas.
Walker was educated in a Methodist school in Worthington, Ohio and spoke English, French, Wyandot, Delaware, Shawnee, Miami, and Potawatomi; and read Latin and Greek. He was described as an eloquent speaker and forceful writer on political and literary subjects. In 1832, Walker headed a delegation of five Wyandot to explore western lands in hopes of escaping Ohio, where the government had failed to protect the peaceful Wyandots. He became chief of the Wyandot in 1835. In 1843, he and 664 Wyandot left Ohio by steamboat for their new home in Kansas. Walker's objective was to prevent the Wyandot from being dispossessed of their lands in Kansas as they had been in Ohio.
