The setting is the Blackfeet Indian Reservation located in Montana east of Glacier National Park and bordering Canada, an area larger than the state of Delaware. There Thomas Patrick McGovern, an immigrant from Northern Ireland and saloonkeeper, fell in love with Sophie Gill Longevin, a half-Indian girl just out of her teens, and they wed. The couple is shown above. Often such marriages ended badly, but the McGoverns’ union lasted until Tom’s death, still living among the Blackfeet. 
McGovern was born in July 1863, likely in County Cavan. Of his early years the records are silent, nor is it clear when he immigrated to the United States and settled in a small Montana town called Dupuyer. This hamlet drew French fur trappers, sheep ranchers from England and Scotland, and a motley group of adventurers. As one observer put it: “The settlement was typically wild and unruly, as were most western towns.”
There in the 1890s the Irish immigrant opened a drinking establishment he called “The Beaver Slide Saloon,” a reference to the slick, muddy trails that beavers made along the banks of Dupuyer Creek. McGovern’s letterhead promised “First-class wines, liquors and cigars always on hand.” Given the relative isolation of Dupuyer, keeping that promise would not have been easy given the difficult logistics of bringing supplies overland by mule train.
Meanwhile Sophie was growing up within the Blackfeet Reservation. Born in 1872, she was the daughter of a French Canadian trader named Michele Longevin, shown here, and an Indian woman named Mary (or Anna) Many White Horses. While Sophie was still an infant, her mother died in childbirth. Unable to care for the infant girl because of his traveling occupation, Longevin took her to live with her uncle Jerry Potts in Canada until she reached about fourteen. Then her father returned her to the Blackfeet reservation to live with her mother’s brother, Bear Leggings. 
It is not clear how Tom and Sophie met. Interaction between the white and indigenous populations in that region of Montana was an everyday occurrence. This was captured by famous Western artist Charles Russell in his painting of the trading post on the Blackfeet reservation run by a legendary figure named Joe Kipp. Kipp would have been a familiar figure to both Thomas and Sophia.
The couple married in 1892 when Thomas was 29 and Sophia just 20. The next year their first son, James, was born, followed in 1894 by a daughter, Margaret, and in 1896, a second son, John. A composite photo of the family taken around 1899, shows the McGovern family, with the parents in the foreground and behind, from left, Margaret (called “Maggie”), John and James. An 1896 “Indian census” showed the family living on the Blackfeet Reservation.
The census also points up an interesting contrast. Sophia as half Native American blood and the children as one-quarter were still considered “full-blooded” Indians by the U.S. Government and thus counted. All four, however, had Anglo-Saxon names. They can be contrasted with others on the census form where individuals have names like “Mad Plume,” “Killing in the Night,” “Good Cleanup,” and “Sits Long Time.” Their children, by contrast, at U.S. Government urging, have been given names of European origin.
Meanwhile Tom, while living on the reservation, was prospering at his drinking establishment in Dupuyer. Local lore describes how McGovern dealt with those who turned drunk and rowdy in his saloon: “…The Beaver Slide Saloon went so far as to have a man-made "beaver slide" that extended from the back door to the creek. When the locals had a wee bit too much to drink, they were tossed down the slide and into the creek for a ‘sobering’ experience.” Unfortunately, the Beaver Slide Saloon burned on December 19, 1901, and was not rebuilt.
McGovern’s occupation in ensuing years is not clear. He may have held a government position. He was listed as an official dealing with the eligibility of people voting in Montana’s Electoral District No. 6: “Notice is hereby given that objections to right to vote of any party in this list will be received at my office… such objections to be made only by a qualified elector, and in writing setting forth the ground of objections.” McGovern also witnessed to land claims.
After 18 years of marriage Tom and Sophia in 1910 would have a fourth son, William Henry. Records indicate that in the interim at least two early infant deaths may have occurred. The McGoverns saw their children grow into adults, all of them continuing to live in or around the Blackfeet Reservation. Photos exist of John, a handsome youth who worked as a ranch hand, and Maggie, a very Irish-looking young woman, who married a man named Chatterton.
In 1927, Tom, age 64, died on the Blackfeet Reservation after 35 years of marriage to Sophia. A long way from his Irish birthplace, McGovern had found a home and family among a Native American tribe that had accepted him into their midst. McGovern was buried at Montreal, Quebec, where he may have resided before coming to Montana. Sophia lived another 30 years, dying in 1957 at the age of 84. I have not been able to identify her burial place.
Note: Unlike many of these posts, this one has no principal source of information. The details and photos have been gathered and organized from material available on more than a dozen Internet sites, including ancestry.com.
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