When you think of the word ‘BOLD’ there might be a few people who come to mind, but Montana author, Beth Judy, wrote a whole book on some pretty influential women all from right here in Montana: Bold Women in Montana History.
“I’ve always been inspired by books that I read, movies that I see [and] the stories of people who have done things that inspire me, so I got to do that for other people who would be reading this book,” Judy said.
Beth Judy wrote with this book with the intention of sharing the stories of influential women in Montana with the younger generation, to hopefully inspire them just as she was inspired.
“I love the idea of kind of letting young, especially girls, peek into the lives of some amazing women and see how they were challenged along the way and had harder decisions to make, and what they did,” Judy said. “I think that when we learn those things, it lets us, you know, it's a kind of a guidepost for us as we go through our lives, and we know that other women have been there before us.”
It was important to her that she highlighted women from all different backgrounds who are represented in Montana, including native Blackfeet women.
“In the Great Falls area, north of you there, there were two Blackfeet women that are in my book, which the first one is Pitamakan, we might say, her name translated is Running Eagle, but in Blackfeet it would be Pitamakan. She was a woman warrior who lived from about 1820 to 1850, and not only was she a woman warrior, but she was a war chief who led hundreds of men sometimes,” Judy explained.
The women portrayed in Bold Women in Montana History broke barriers and stereotypes, inspiring the future generations still to come.
Judy added, “I don’t think people really realize how vital women were in the push for a new constitution, that happened in 1972, but it was just there were amazing women from all over the state who worked on it for long before it actually was passed and then ratified, and some of them were in Great Falls.”
For more information on the Montana author, Beth Judy, or her book Bold Women in Montana History, click here to visit her website.