Howdy! Howdy! Welcome to a tremendously beautiful Autumn Day on the 2nd Tuesday in November1
Before I get into the true story of Pitamaken, The Girl Warrior, I thought I’d let you know that I have several books on sale. They’ve been on sale for a couple of weeks because I’ve been busy editing another 25th Year Anniversary Book, WOLF SHADOW’S PROMISE. Originally written in 1999, it was wonderful to return to this story. The 25th Edition of the story is not yet out, but stay tuned. Soon.
All that to say, I still have these five books on sale (and one of them is my newest historical):
SOARING EAGLE’S EMBRACE, Book #3 in the Legendary Warriors Series. This book is based on the legend of the Star Bride. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074LWHB7W?tag=pettpist-20 $.99
SHE STEALS MY BREATH, Book #! in the Medicine Man Series: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TNDS67H?tag=pettpist-20 $.99
IF SHE WERE MINE, Book #6 in the Medicine Man Series: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GWY3P5KS?tag=pettpist-20 $.99
Then two book in the Young Adult genre written in the pen name of Genny Cothern:
GOOD EAGLE AND MISS STARLING: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWCF7TX6?tag=pettpist-20 $.99
OUR ENEMY BRINGS CHANGE: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWCF7TX6?tag=pettpist-20 $2.99
So, now having told you about the sales and before I get into the true story of Pitamaken, I’d like to invite you to become a member of my ARC (Advanced Reader’s Copy) Team. This is a team that really helps an author when she has a new story available. You can join by simply replying to me at karenkay(dot)author(at)startmail(dot)com.
AND NOW<ONWARD, the story of Pitamaken, the Pikuni Warrior Woman
I’ve been wanting to tell this story for a while because this is a famous Pikuni Blackfoot girl who became a warrior. She has been misunderstood and some fibs have been told about her — for anyone who doesn’t know what a fib is, it is a lie. Her story was set down in a book entitled RUNNING EAGLE, the Warrior Girl by James Willard Schultz.
This story was told to him by the man who lived it. He and she were born on the same day in the same year and they grew up together, he becoming her almost-brother . He knows the truth of her story and I quote the first paragraph from the book:
“NOW may the gods give me a clear brain and good memory to tell this story of my playmate, she who became the virgin woman warrior of our tribe, and for her bravery was given a man’s name. O Sun! O Above People! You, Mother Earth! And you, dwellers in the deep waters! Refresh my memory! Help me to tell this story right!”
Her childhood name was Otaki, Yellow Weasel and his name was Ap’ah, White Weasel. Their parents were great friends and so their lodges were set up close together.
At a young age, Otaki was shamed when she was playing with dolls. Right then and there, she asked her father for a bow and some arrows and for him to teach her to use them. And so, Otaki and Ap’ah became the best of friends, as close as brother and sister.
As she grew up, it became apparent she was not only a good hunter, she was also quite brilliant. Her mother, however, was quite upset with her because she did no work in the lodge and was always with her father, hunting. They had a fight about it, but her father, Morning Plume, defended his daughter and told his wife that she was a great help to him in herding the horses and in hunting and so she would continue with him until his own sons were old enough to help him.
She proved herself to be a brave woman when she was young when they had been attacked by a war party when out on the hunt. She helped her father to safety despite the war going on around her and got him onto her horse and sped away with her father, saving him. When Lone Walker (chief of the tribe), determined to go after the war party, both Otaki and Ap’ah wanted to go with the party. Neither of their fathers knew what to answer them, eventually letting them go, if they promised to stay well back from the line of fire.
She continued to distinguish herself as a smart, intelligent girl who could think when under pressure. But, when her mother became ill and could no longer care for the lodge, Otaki gave up her ways of hunting and herding the horses, and though it hurt her to do so, she took over all the work of the lodge, getting her two younger sisters to help her and her two younger brothers to herd the horses.
When Otaki was around 18 years of age, her father died when he and several other men were out on the warpath. His wife soon died upon hearing the news. Otaki’s uncle and his brother and sister decided to break up the family and each take some of the children, but Otaki refused any help. She said she would take care of the family, herself., By tradition, the property was to be divided up between her father’s relatives, but Otaki would not have it be such. She determined she could be both father and mother to her sisters and brothers. And, when the relatives took the matter to the chiefs, it was decided that Morning Plume’s wishes were to be upheld and his daughter was to be given the authority to do as she wished with the family and property.
The family stayed together. Otaki was then left to provide for her family. She took charge of her father’s gun; she already had her own bow and arrows. But, it became too much for her to be the provider for the
family, and also to care for the others and the lodge. But, she had a plan. However, her plan would have to wait: a war party was leaving to go after the killers of her father. Otaki joined this war party. She distinguished herself in several ways: her compassion for the women of the enemy warriors and her wit in out-foxing the enemy. On this first raid, she counted coup, and saved the tribe’s herd from being stolen by enemies.
