Ma som sa pa taki 'Long Time Owl Woman'

Long Time Owl Woman was a Blackfoot woman, Peigan Tribe on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana

The Blackfoot Confederacy, Niitsitapi, or Siksikaitsitapi, meaning "the people" or "Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Blackfeet people: the Siksika ("Blackfoot"), the Kainai or Blood ("Many Chiefs"), and two sections of the Peigan or Piikani ("Splotchy Robe") – the Northern Piikani (Aapátohsipikáni) and the Southern Piikani (Amskapi Piikani or Pikuni).

Piegan Indian in Camp, No. 70. (Public Domain)
Source: Dutro, Dan, Piegan Indian in Camp, No. 70. (1884). Montana History Portal, accessed 23/05/2024, https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/73659

The three Piegan chiefs. 1900 (Public Domain) (Note: The Three Chiefs is often cited as the single most important image in Edward Curtis’ body of over 50,000 photographs.)
Source: “The Three Chiefs – Archival Print | Edward Curtis.” Edwardcurtis.com, edwardcurtis.com.

Biography:
Long Time Owl Woman (occasionally referred to in the census as Long Time Old Woman) seems to have been born c. 1874. Her father has not been identified but her mother was known as Kills By Mistake born c.1831.

According to Carla Joinson in her book Vanished in Hiawatha, when she was admitted to the Canton Asylum is not known, but when admitted she was diagnosed with Epileptic dementia (Most epileptic seizures in people with dementia are known as focal onset seizures. These can involve brief periods of increased amnesia or unresponsiveness. We see involuntary repeating movements, often of the hands and arms, or of the face (chewing, lip-smacking or swallowing. Epilepsy and dementia are both common in older people, and there is a bidirectional relationship between the two.) The definition seems inaccurate when considering that Long Time Owl Woman died at age 34, hardly an "older person".

In the letter dated February 17, 1934, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Dr. L.L. Culp advises that Long Time Owl Woman arrived from Browning, Montana. She died in the Canton Asylum on August 25, 1908, and was buried in the Canton Hiawatha Cemetery in tier 5 plot 1.

Her profile is part of the The Canton Asylum One Place Study.

Research Notes:
-Identified in the 1903 census as Long Time Old Woman. However, there is a Long time Old Woman aged 60 in the 1901 census, NOT the same person
-Long Time Owl Woman does not appear in the 1897 census or before?

Crosschecks, there are many women named Owl Woman, checks birthdays against 1874
-1890 census

Is Long Time Owl the same person as Long Time Owl Woman? If age 13 in 1890 then b=1877 then she is not.
-1895 census

If age 30 in 1895 then b=1865 which is 10 years older so probably not.
-1899

Owl Woman age 41 b=1858 is almost 20 years older so not the same person
-1900 census

Long Time Owl Woman age 24 b=1876, probably, a 2 year difference in Indian census reports is not uncommon.
and

Owl Woman age 61 b=1839, way too old, not the same person.
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Sources:

1898 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll004unit/page/n134/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 135/695, line 1380 (age 17 as Long Time Owl), census of the Piegan tribe of Blackfeet Indians, Blackfeet Agency, Montana

1899 Sep 1 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll004unit/page/n323/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 224/695, line 1487 (age 18 as Longtime Owl), census of the Piegan tribe of Blackfeet Indians, Blackfeet Agency, Montana

1900 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7W1W-4F6Z : Thu Mar 07 05:20:07 UTC 2024), Entry for Long Time Owl Woman, from 1890 to 1899, pg. 250/698, line 155 (age 24 widow), census of the Black...

1901 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll004unit/page/n323/mode/... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 324/695, line 542 (age 20? mother Kills By Mistake age 70?), census of the Blackfeet, Blackfeet Agency, Montana

1902 Jul 1 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll004unit/page/n440/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 441/695, line 1838 (age 28), census of the Blackfeet, Blackfeet Agency, Montana

1903 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll004unit/page/n508/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 509/695, line 1887 (age 29, as Long Time Old Woman), census of the Blackfeet, Blackfeet Agency, Montana

1904 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll004unit/page/n557/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 558/695, line 1896 (age 30 as the daughter of widowed mother Kills By Mistake age 73), census of the Blackfeet, Blackfeet Agency, Montana

1905 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll004unit/page/n635/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 636/695, line 1887 (age 31), census of the Blackfeet, Blackfeet Agency, Montana

1906 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll004unit/page/n690/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 691/695, line 1832 (age 32), census of the Blackfeet, Blackfeet Agency, Montana

1907 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll005unit/page/n42/mode/1.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 43/844, line 1906 (age 33, single), census of the Blackfeet Blood and Piegan, Blackfeet Agency, Mont.

1908 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll005unit/page/n86/mode/1.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 187/844, line 1913 (age 34, single), census of the Blackfeet Blood and Piegan, Blackfeet Agency, Mont.

1908 Aug 25 - Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14491638/long_time_owl-woman: accessed May 22, 2024), memorial page for Long Time Owl Woman (unknown–25 Aug 1908), Find a Grave Memorial ID 14491638, citing Hiawatha Asylum Cemetery, Canton, Lincoln County, South Dakota, USA; Maintained by Graveaddiction (contributor 46528400).

1908 Aug 25 - Hilton, M. (Ed.). (2023, July 10). Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians Historical Marker. Historical Marker. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=183486 Photo by Ruth VanSteenwyk, July 10, 2023, courtesy of HMdb.org

Long Time Owl Woman 8-25-08 · Juanita Casildo 6-22-08

1909 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll005unit/page/n147/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 148/844, line 2086 (annotated "Died. August 25, 1908"), census of the Blackfeet Blood and Piegan, Blackfeet Agency, Mont.

1910 Oct 12 - Camp Verde School: 1910-27; Canton Insane Asylum: 1910-22, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155854182?objectPage=675, line 91, Table 7 Form of mental disease of those admitted since opening of Asylum