Portal:Montana/Selected biography
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Louis Riel (October 22, 1844 – November 16, 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and leader of the Métis people of the Canadian prairies. He led two resistance movements against the Canadian government and Sir John A. Macdonald that sought to preserve Métis rights and culture as their homelands in the Northwest came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence.
The first such resistance was the Red River Rebellion of 1869–1870. The provisional government established by Riel ultimately negotiated the terms under which the modern province of Manitoba entered the Canadian Confederation. Riel was forced into exile in the United States as a result of the controversial execution of Thomas Scott during the rebellion. Despite this, he is frequently referred to as the "Father of Manitoba." While a fugitive, he was elected three times to the Canadian House of Commons, although he never assumed his seat. During these years, he was frustrated by having to remain in exile despite his growing belief that he was a divinely chosen leader and prophet, a belief which would later resurface and influence his actions. He married in 1881 while in exile in Montana, and fathered three children. He became a naturalized American citizen and was actively involved in the Republican party.
Riel returned to what is now the province of Saskatchewan to represent Métis grievances to the Canadian government. This resistance escalated into a military confrontation known as the North-West Rebellion of 1885. It ended in his arrest, trial, and eventual execution on a charge of high treason. Riel was viewed sympathetically in francophone regions of Canada, and his execution had a lasting influence on relations between the province of Quebec and English-speaking Canada. Whether seen as a Father of Confederation or a traitor, he remains one of the most complex, controversial, and ultimately tragic figures in the history of Canada.
Jenna Jameson (born Jenna Marie Massoli on April 9, 1974) is an American pornographic actress and entrepreneur who has been called the world's most famous porn star and "The Queen of Porn". She started acting in erotic films in 1993 after having worked as a stripper and glamour model. By 1996, she had won the three top newcomer awards from pornographic film industry organizations. She has since won more than 20 adult film awards, and has been inducted into both the X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) and Adult Video News (AVN) Halls of Fame.
Jameson founded pornographic entertainment company ClubJenna in 2000, with Jay Grdina, whom she later married. This business was initially an individual website, which expanded into managing similar websites of other stars and began producing pornographic films in 2001. The first such film, Briana Loves Jenna (with Briana Banks), was named at the 2003 AVN Awards as the best-selling and best-renting pornographic title for 2002. By 2005, Club Jenna had revenues of US$30 million with profits estimated at half that. Advertisements for her site and films, often bearing her picture, tower on a forty-eight-foot-tall billboard in New York City's Times Square. Playboy TV hosts her Jenna's American Sex Star reality show where aspiring porn stars compete for a Club Jenna contract.
Jameson is also noted for her relative success in crossing over into mainstream celebrity, starting with a minor role in Howard Stern's 1997 film Private Parts. Her mainstream appearances continued with guest-hosting E! television, an award-winning voice role in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and a recurring role on the 2003 NBC television series Mister Sterling. Her 2004 autobiography, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale, spent six weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Ryan David Leaf (born May 15, 1976) is a former American football quarterback who played for the San Diego Chargers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks between 1998 and 2002. As of 2007, he is the quarterback coach and golf head coach for West Texas A&M University. His brother Brady is a quarterback for the University of Oregon Ducks.
Leaf had a successful college career at Washington State University, where he was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy his junior year. He was selected as the second overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft, after which many scouts predicted that Leaf would have a successful career in the league. However, despite his athleticism, his time as a professional was short and marked by injuries, poor media relations, and failure.
Leaf was born in Great Falls, Montana, and led C. M. Russell High School to the 1992 Montana state title. After high school, Leaf played college football at Washington State University, playing in 32 games for the Cougars and starting 24 of them. He averaged 330.6 yards passing per game in his junior year and threw for a then-Pac-10 conference record 33 touchdowns. He also helped the Cougars defeat the University of Washington Huskies, 41-35, for the first time since 1994. Leaf ended the school's 67-year Rose Bowl drought and helped bring the Cougars their first Pac-10 championship in school history. Despite a strong early showing by Leaf in the Rose Bowl, the Cougars were defeated 21-16 by eventual co-national champion Michigan Wolverines.
