Running Eagle

Running Eagle was a heroic Native American Woman of the Blackfeet tribe and is known for her success in battle.

She was born "Pitamakan" during Hudsons Bay Trading era in Southern Alberta Canada. She was called "Brown Weasel Woman" and she was the oldest child of five. The tribe she was born into was the Piegan Tribe of the Blackfeet Nation (there were three total tribes in the Blackfeet Nation.) When she was young, she preferred to play with the boys over the girls, and when she was 12, she began to wear boys clothing. She wanted to do the things her brothers were doing, and against her mother’s wishes, her father began to teach her. Pitamakan’s father was a very important warrior in their tribe and he taught her how to hunt and fight. Soon, she was good enough to go out on hunting expeditions and shoot a buffalo on her own.

Soon after, her mother fell ill and Pitamakan had to help care for her. Around the same time, her father died in a battle against the Crows. After hearing of this, her mother succumbed to her illness, leaving Pitamakan in charge of the family as the eldest child. She did not like life as a caretaker, so after a while, she took an old widow into her home to care for her siblings and do the housework.