Medicine Snake Woman
Blood Blackfoot princess Natawista conjures peace and diplomacy.
By: Jana Bommersbach 01/01/2007
And that’s why the story of Natawista is all the more remarkable.
This Blood Indian from Canada, who lived most of her life in Dakota and Montana Territories, has been compared to Sacagawea in furthering goodwill between whites and Indians. And with her husband, Alexander Culbertson—the namesake of Culbertson, Montana—she’s remembered as a “peacemaker.” Biographer Lesley Wischmann calls them the best “frontier diplomats” of their times.
A Young Venus
Natawista, or Natoyist-Siksina, known as Medicine Snake Woman, was born around 1824 in Canada to Red Deer Woman and Two Sons, chief of the Blood tribe of Blackfoot Indians.
When she was about 15, she traveled with her father on a trade mission to Fort Union, near the North Dakota/Montana border. It was the most important fur trading post on the Upper Missouri River (had been since 1828, would be until 1867).
She was a striking young woman. Swiss artist Rudolf Friedrich Kurz described her as “one of the most beautiful Indian women ...would be an excellent model for a Venus.” She was also a remarkable horsewoman, as naturalist John James Audubon noted in his journal on July 14, 1843. He marveled that she “rode astride like men” and “rode a furious race,” remarking “how amazed would have been any European lady, or some of our modern belles who boast their equestrian skill, at seeing the magnificent riding of this Indian princess.”
At the fort, she caught the eye of Maj. Alexander Culbertson, chief trader for the Upper Missouri Outfit of the American Fur Company, who was already a veteran of diplomatic relations with her tribe. They were wed in the Indian custom in 1840. Among the gifts he gave her family were nine horses.
“Because of the intense competition between American and British traders for the Blackfoot trade, it was common for officers to marry the daughters of chiefs to cement trading relations,” the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online reports. But history suggests business wasn’t the only motivation for this marriage. It would endure even as interracial coupling became taboo—white women emigrating west looked down their noses on such unions, and historians reported many Indian wives were abandoned. Yet when this marriage dissolved, it was Natawista who left.
Peacemaking Partners
In Wischmann’s dual biography published in 2004, Frontier Diplomats, Culbertson is described as more an emissary between cultures than a businessman, although nobody doubts that his marriage to Natawista furthered the financial interests of his trading company. She cultivated friendly relations between Indians and whites, making possible her husband’s profitable trade.
Before he met Natawista, Culbertson had already founded and built Fort Benton, billed today as the “birthplace of Montana,” and was credited with negotiating the end of the 1833 Crow siege of Fort McKenzie. But it was during his marriage to Natawista that the couple’s combined talents left their most important marks on history.
Post A Comment