Major General Clarence Leonard Tinker (November 21, 1887 – June 7, 1942) was a career United States Army officer, the highest ranking Native-American officer (as a member of the Osage Nation), and the first to reach that rank.

He flew to lead a force during the Battle of Midway in June 1942; his plane went out of control and was lost in the ocean.

While growing up, Clarence worked in the print shop of his father's newspaper, the Wah-Sha-She News.

[1] Beginning in 1900, Tinker attended the Haskell Institute, the famous Indian school in Lawrence, Kansas, but withdrew before graduating.

There he met and married Madeline Doyle, a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

During World War I, Tinker served in the southwestern United States and California, and was promoted to major.

In 1927, he was named Commandant of the Air Service Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, Texas.

[2] In January 1942, he was promoted to major general, the first Native American in U.S. Army history to attain that rank.