Sarah (Bulls Heart) Bird (abt. 1808 - aft. 1891)

Born about 1808 in Belly River, Peigan Reservation, Alberta

Wife of James Jemmy Jock Bird Jr. — married 1825 in St Pauls Anglican Church, Upper Fort Garry

Descendants

Died after 1891 after about age 83 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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Biography

Sally (Bulls Heart) Bird was a Canadian First Peoples and member of the Blackfeet Nation.

Sarah on the Red River census was born in 1808 (she was 62 in 1840 and James was 72). James scrip documents say Belly River [1]

In his scrip documents [2] son Thomas refers to her as Sally Goodwoman.

Sarah may have been the sister of Blackfoot Chief Big Nose or Three Suns (Nookskatos), [3] /leader of the North Blackfoot band, Biters. In his notes, Missionary Robert Rundle (The Rundle Journals, 1840-1848) Sarah is referred to as Sally. Although wanting to be baptized, April 26, 1848 Rundle commented in his journal She wished to be baptized but one or two things in the way. Other woman still there. Not married.

A daughter of Bird and possibly Sarah is referenced by Rundle "in this neighborhood lies buried a daughterof Mr. Bird She took great delight in religion and once when prayers were held in her father's tent and she was unable to sit up without assistance, she was held in her father's arms so she could take part

In 1857 Sarah was baptized at St. Paul’s Anglican church and in 1859 their sons Thomas and Philip were baptized at the same church.

Sally, the last wife of Jimmy Jock, provided early ethnohistorical data about her people to the pioneer researcher Lewis Henry Morgan. When the government started a school on the Blackfoot reservation in 1874, six bilingual mixed-bloods translated lessons for their ten full-blood cousins. When the allotment system kicked in, marriage to Indian women became quite attractive to white men as a means of acquiring land on the reservation. In the 1910 census, mixed-bloods were already a majority [4]

In 1887 Sarah (Sally) was granted $50 ($5 X 10 years) by Canada Indian Affairs as she withdrew from treaty, It was signed by Crowfoot and 5 other band chiefs. She would not have qualified for Scrip as up to 1887 she was a Treaty Indian,

Quality Sources

1840 Red River Census entry, image 883 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89SG-GDNJ?i=882&wc=MQRB-1TG%3A341584201%2C341584202&cc=2023280

The Rundle Journals, 1840-1848, page 42, 241, 265, 271, 273, 306 *https://digitalcollections.ucalgary.ca/archive/The-Rundle-Journals--1840-1848-2R3BF1FREJQ4J.html

Blackfoot Agency Commutation Papers for Sally (Sarah) Bird, former Blackfoot Band member https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/CollectionSearch/Pages/record.aspx?app=fonandcol&IdNumber=2059963&new=-8585624263072576601

Other Sources

Unconfirmed reference to her birth, entered under James Bird * https://sites.rootsweb.com/~mnrrvn/Metis-1798-1799.html

Reflection on her marriage and some Peigan activity* http://www.redriverancestry.ca/BIRD-JAMES-JIMMY-JOCK-1798.php

Reflection on how often Sarah and Bird moved around the west* https://hoffmantree.blogspot.com/2012/02/

Belly River location and history * https://mysteriesofcanada.com/military/the-battle-of-belly-river/

Metis women who withdrew from treaty, page 3 * https://www.scribd.com/document/110885846/Metis-Women-Who-Withdrew-From-Treaty

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