Her wit and her compassion made her a formidable foe. She could envision plans and ways to fool the enemy and count coup without a single warrior falling. She became listened to by the leaders of the tribe. However, at home, she needed some help. Her sisters were yet too young to be able to fully handle the lodge Now, in the camp, a woman who had been recently widowed by a man who had not provided well for her was not faring well. Though she had no children of her own, she yet had no provider of the necessities of life and so had to depend on others to give her what she needed to survive. Otaki, then, invited her to live in her lodge and to keep the lodge for her brothers and sisters and help them to become knowledgeable about their duties. She would provide food and the necessities of life. The woman agreed.
And so began Otaki’s life as a warrior, as well as a provider for her family. Because she was clever in battle and smart about how to out-fox the enemy, she was given a warrior’s name Pitamaken, Running Eagle. However, she was a woman of heart and she soon fell in love with a man from another tribe of Blackfeet. She wished to marry him, but she hesitated because in her dreams, she had been forbidden the pleasure of marriage. Her calling, so she thought, was to help her tribe as a warrior. But, she loved this man with all her heart. And so, she sought to find a way, some sacrifice she could do, to satisfy her dream helper, trying to find a way to marry. But, still her helper kept telling her she was forbidden to marry because she was needed to help the tribe.
But she was in love with White Quiver, a handsome man who loved her beyond life itself. Yet, though she strove to release herself from the bonds of maidenhood, her spirit helper held firm that she was needed by her people and could not marry.
And so it came to be in a battle with the Flathead that she lost her life. Though the Pikuni won the battle, no one knew where Running Eagle was after the battle was ended. Then a young warrior said that she had killed a tall, heavy man, and as she felled him, another enemy struck her from behind and she fell and died without a struggle The young warrior said he killed the man who struck her.
And now I quote from the book by James Willard Schultz:
“We rushed to where he pointed (the young warrior). The youth was right! There lay my almost-sister, the big enemy dead in front
of her and he who had taken her life dead behind her! I could hardly believe my eyes. White Quiver knelt beside her, turned her head, looked into her eyes, and then, straightening up, he cried: “Running Eagle, you shall not go alone on that trail to the dreary Sand Hills!” And with that he plunged his knife into his heart and fell beside her and died without another word, died with a beautiful smile upon his face and her cold hand in his firm grip.”
So now, if you hear slander about this brave woman who became a warrior for her people, do not believe the rumors about her. Her almost-brother, who went with her on every raid and every war party knew her well. She was a brave woman who was denied her dream of marrying the man she loved with all her heart, and, though she wished to leave the war trail and marry and have a family, she could not. But, it is said that she and her love found peace and happiness in the next world.
Well, that’s all for today. I hope you have enjoyed this story. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the story of Pitamaken. And don’t forget, I’ll be giving away a free e-book today to one of you bloggers.
In the 1890s, green turtle soup shows up again and again on Thanksgiving menus. One New York hotel menu from 1899 listed a clear green turtle soup at sixty-five cents. Many menus also offered terrapin, a small diamondback turtle from the Chesapeake Bay. It was a luxury. One researcher estimates a plate of Terrapin Ala Maryland would cost about $100 in today’s money.
Those same 1890s menus often served the turkey with chestnuts, and chestnut stuffing was a holiday staple. American chestnut trees once filled the forests of the east. In some places, they made up a quarter or more of the forest canopy. Then in 1904, a forester noticed cankers on chestnut trees at the Bronx Zoo. The cause was a fungus that arrived on imported Asian trees. It spread roughly fifty miles a year. By 1940, the American chestnut was finished as a commercial tree and estimates say three to four billion of them died. Stump sprouts still grow from the old roots, but the blight keeps killing them. Researchers are testing blight resistant trees, so this one might come back.
obligatory at important dinners in the 1800s. It was served at the White House during Rutherford Hayes’s presidency, even though he and his wife, known as Lemonade Lucy, were temperance advocates. It even appeared on the Titanic’s last first-class menu. Then dinners got shorter. One history of formal dining notes that by the Kennedy years, fancy dinners were settling on four courses. With fewer courses, the punch lost its place.
The supply did not last. Pollution and over-harvesting wrecked the oyster beds, and New York’s last commercial oyster bed shut down in 1927. Prices climbed. Today oyster dressing survives in parts of the South and along the Gulf Coast, often made with canned oysters.
Hunters used the telegraph to find the flocks and railroads shipped the birds to city markets by the barrel. By the 1890s, wild flocks had shrunk to almost nothing
Amelia Simmons printed three versions in 1796. It became a classic New England holiday dessert, but it never looked like much, and apple and pumpkin pie took over.
The first recipe we know of appeared in 1867 in a southern cookbook called Dixie Cookery by Maria Massie Behringer. It had three ingredients: grated coconut, oranges, and sugar. That was a big deal. Railroads had recently connected Florida oranges and imported coconuts to the rest of the country, so the dish felt exotic.
