Piegan Blackfeet
Clarke was born at the mouth of the Judith River, Montana. She spent her childhood in Cincinnati, attending a convent school and returned to Montana just "a few years before a group of Blackfeet men murdered her father in 1869." After her father's murder, she and her brothers filed a claim with the United States federal government claiming that Piegan Blackfeet had not only killed their father, but also confiscated $20,000 worth of horses and cattle.