Just in time for holiday giving arrives a new book about a local legend — Ann Strange Owl: A Northern Cheyenne Memoir by Ann Strange Owl-Raben and Sharon Arms.
Most locals know Strange Owl-Raben from her family’s shop, Eagle Plume Trading Post. Strange Owl-Raben worked for the previous owner, Charles Eagle Plume, from the early 1980s until his death in 1992.
Eagle Plume left the store to Strange Owl-Raben and two other long-term employees. The Raben family then bought out the other employees to avoid a sale to a Saudi Arabian business.
But Strange Owl-Raben’s story is much more intricate than might be widely known. It begins in the mid-1930s on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana. The third of eleven children, she grew up in a one-room log cabin in the tiny village of Birney. Cheyenne was her first language. She learned English while attending BIA day and boarding schools, and underwent many challenges to get her high school diploma.
When the Sheridan, Wyoming, Rodeo held the first Miss Indian America pageant as part of the All-American Indian Days in 1953, Strange Owl-Raben was among 70 contestants from many different tribes. She competed for two years and was named Miss Congeniality as well as runner-up to Miss Indian America.
Always curious and ambitious, she became a dental hygienist working for Indian Health Services before following her father’s advice to get off the reservation for her own good. She took a traveling position, which led her to Lander, Wyoming, where she met her future husband Dayton Raben. They married, only to find out many years later that their bi-racial marriage was illegal and their marriage license was not signed. They made it legal on their fiftieth anniversary.
Strange Owl-Raben’s journey took her to California as a young bride in the cultural upheaval of the 1960s. There she lived in the white world for the first time. While she thrived in the West Coast culture, the eye-opening period also led to a deeper appreciation of her tribe’s history and traditions.
After their daughter Nico’s birth, the family eventually moved to Niwot, Colorado, where Dayton taught school. Strange Owl-Raben opened a shop of Indian goods in Old Town Ft. Collins and learned the retail trade. She returned to her reservation to teach traditional beadwork to young people, and traveled nationwide to sell the products. In the late 1970s she was a consultant and an extra in the filming of the James Michener mini-series Centennial with Richard Chamberlain and Robert Conrad, and the movie Mountain Men with Charlton Heston. She has traveled the world and frequently finds herself being an unofficial ambassador for America’s indigenous people.
Strange Owl-Raben and Sharon Arms worked together for several years to document her fascinating life, starting with many hours of recording her oral stories. Arms transcribed and organized the stories, which are illustrated with many family photos and supplemented with historical information. Local historian Edie DeWeese contributed the book layout and design.
Eagle Plume’s will host a book launch party and booksigning on Saturday, Dec. 16 from 1-4 p.m. Come get your copies signed by the authors for everyone on your gift list and for your own local history bookshelf. They will also be signing at MacDonald’s Books in Estes Park on Sunday, Dec. 17 from 1-3 p.m.
