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Around 1892, two new entities serendipitously collided. One was Fort Shaw Indian School west of Great Falls. The other was the sport of basketball.
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Fannie Sperry Steele raised thoroughbreds, worked in Wild West shows and competed in rodeos, winning firsts and setting records, especially in bronc riding.
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Of all Montana counties, Ravalli — the Bitterroot — had the most pro-suffrage votes. Historians attribute that to Maggie Smith Hathaway.
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In the 1950s and 60s, membership in groups like the League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women spiked in Montana. Both groups promote, still today, non-partisan involvement by women in policy making and governance.
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Annie Morgan, an African-American woman, was born in Baltimore. After the Civil War, she worked her way west, probably as an army cook. Around 1887, she landed in Philipsburg.
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Lucille Otter was a dedicated fighter. Through will and skill, she made good things happen on the Flathead Reservation.
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Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail was the first registered nurse of Apsaalooke, or Crow, descent, and was one of the first native RNs in the whole U.S.
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The Blackfeet woman Running Eagle is legendary not just as a warrior, but as a war chief. The Cheyenne people honor Buffalo Calf Road Woman to this day.
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On International Women’s Day, we celebrate Emma Riley Smith. To Black kids growing up in Great Falls, Emma Riley Smith proved the world was wide with possibility.
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Alma served Montana as state librarian in Helena. Alma Smith Jacobs' passion for libraries, which she called the People's University, lasted her whole life.
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Not many Montana girls resembled Frieda and Belle Fligelman. Born 1890 and 1891 in Helena, the sisters lived in a big house with servants and learned to fall on their elbows to keep their gloves white. Herman, their dad, a Jewish immigrant from Romania, arrived peddling dry goods, then opened a successful store.
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In 1937 Myrna Loy was Hollywood's Highest Paid starlet. Born in 1905 as Myrna Williams, she grew up in Radersburg and Helena, the grandchild of homesteaders.
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In 1890, 33 Butte women formed a union, saying we will not be behind our brothers in demanding our rights.
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Elouise Pepion Cobell held the federal government accountable, revealing malfeasance by the Interior and Treasury departments managing Indian trust funds.