Native American Heritage

Chief Earth Woman was a nineteenth-century Ojibwa woman and a significant figure in Ojibwa history. She claimed that she had gained supernatural powers from a dream, and for this reason, accompanied the men on the warpath. While some Ojibwa warrior women responded to necessity, Chief Earth Woman chose to become a warrior, entering battle with the Sioux. Her dreams provided her fellow Ojibwa warriors with protection, and guided them through the battle. She confided with the leader that her dreams predicted the movements of the Sioux, aiding the Ojibwa in battle. In the battle, she succeeded in scalping an enemy, earning her traditional honors. Ruth Landes' research in the 1930s described Chief Earth Woman as one of few women to command a war party and receive the honors of a man, and later research by Colleen Sheryl McIvor places Chief Earth Woman within the tradition of the Anishinaabe Ogichidaakwe, or woman warrior.

She was born around 1878 near Waterloo, Ohio as Birtha Snyder, Snider or Snidow. She married a man named "White Owl" in 1893, and she frequently traveled from Ohio to Michigan. She lived in a place called "Old Man's Cave" while in Ohio.

Chief Earth Woman's story is often associated as a parallel to those stories of Lozen and Running Eagle.

Elsie Vance Chestuen was born in 1873, her Indian name was Chestuen. Her mother was Dilth-cley-ih, daughter of the Apache Chief Bidu-ya, Beduiat known as Victorio. Elsie's father is unknown, her mother married Mangus who was the son of Mangas Coloradas, Chief of the Chiricahua Apaches.Elsie was sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School on 4th November 1886 when she was 13 years old,she was enrolled as Elsie Vanci. Carlisle and other schools like this have been a contentious issue with the Native Americans, many say that children were forced to leave their families at very young age. They were forced to change their Indian names and give up their cultures, languages, and religion.
Elsie was only at Carlisle school for 3 years.On the 30th of May 1889, when she was 16 years old, she was sent to Alabama due to illness, she stayed with another Indian lady called Mollie. Elsie must have moved back to her home at some stage, as she died at Fort Sill on April 15th 1898, from tuberculosis. She was 26 years old, Elsie Vance Chestuen, is buried at the Beef Creek Apache Cemetery in Oklahoma.

"O my children! my poor children!
Listen to the words of wisdom,
Listen to the words of warning,
From the lips of the Great Spirit,
From the Master of Life, who made you!
"I have given you lands to hunt in,
I have given you streams to fish in,
I have given you bear and bison,
I have given you roe and reindeer,
I have given you brant and beaver,
Filled the marshes full of wild-fowl,
Filled the rivers full of fishes:
Why then are you not contented?
Why then will you hunt each other?
"I am weary of your quarrels,
Weary of your wars and bloodshed,
Weary of your prayers for vengeance,
Of your wranglings and dissensions;
All your strength is in your union,
All your danger is in discord;
Therefore be at peace henceforward,
And as brothers live togethe