(A series brought to you by Feminist Global Resistance)
The Series:
Patriarchy ensures that male (almost exclusively white colonizer) history is remembered though a few women shine through or are given a twisted footnote.
More often, women are relegated to lost tomes and forgotten lore. Some shine through in song and tales while others, more recently, are beginning to have their stories told (progress?)
Throughout history, women around the world have stood to fight patriarchy, some winning, some losing, but they often brought revolution and change, their lives given for the just causes of freedom, liberty and justice.
This series will focus on the stories of some of those women who have stood up to patriarchy fighting oppression and colonization; confronting violence and abuse; And sacrificing everything in a fight for freedom, justice, and human rights. There have been many. I have chosen just a few of those who inspire me by their bravery and resolve.
Learn their names, learn from them, let them inspire you to do great things.
Part 8: Buffalo Calf Road Woman (Brave Woman)
Buffalo Calf Road, Buffalo Calf Road Woman, aka, Brave Woman(1844 – May 1879)
The Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation
The people now called the “Cheyenne” (a name that was given to them but not what they called themselves, possibly originating from a “Siouan” pertaining to the language of the indigenous peoples now named the “Sioux”, but made common by the first white invaders/colonizers encountering them – the French) were living in, what is now called, Minnesota when they first encountered the French in the late 18th century. Our knowledge of any prior contact with white colonizers in unknown (speculation of Scandinavian or European contact prior to the French is noted here even though it has yet to be proven), We are limited to what is written in white European settler history by white European settlers.
By the early 19th century, the Cheyenne (aka, Tsitsistas – the name the “Cheyenne” call themselves meaning “Human Beings” or “The People”) tribes joined with Arapaho (Hinono’ei – the name the “Arapaho” call themselves meaning “Our People”) and became allies. Both peoples had been pushed out of their traditional homelands around the Great Lakes and the headwaters of the Mississippi by the encroachment of white settlers and their traditional enemy tribes. Both peoples adapted to horses (brought to the Americas by the Spanish) and went from their agrarian lifestyle, farming corn, beans, and squash, to a hunting life-style in a new land teeming with buffalo and other game.
As with most lands colonized by invaders from other continents, the “accepted” or commonly taught history tends to be written by and for the invaders, if their colonizing was successful. The oral traditions and histories of the indigenous peoples are often ignored, many forgotten, and even outlawed. This was the case of the Tsis tsis’tas and Hinono’ei peoples but they have persevered.
Today, the tribes that are part of the federally recognized “Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes” functioning as “one nation” but each tribe still maintains their culture, traditions, customs, history, ceremonies and languages.
Cheyenne Warrior Culture
As white settlers expanded their reach across North America, the indigenous peoples were forced westward vying for resources with each other and with the new interlopers taking the land.
For the Cheyenne and Arapaho, this meant adapting quickly to new lifestyles: They became adept at breeding, training and riding horses; They went from a more sedentary farming life to an active hunting life in search of food; As agrarians, they built more permanent lodges of earth and polls but the new Plains life demanded more temporary shelters that were easy to construct and easy to take down, made of materials they could take with them as they became more nomadic.
The new life brought with it new threats. With more people competing for the resources, the tribes were faced with attacks from settlers intent on grabbing more land, more groups competing for resources and more attacks on their camps and their families.
The new lifestyle brought changes in governance and changes in society to meet the threats of the plains. A warrior culture was born.
Warriors were trained to be expert riders and fighters, willing to give up their lives and refusing to ever run from the battlefield. Warriors of the tribe were venerated and were held with great honor for their skills, knowledge and bravery.
Within the Cheyenne culture, they became the “military leadership” – they became the disciplinarians, the leaders of the hunt, the protectors of the tribes, and the ones who stood up to the enemies of the people. Within the Warrior Culture grew the elite warriors; The “best of the best” within the tribal nation; The “Dog Soldiers” (Hotamétaneo’o). They developed their own “uniform”; Their own songs, ceremonies, and rituals; Their own privileges; And, eventually, their own society. They grew in reputation as the most elite of all warriors on the plains – the fastest, the fiercest, the most fearless, and the most feared.
They fought other tribal nations (Pawnee, Apache, Comanche, Kiowa), they fought the white settlers and they fought the US government’s army.
Her Story
Buffalo Calf Road Woman saves her brother, “Where the girl saved her brother” (Kse-e se-wo-is-tan-i-we-i-tat-an-e), aka, Battle of the Rosebud.
Buffalo Calf Road was born approximately, 1844, somewhere in the interior plains of the US. The exact date and circumstances around her birth are not well documented. She was the sister of future Chief of a warrior society, Comes In Sight.
By the time, Buffalo Calf Road was born. the Cheyenne had split into two groups – one inhabiting the Platte River near the Black Hills, the other inhabiting the area near the Arkansas River in southern Colorado. That 2nd group found themselves in constant conflict with the Comanche and Kiowa, who claimed the lands for themselves. The Cheyenne soon formed an alliance with the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache.
