Piavinnia

By Jo Ann Kessel 

This is the story of how two half-breed Cheyenne, descended from English (Bent) and French (Guerrier) ancestry, survived the bloodiest massacre in the history of the government’s Indian wars. The Bent-Guerrier union produced a woman their equal in drive, determination, and life skills who made her mark in the twentieth century.

Ann Guerrier Pratt Shadlow was born in the tepee of her grandmother Julia Bent Guerrier, daughter of Cheyenne Owl Woman and William Bent of Bent’s Fort in southern Colorado. Her grandfather, Edmund Guerrier, was a famous scout interpreter and rancher who founded the town of Geary, Oklahoma. He also was the son of William Guerrier, trapper and trader at Bent’s Fort and Post Sutler at Fort Laramie, and his wife Tah-tah-tois-neh.