Miksiksipoksapowowa (Revenge Walker) and Rosie Davis

A view of twenty tepees set up in the mountains circa 1938–1972. Photo by William Fruet.

Photo courtesy of the Galt Museum & Archives: 20011020474

Miksiksipoksapowowa (Revenge Walker) was the half-sister of Mékaisto (Red Crow). She was politically and socially engaged in her community and her tribe. After a first marriage to Running Bird, Miksiksipoksapowowa married Donald W. Davis in 1873. Davis was a whisky trader operating from Fort Whoop-Up. The marriage gave Davis a considerable advantage trading in the region. Davis and Miksiksipoksapowowa had four children together.

Davis left Miksiksipoksapowowa in 1886. She moved back to the Kainai reserve and married Falling over a Bank. She earned acknowledgement in her community as a “’manly hearted woman’ who could ride like a man and go into battle as courageous as any of the Blood Warriors.”

One of Miksiksipoksapowowa’s sons, Charlie Davis, married Rosie Davis. Rosie was the daughter of Double Gun Woman and Charley Smith. Double Gun Woman later married local trader Joe Healy. Rosie was born in 1877 and is known as one of the longest-lived members of the Blood tribe, dying at the age of 109 in March 1983. Rosie and Charlie had five children together. Rosie lived through most of the major transitions the Blackfoot experienced in the twentieth century. She experienced the change from living in traditional tepees and hunting the buffalo, to being assimilated into reserves.

You can find out more about Blackfoot historical figures and culture at our Indigenous History Program led by Rebecca Many Grey Horses at the Galt Museum & Archives on Tuesdays from 10:30–noon until the end of October.