CHARLES EDWARD CONRAD'S first wife and the mother of his first-born son, Charles Edward Conrad, Jr. (Edward hereinafter) has been thought to have been known for many years. The Conrad family knows her as Sings-in-the-middle Woman and this is the name reported in James Murphy’s Half-Interest in a Silver Dollar (Missoula [MT]: Mountain Press, 1983). This name appears to have been taken from James Willard Schultz’s book, Blackfeet and Buffalo (Norman: Univ. Oklahoma Press, 2nd printing, [1968], p. 295.),[1] wherein a woman of that name is identified as wife to Spotted Cap, the name by which C. E. Conrad was known to the Piikuni (Southern Piegan)[2] and she was said to be a woman of the Blood tribe.
Her name has also been reported as Sits-in-the-middle Woman, but I have found nothing to document that name, so must consider it as dubious.
There is yet a third similar name that has been documented. Charles Price Hubbard was an early resident of Ft. Benton, arriving there in 1860 and knew, or was familiar with, most of the folk in Benton and kept extensive diaries and notes. His son was William P. Hubbard. In a letter to Joel Overholser of Ft. Benton dated Sept. 10, 1971,[3] William Hubbard quoted from his father’s diary a list of those involved in the fur trade whom his father had known and with whom he had worked.
The list began with Alexander Culbertson[4] and included Joe Kipp[5] and many others whose names are well-known to historians. The entry that interests us is as follows: “Charles Conrad, called by the Piikuni Spotted Cap, and his Blood tribe wife, Sings-in-the-water Woman....” [emphasis added].
Interesting as these names are, they are English translations of the name by which she was known by the Piikuni of Montana, which likely was not the name by which she was known by her own people, the Kainai (Bloods) of Canada.
Research has yielded two instances of the use of her Blood name. The first instance is in Edward’s baptismal record[6] from Cluny, Alberta. The second instance is in Edward’s marriage record[7] from Montreal. In both cases, it is spelled as the French pronounce it, Cayoise. This name in the Kainai language is Kaiyis,[8] which translates into English as ‘Dried Meat.’[9] While not nearly as romantic as any of the above-given Piikuni names, it has the benefit of being the historically accurate name by which she was known among her own people.
So now we know her name, both as the Piikuni called her and as she was known to her own people. Yet, this does not tell us who she was. Where did she fit into the tribe? Who was her father? Unfortunately, we have been unable to find any documentation for any of her relations. A careful and thorough review of extant records pertaining to the Kainai by Dr. Hugh A. Dempsey have turned up nothing[10]and we have not found anything about her elsewhere other than that which is recorded herein.
So many questions about this woman remain unanswered and we are no closer to knowing who she was, and until we are, she will be a tantalizing enigma, and we will be the poorer for our ignorance of her.
--- Richard L. Hardesty. Copyright ©2022. All Rights Reserved
NOTES
1. The book was written much earlier but not published until 1962 and reprinted.
2. This name is recorded several times in Schultz, op. cit. The Piikuni version of the name is given on p. 173 of that work. The Blackfoot Confederacy was comprised of the following tribes: in Montana , the Piikuni (Southern Piegan); in Canada, the Piikani ( Northern Piegan), the Kainai (Blood), and Siksika (Blackfoot). The Piegans were also called Blackfeet. Two other tribes were often allied with the Confederacy, the Tsúùtínà (Sarcee) and the A'aninin (Gros Ventre).
3. Letter and related materials in the collections of the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center, Fort Benton, Montana.
4. Mr. Culbertson built the original fur trading post of Fort Benton and is considered the founder of the town of that name.
5. Joseph (Joe) Kipp was, among many other things, a scout for the Northwest Mounted Police (NWMP) and much ink has been spilled about this fascinating man. Born 1849, his father was James Kipp, an important early fur trader at Ft. Union & elsewhere, and his mother was Earth Woman, a Mandan.
6. Cluny, Sainte-Trinité, Registre des baptêmes des Blackfoot, 1865-1915. Missionary Oblates, Grandin Archives at the Provincial Archives of Alberta, Accession, PR1971.220, Box 252, Item 2489.
7. Actes d’état civil et registres d’église du Québec (Collection Drouin), 1621 à 1967. Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.
8. Jack Holterman, in King of the High Missouri, [Helena and Billings: Falcon Press, 1987], (p. 191). The Kainai rendering of the French approximation and English translation was provided to Mr. Holterman by Dr. Hugh A. Dempsey, Chief Curator Emeritus of the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta, and author of Red Crow: Warrior Chief.
9. Per Dr. Dempsey, supra. Such a name sounds odd to non-native ears, but we should remember that it was traditional that the father of a new-born child most often would name the baby after the first thing he saw while holding the child for the first time. That is the reason that some names were common, such as Black Kettle. Often the child would be given another name later in life, perhaps several over the course of its life.
10. Dr. Hugh A. Dempsey, Pers. comm. late May, 2012.
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