Chief Chirpa

Chirpa was a male Ewok who served as the head of his tribe's Council of Elders in the Bright Tree Village on the forest moon of Endor. The gray-furred Chirpa carried a reptilian staff denoting his rank which carried the teeth and horns of animals he had hunted. He and his wife Ra-Lee had two daughters: Asha and Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka. Chirpa was also the brother of Bozzie and the uncle of Paploo.

As a young warrior, Chirpa earned the trust of his fellow villagers during the Ewok–Dulok wars, and he later ascended to the position of Chief.[8] During his management, Chief Chirpa was known by his sapience and severity. Beyond this, he was one of the strongest Ewok warriors, and he knew at least one magic device: Chirpa used prism pebbles to tell legends and stories for the young Ewoks.

His chores included the training of his younger daughter, apprentice, and heiress Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka, who was appointed as the Heir Princess against the initial opposition of the most of the Council of Elders. For some time the Elders did not consent to have a female leader, but after Kneesaa led the Ewoks to victory against the Zorbian space pirates, and after other tests, Chirpa agreed to continue Kneesaa's training and saw her becoming an honorary member of the Council.

When his daughter Kneesaa was still very young, Ra-Lee was killed by a hanadak in the forest. It was believed that Asha was killed as well until they discovered several years later that she had been raised in the woods by a family of korrinas. Chirpa was later tearfully reunited with his lost daughter.

In 1 ABY during the Festival of Love, he traveled to Theed on Naboo on the invitation of Queen Kylantha. As he had no knowledge of the Galactic Civil War, he was welcoming to both Rebels and Imperials alike.

A few years later, the Imperials started arriving on Endor's moon. Chirpa led a group of warriors to investigate the "strange creatures" (Imperial shuttles) which Chirpa said "smelled like fire, only worse." The Elders debated over what to do about the invaders. Chirpa reminded them about the invaders' power and decided that the Ewoks would not fight them. But when Wicket Wystri Warrick saw an AT-ST stumble on some rocks and crash in the woods, he told Chirpa and convinced him that the Imperials could be defeated if the Ewoks built traps for them.

By that time, Chirpa had been chief of the village for forty-two seasons. When the Rebels arrived on Endor, he went along with Logray's idea to offer the newcomers as a sacrifice to the "golden god." But when he saw the powerful magic they were capable of, he realized that he had erred. He decided that the Ewoks should listen to the newcomers' story. After hearing C-3PO tell their tale, Chirpa convinced the village elders to make them honorary members of the tribe. Because the Empire's construction on the moon had disrupted the hunting cycle and had killed many trees, Chirpa decided that the Ewoks would join with their new tribe members and fight the Empire.

Like all Ewoks, Chirpa was short. He had brown eyes and a coat of gray and white fur. He was an experienced, fair-minded ruler. Chirpa had a pet iguana.

Ewoks were a diminutive primitive species of furry bipeds native to the forest moon of Endor..Ewoks were sentient humanoids, averaging about one meter in height. Omnivorous, they were covered in fur from head to toe, with brown and black as the most common colors. Most Ewoks had solid-colored fur, though a few sported stripes. Ewoks had large, bright eyes, small humanoid noses, and hands that possessed two fingers and an opposable thumb. Despite their small size, Ewoks were physically strong enough to overpower combat-trained humans. Ewokese was the language spoken by the Ewoks. C-3PO claimed Ewokese was a primitive language, but despite its isolation, he was able to understand it. Ewoks were able to learn and speak other languages, including Basic.

The Galactic Civil War is a major galactic conflict fought primarily between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The Alliance is a rebel faction dedicated to the restoration of the Galactic Republic, the government that the Empire had supplanted at the culmination of the Clone Wars in 19 BBY.