PI'TAMAKAN

PI'TAMAKAN (b. c. 1810s; d. c. 1850s), warrior.

Pi'tamakan, or Running Eagle, was born into the Pikuni or Piegan tribe of what is now northern Montana sometime in the early 1800s and came to prominence sometime around the middle of the century. The Piegan are the southernmost of the three tribes of the Blackfoot Confederacy, whose traditional territory extended from central Montana to the North Saskatchewan River in central Alberta. She was known as Young Weasel Woman when she was a child. Her father encouraged her when, at around the age of twelve, she exhibited an interest in men's activities and preferred to play with boys instead of girls.

Pi'tamakan's career as a warrior began in her teens, when her small hunting party was attacked by the Assiniboine. She is said to have saved her father's life during the fight. When she joined another raiding party against the Crow, she stole eleven horses and killed a Crow warrior. After this victory she was allowed to sing the Victory Song and a Scalp Dance was done in her honor. After a major battle with the Pend d'Oreille, she became the only woman in the tribe's history to receive a male name and was invited to join the all-male Braves Society. Because of her skills and good fortune, she was soon leading raiding parties and many Piegan warriors were happy to follow her.

It was not unheard-of among Northern Great Plains tribes like the Piegan for a woman to participate in warfare. In these androcentric horse cultures, the greatest individual prestige came through the masculine arenas of warfare, hunting, and horse raiding. Therefore, it was not unusual for women to seek such prestige for themselves, and among the Piegan they were called manly-hearted women. Manly-hearted women were generally older, married to men, and did not wear men's clothing; it was rare for an interest in warfare to involve more extensive adoption of the masculine role.

Pi'tamakan starting wearing men's clothing in her teens, likely around the same time that her career as a warrior began. Until her father's death, however, she had to perform the women's work for the family because her mother was often sick. When her father was killed by the Crow, she took his place at the head of the family and brought a young widow into the family to perform the necessary domestic labor. It is unclear whether she married the widow or if a sexual relationship existed between them. One account of her life says that she had married a Piegan man when she was younger but that he was killed in battle with the Crow. After his death she sought help from the Sun to avenge him and received a vision in which the Sun promised to give her great power in war so long as she never had intercourse with a man again. Another account of her vision, which says that she had always rejected male suitors and fasted to receive a spiritual guardian emphasizes that her vision of the Sun added credence to her gender role change and made her a holy person among the Piegan. One account of her behavior while leading war parties suggests that, although she was the leader and always wore men's clothing, she would also do the cooking for her men and repair their moccasins. When one of her warriors objected, she is said to have replied, "I am a woman. Men don't know how to sew" (Ewers, p. 199). This account, however, does not accord with the rest of her behavior, particularly her permanent adoption of masculine dress as a teenager and her decision to bring the young widow into her family so that she did not have to do the domestic work anymore.

There are two different accounts of Pi'tamakan's death. One says she was killed during a raid on the Flathead Indians west of the Rockies, a common target for horse raids by the Piegan. The Flatheads had heard that a woman was leading the raids against them and were on the lookout for a strange woman. She was shot dead when she was spotted by a Flathead warrior. Another account says she was killed when she led a large war party against the Pend d'Oreille in retaliation for an attack on a group of Piegan warriors. Some Blackfeet claim that her good luck finally ended and she was killed because she had broken her vow to the Sun by having intercourse with one of the men in her party.

Bibliography

Ewers, John C. Plains Indian History and Culture: Essays on Continuity and Change. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997.

Lang, Sabine. Men As Women, Women As Men: Changing Gender in Native American Cultures. Translated from the German by John L. Vantine. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.

Lewis, Oscar. "Manly-Hearted Women among the Northern Piegan." American Anthropologist 43 (1941): 173–187.

Medicine, Beatrice." 'Warrior Women'—Sex Role Alternatives for Plains Indian Women." In The Hidden Half: Studies of Plains Indian Women. Edited by Patricia Albers and Beatrice Medicine. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1983.

Roscoe, Will. Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.

Roscoe, Will, ed. Living the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988.

Schaeffer, Claude E. "The Kutenai Female Berdache." Ethnohistory 12 (1965): 193–236.

Sheila McManus

see alsotranssexuals, transvestites, transgender people, and cross-dressers; two-spirit females.