Born: 1807 (circa), United States
Died: 1850
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Pi’tamaka, Brown Weasel Woman
The following is republished from the National Park Service. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Originally named Brown Weasel Woman, Pi’tamaka was born into the Piikáni (Piegan Blackfeet) tribe in the 19th century. As a young girl, she began to show less interest in traditional female roles and more interest in hunting and the games her brothers played. Her father, a well-respected warrior of the tribe, indulged her interest and taught her to hunt and fight.
As she got older, she accompanied the men on buffalo hunts, even saving her father’s life during a hunt when an enemy war party attacked them. When her father was killed in battle and her mother became ill, Brown Weasel Woman became the primary caretaker of the family. However, by taking a widow into her family to help with those responsibilities, she was again free to hunt the buffalo.
Soon the lessons she learned in fighting were put to use. When members of the Crow tribe stole horses from her people, a Piikáni war party set out to get them back and Brown Weasel Woman joined them. One version of the story states that the leader of the war party told her to go back, but she refused. When he said that the war party would not continue unless she returned home, she told him to go ahead, and that she would retrieve the horses on her own. With that, the war party – including Brown Weasel Woman – continued on to get their tribe’s horses back.
After finding the horses and leading them towards home, they stopped to camp for the night. Brown Weasel Woman stayed awake as a lookout while the others slept. She spotted two Crow warriors attempting to steal back the horses. Stories conflict as to whether she killed one or both of the warriors, but the result was the same: she saved the herd. During another raid, she was part of a group that captured several hundred horses. She eventually gained a reputation as a successful hunter and warrior.
During the summer, when the tribes gathered and the warriors told of their many adventures, the Piikáni chief told Brown Weasel Woman to share hers. This was a highly unusual thing for a woman to be asked, but after doing so, the chief bestowed upon her the name Pi’tamaka (Running Eagle) as a sign of respect and honor.
She continued to hunt and raid as her father had taught her before she died as a warrior at the hands of the Flathead tribe some time after the late 1870s.
Books have been written about Pi’tamaka and Pitamakan Lake in Glacier National Park is named for her.
This biography, written by Gabby Storey, is shared with permission from Team Queens, an educational history blog run by a collective of historical scholars. All rights reserved; this material may not be republished without the author’s consent.
Running Eagle was a nineteenth-century Native American female war chief of the Blackfeet tribe. As a young girl, she showed interest in activities that were viewed as typically male, and was subsequently trained by her father as a warrior.
She accompanied men on buffalo hunts and despite disdain from her male companions, she demonstrated her skills and prowess on many occasions. After the death of her father and illness of her mother, Running Eagle arranged for a widow to take care of her family to ensure she could continue hunting.
When her father (though some stories list her husband) died in a fight against the Crows, a rival tribe, Running Eagle went on a vision quest wherein she was told she would be a successful warrior as long as she remained true to her father’s memory and not have sex with a man.
She went on to be a successful woman warrior, and led several hunting and warring expeditions. She was captured during a reconnaissance mission into the enemy Flathead camp and shot in 1860. The Pitamakan Lake in Glacier National Park, Montana is named after her.
Recommended Reading
Carl Waldman, Biographical Dictionary of American Indian History to 1900 (New York: Facts on File, 2001)
John Canfield Ewers, Plains Indian History and Culture Essays on Continuity and Change (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 1997)
“Pi’tamaka (Running Eagle),” https://www.nps.gov/people/pi-tamaka-running-eagle.htm, accessed 18 October 2021.