María Feliciana Arballo

María Feliciana Arballo, a 25-year-old widow of Afro-Latina descent with two small children, was one of about forty women in the Anza expedition when it began its colonizing journey from Sonora, Mexico to Alta California (upper California) in 1775.

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Charley Parkhurst

Called the “best whip in California,” Charley Parkhurst was a legendary six-horse stagecoach driver during California’s Gold Rush.

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Pelagie Faribault

Pelagie Faribault was a métis (Native and European) woman who received Wita Tanka (Big Island, also called Pike Island) from her Dakota kin as part of an 1820 treaty with the United States. The Faribault family had influence among their Dakota relatives, and Pelagie in particular was known for her acts of generosity.

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Sarah Whitby

Among the many African American families that moved to Washington were the Whitbys; Sarah Whitby worked as a laundress. She had nine children, and although she was herself illiterate, all of her children could read.

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Abigail Gardner Sharp

Abigail (Abbie) Gardner was thirteen years old when the Wahpekute leader Inkpaduta led his band in a raid against her community in Spirit Lake, Iowa. Her captors took her across the tallgrass prairie and through the Pipestone Quarry before releasing her for a ransom in the Dakota Territory.

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