Tatanka Mani (Walking Buffalo) was a leader of the Mdewakanton Dakota in the upper Mississippi Valley. Euro-American immigrants who met him as they advanced into the region in the early nineteenth century came to know him and his village as Red Wing.

Democrat Rudy Perpich was Minnesota's thirty-fourth and thirty-sixth governor. The son of an Iron Range mining family, he was recognized for his innovative ideas, support of women, and emphasis on foreign trade.

From the 1890s through the 1950s, Frances Densmore researched and recorded the music of Native Americans. Through more than twenty books, 200 articles, and some 2,500 Graphophone recordings, she preserved important cultural traditions that might otherwise have been lost. She received honors from Macalester College in St. Paul and the Minnesota Historical Society in the last years of her life.

Andrew Peterson was born Anders Petterson on October 20, 1818, on a farm in Sjöarp, Västra Ryd, Östergötland, Sweden. His family had financial ties to the church, so he and his brother received a better education than many farmers of the time. He had interests in music, and experimental agricultural and farm techniques.

Alexander Wilkin was a St. Paul lawyer and businessman who served as secretary of Minnesota Territory. He was the highest ranking officer from Minnesota killed during the Civil War.

Ruth A. Myers was known as the “grandmother of American Indian education in Minnesota.” A persistent voice for Native children and their families, Myers focused on education policy as well as learning opportunities for Native students. She also produced curricula and resource materials that reflected Native American history and culture for all Minnesota learners.

Author F. Scott Fitzgerald is a cultural icon of the Roaring Twenties and the Jazz Age. His work, although largely underappreciated during his lifetime, reflects the thoughts and feelings of his generation.

Bagone-giizhig, known in English as Hole-in-the-Day the Younger, was a charismatic and influential leader who played a key role in relations between the Ojibwe and the U.S. government in Minnesota. Yet he won as many enemies as friends due to his actions during the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862 and his claim to be the leader of all Ojibwe. In 1868, Bagone-giizhig was assassinated by a group of other Ojibwe from Leech Lake. For many years the real reason for this killing remained a mystery.

Roy Wilkins, who spent his formative years in the Twin Cities, led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1949 to 1977. During those years, the NAACP helped achieve the greatest civil rights advancements in U.S. history. Wilkins favored new laws and legal challenges as the best ways for African Americans to gain civil rights.

Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut (also known as du Luth), was born in Lyons, France, around 1639. A nobleman who quickly rose to prominence in the French royal court, he traveled to New France (Quebec, Canada) in 1674 at the age of thirty-eight to command the French marines in Montreal.