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NATOYIST-SIKSINA'
Natawista (1825-1893) participated actively with her husband in building a cross-cultural society and in many sensitive negotiations and councils. John C. Ewers, the distinguished anthropologist, accurately compared her to Sacagawea, the legendary Shoshone woman who accompanied the Lewis and Clark expedition, in furthering relations between the whites and the Indians.
Unfortunately, the documentary record, left primarily by white males, makes it harder to document all of the unique contributions she contributed to the frontier society she and her husband helped to create. Nonetheless, the image of her that does emerge is remarkably consistent from the time we meet her as a teenager until her death on the Blood Reserve.
Natawista certainly did not live a life that was typical of a female Blood Indian of that period. But Frontier Diplomats gives us one of our most complete views of the life of a 19th century full-blooded Indian woman.
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