Definition of "chieftains" [chieftains]

• Plural form of chieftain. (noun)

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• "Interchieftaincy struggles developed into a revolt that involved even native chieftains from the other two provinces, Sichuan and Guizhou."
• "This trend revealed that native prefects and those of higher rank were being replaced by assigned officials, a major effort to remove native chieftains from the provincial level to the prefectural level and downward."
• "A few, and those a very few, who still respected Wallace, were present; not because they were sent for (great care having been taken not to summon his friends) but in consequence of a rumor of the charge having reached them; and these were, the lords Lennox and Loch-awe, with Kirkpatrick, and two or three chieftains from the western Highlands."