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard, was the creator of Dianetics, and founder of the Church of Scientology. He was also an American author in numerous pulp fiction genres as well as a prolific writer of non-fiction works.
Hubbard was a highly controversial public figure during his lifetime. Many details of his life remain disputed, with official and unofficial biographies depicting Hubbard in radically different ways. Official Scientology biographies present him in hagiographic terms as "larger than life, attracted to people, liked by people, dynamic, charismatic and immensely capable in two dozen fields". In contrast, unofficial biographies (some of which are by former Scientologists) paint a much less flattering picture which often contradicts official Church accounts. One of Hubbard's unofficial biographers, Russell Miller, describes him as "one of the most successful and colourful confidence tricksters of the twentieth century" and comments that "every biography of Hubbard published by the church is interwoven with lies, half-truths and ludicrous embellishments."
L. Ron Hubbard was born in 1911 in Tilden, Nebraska to Ledora May Hubbard (née Waterbury) and Harry Ross Hubbard. His father was born Henry August Wilson in Fayette, Iowa, but was orphaned as an infant and adopted by the Hubbards, a farming family from Fredericksburg, Iowa. Harry joined the United States Navy in 1904, leaving the service in 1908, then re-enlisted in 1917 when the United States declared war on Germany. He served in the Navy until 1946, reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Commander in 1934. Ledora was a feminist who had trained to become a high school teacher and married Harry in 1909.
George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Promoted at an early age to a temporary war-time rank of brigadier general, and later made a permanent Lt. Colonel, he was a flamboyant and aggressive commander during numerous Civil War battles, known for his personal bravery in leading charges against opposing cavalry. He led the Michigan Brigade whom he called the "Wolverines" during the Civil War. He was defeated and killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, against a coalition of Native American tribes comprised almost exclusively of Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapahoe warriors, and led by the Sioux chiefs Crazy Horse and Gall and by the Hunkpapa seer and medicine man, Sitting Bull. This confrontation has come to be popularly known and enshrined in American history as Custer's Last Stand.
Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio, to Emanuel Henry Custer (1806-1892), a farmer and blacksmith, and Marie Ward Kirkpatrick (1807-1882). Through his life Custer was known by a variety of nicknames. Among Whites he was called alternately Autie (his early attempt to pronounce his middle name), Armstrong, Fanny, or Curley. When he went west the Plains Indians whom he encountered called him Yellow Hair and Son of the Morning Star. His brothers Thomas Custer and Boston Custer died with him at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, as did his brother-in-law and nephew. His other two full siblings were Nevin and Margaret Custer, and he had several other half siblings. Custer's father's family originally came from Westphalia in West Germany. They emigrated and arrived in America in the 17th century. The original family surname was "Küster". He was a fifth-generation descendant of the German, Arnold Küster from Kaldenkirchen, Duchy of Jülich (today North Rhine-Westphalia state), who later immigrated to Hanover, Pennsylvania.
Red Cloud (Lakota: Makhpiya Luta), (1822–December 10, 1909) was a war leader of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux). One of the most capable enemies the U. S. military ever faced[citation needed], he led the successful war in 1866–1868 known as Red Cloud's War over control of the Powder River Country in northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana. Later he led his people in reservation life.
Red Cloud was born close to the forks of the Platte River by the modern-day city of North Platte, Nebraska. His mother was an Oglala and his father was a Brulé. Red Cloud was partly raised by his maternal uncle, Chief Smoke. At a young age, he fought against neighboring Pawnee and Crow, gaining much military experience.
In an 1851 treaty at Fort Laramie, the Sioux (among other tribes) had agreed on terms by which the United States might establish limited roads and military posts on Indian land. By 1865, Red Cloud was one of many Indian leaders who believed the U.S. was breaking the treaty by establishing forts too far up the Bozeman Trail. They had seen other tribes expelled from their land and were determined to resist.
