Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Deer Little Woman



Sarah Denig (daughter of Deer Little Woman) with her daughters Marie-Anne Adelaide Carriere & Marie Virginie (Mary) Carriere Note: Please correct me if I am wrong - believe this to be Marie Virginie.

Sarah Denig was married to Augustin Carriere on August 5, 1862

Deer Little Woman was the daughter of Iron Arrow Point, Chief of the Rock Band of the Assiniboine and sister to First to Fly, who after a power struggle with several of his brothers emerged as a major leader among the lower Assiniboine.
She was the second wife of Edwin. He had previously been with another Indian woman which little is known about.
In the summer of 1855, Denig took his Assiniboine wife, Deer Little Woman, and his mixed-blood children to visit his brother, Augustus, in Columbus, Ohio. In St. Louis en route Denig and Deer Little Woman were formally married by Father Daemen. Their children were baptized while in that city. Denig had an eldest son, Robert with his previous Indian woman who there is little known about. He had three other children: Sarah (born August 10, 1844), Alexander (born May 17, 1852), and Ida (born August 22, 1854). Denig and his family returned to Fort Union on November 28, 1855 but in the middle of the following summer the family moved to Red River Settlement in Canada. Very little is known of Denig's life in Canada. He had placed Sarah and Alexander in Catholic Schools. Denig established himself as a private trader on the White Horse Plains west of the present city of Winnipeg. Late in the summer of 1859, Edwin T. Denig was stricken with an inflamation which his daughter Sarah, believed was appendicitis. Denig died on the White Horse Plains, September 4, 1858, and was buried in the Anglican cemetery near the present village of Headingly, Manitoba. He was only forty-six years of age at the time of his death.

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