There are some great native US fish, especially after hearing Mike Zebrowski's talk about them at the last MCA meeting. I was particularly interested in getting some sunfish. E.g.
http://michigancichlid.com/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=4731.0Because they're native fish, it's important to check for and obtain the correct permits to collect and keep them.
For sunfish, the information I have from conversing with MI DNR/Fisheries is that you need two permits to collect sunfish, e.g. pumpkinseed, or bluegill in MI. 1) a MI recreational fishing license, and 2) a scientific collector's permit. That 2nd one is so you have permission to transport the water they're found in (because of concerns re: disease). Once you have them acquired legally, either by getting the permits and collecting yourself, or purchasing them, e.g. from an online seller like Zimmerman's fish, you can keep them year round in a home aquarium.
Make sure if you get native fish, either collected or purchased online, that you never release them back into the wild, even if you caught them yourself. They could have diseases from being in your aquarium, and especially if the fish is not native to a particular lake or stream, you could damage the ecosystem by introducing a new predator or prey animal.
Anyway, after checking on the legal questions, I was able to acquire two nice male dollar sunfish. I went the purchasing route because 1) it's really cold!/I don't have equipment right now for collection (though I may pursue that route later), and 2) I wanted the dollar sunfish because they stay smaller, maxing around 5-6", but they are not native to MI and thus have to be imported.
All that intro aside, here's some pics of my dollar sunfish. They certainly have colors to rival fish like Jack dempseys or many of the CA cichlids. I'm working on getting better lighting, i.e. using the tips from Mo Devlin, but I'm not there yet.
They are in a 50 gallon 48x12 tank, with an AC110 filter, single 24" T8 light, and lots of plastic plant and root/cave decor, and are currently coexisting relatively peacefully with my adult african leaf fish, senegal bichir, a madagascar rainbowfish for a dither, and a few plecos, plus a reclusive striped raphael catfish. Temp is set in the low 70s, which is a reasonable compromise between preferred temperatures for all these fish, which I had been keeping around 76 before getting the sunfish, so a few degrees less has not been a problem.
