162 YEARBOOK, TUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. II. 



EAGLE WOMAN'S RETURN" 



By S. a. BauukttJs 



Just o\er there on that flat, where the Grand river flows into the 

 "Great Muddy," is the site of the old trading post of the American Fur 

 Trading Company. For a number of years, prior to 1800, this post was 

 in charge of Major Galpin, as chief trader. He won the heart of 

 Eagle Woman, the daughter of one of the principal families of the 

 Unkpapa Sioux, and they were duly married in legal form, she taking 

 the name of Matilda Galpin. She was a blood relative of one of the 

 greatest Sioux chiefs, \\ hite Lodge. 



In the year I80O this old trading post, at tlie junction of the Grand 

 and Missouri rivers, was discontinued by the company and Major 

 Galpin was transferred to a post near Fort Benton, Montana, in the 

 Blackfoot country. 



This was a strange country for Eagle Woman, for she was now 

 in the land of the Blackfoot, the hereditary enemies of her people. 

 However, she lived at peace with her new surroundings for a time and 

 attended to the duties of her household in most model wifely fashion. 

 In fact, she enjoyed her new home in this strange country, the greatest 

 of her joys being the arrival in the following year of a little son. 



Eagle Woman's fondest dream was of the day when the "Little 

 Chief" should return to his own people and claim his chieftain's place. 



But such was not the decree of the "Great Father." The next 

 season^^, when the buftalo grass was brown and when the wild geese 

 flew southward, there descended upon the heart of Eagle Woman and 

 her white lord, the great sorrow. 



Eagle W'oman's grief knew no bounds. As she had loved the child, 

 so did she grieve; not with wild outbursts, but rather with deep and 

 suppressed emotion. One thing was certain, the Little Chief could 

 never rest peacefully in the land of the hereditary enemies of her peo- 



^"Whlle enroute westward for fleldwork at Mt. Hainier. for the purpose of 

 securing- material and data for the building: of our Nisqually glacier group, 

 the writer on July 20. 1922, had the good fortune to meet Mr. T. C. Sherman, 

 now of Lewiston, Alontana, but formerl.v a resident of Milwaukee and the Right- 

 of-Way Agent and Assistant Secretary of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 

 RaiUvay Company from 1906 to 1912. 



While purchasing right-of-way, from the Missouri river westward to Butte, 

 Montana. Mr. Sherman became well acquainted with many Indians and heard 

 many interesting tales of the earlier frontier days from the Indians themselves. 



One of the most interesting of these, was that of Eagle Woman's Return, 

 which was related to him bv Mrs. H. H. M. Snee, the daughter of an early 

 trader and then a resident of the Standing- Rock Reservation. Mr. Sherman's 

 narration of the story is here given with as much of an Indian atmosphere in 

 the recounting- as possible. 



^'Director, Milwaukee Public Museum. 



'•'18G2 