It was 1849, Buffalo Calf Road was approximately 5 years old, when more white settlers came through the plains seeking land and gold in the West. White settlers – along with their guns and technology; their “values” and religion; their destruction of land and water – brought diseases. It was in this year that they brought Cholera that spread through the populations of indigenous people of the plains. As many as one half to two thirds of the population of Cheyenne died from that outbreak.
By 1850, the US and its white settlers pushed further west, into the indigenous territories. With their new alliance, the Cheyenne and their allies attacked white settlements, wagon trains and travelers as they defended their lands from the intruders.
In 1851 when Buffalo Calf Road was 7 years old, US peace commissioners held a council with representatives of the Plains Indians at Fort Laramie. The resulting 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty, also known as the Treaty of Horse Creek, was signed between the indigenous nations (to include Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota as well as the Crow, Blackfoot, Gros Ventre/Mandan/Srikara) recognizing the tribal territory on the Plains. The treaty also promises annuities and protection to the tribes in exchange for safe passage of American citizens through tribal lands. The treaty recognizes land in eastern Colorado, western Kansas, western Nebraska, and eastern Wyoming as Cheyenne and Arapaho lands.
By 1857, the US Cavalry broke that treaty when it attacked a Cheyenne warrior party without provocation.
Buffalo Calf Road was approximately 14, 1858 to 1859, when gold was discovered on Pike’s Peak, Colorado, beginning a new gold rush into Cheyenne territory. Over 100,000 gold seekers and settlers descended on the area. Many established illegal settlements on Cheyenne and Arapahoe land but, instead of removing the settlements and honoring the Fort Laramie treaty, the US demanded a new treaty.
The next year, 1861, the Fort Wise Treaty, drastically cutting the lands of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, was negotiated – only a few chiefs signed. The majority of the Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs refused to sign the new treaty. A later meeting forced negotiations and signing of that treaty. It was ratified by Congress and signed by President Lincoln. It was now enforced even on the tribes who refused to agree and sign the treaty.
Westward expansion by white colonizers continues.
By now, Buffalo Calf Road had learned how to ride and how to handle weaponry. There is no written account of her training.
By 1862, President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act that granted land for railroad and telegraph lines to run through the Indian Territories, ignoring the sovereignty of those lands.
The next year, a delegation of older chiefs from the Cheyenne, Comanche, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Caddo tribes went to Washington, DC, as a peace delegation. There plan was to ease the rising tensions between the white settlers, the US Army and the Indian tribal nations over the broken promises of the treaties. President Lincoln encouraged them to adopt “an agricultural” lifestyle and gaves them each a “Peace Medal”.
By 1864, Buffalo Calf Road was 20, the US Army made 4 unprovoked attacks on Cheyenne villages in the Colorado Territory; Warriors retaliated by raiding mail and freight trains, stage stations, and farms.
Buffalo Calf Road, as an adult woman, married Black Coyote – both members of Chief Comes In Sight’s tribe. Now a warrior, not unheard of within the Cheyenne culture but still rare (In the 1953 book Cheyenne Autumn, Western historian and novelist Mari Sandoz describes Buffalo Calf Road at the 1878 Battle of Punished Woman’s Fork in Kansas as both a mother and a warrior—“a gun in her hands, ready, the baby tied securely to her back.”), she was known as an excellent markswoman and horse woman.
It was, also, 1864, that the Sand Creek Massacre was perpetrated on the peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho village at Sand Creek on the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation, in the Territory of Colorado.
Sand Creek:
Early in that year, Governor John Evans, the 2nd governor of the Colorado Territory had ordered all indigenous peoples to register with the US military and move near established forts in the territory. His order was part of a campaign to take Indian Territory from the indigenous tribes and give it to the new white emigrants rushing to Colorado for the gold rush. He promised peace if the tribes complied with the order.
The Governor abruptly reversed his position, issuing a proclamation allowing Coloradans to “kill and destroy, as enemies of the country,” any “hostile” Indians they may encounter.
On November 29, 1864, 700 US troops, commanded under Major John Chivington, committed an unprovoked attacked on a village of 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho even though there had been no reports of any altercations with or violence perpetrated by the people camping at Sand Creek. Cheyenne and Arapaho thought they were at peace with the government. Didn’t they have a treaty that said they were? Didn’t their chiefs just return from Washington, DC, where they received a “Peace Medal” from the President of the United States?
The massacre of over 230 innocent men, women and children at Sand Creek was the breaking point for the Cheyenne and the Arapaho. The distrust that grew from that massacre at Sand Creek led to later conflicts at Rosebud, Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee, and Washita.
Great Sioux War of 1876 – Battle of the Rosebud, “Where the girl saved her brother”
After more incursions by the white European settlers across Indian territories, in the 1860’s, resulting in “Red Cloud’s War” (a result of new gold finds creating a mass migration of over 3500 miners and settlers across the newly blazed Bozeman Trail through Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho lands), a new alliance of Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho. The “War” resulted in heavy losses for the US military, a new treaty that ceded the western Powder River country to the Alliance, permanently closed the Bozeman Trail, and closed three US Army forts across the region. (Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1868).
The” Treaty” promised:
Unfortunately, it took the land of the Crow and the Ponca nations and gave it to the Lakota
Peace was achieved but short-lived. It lasted eight years before the US started taking land away from the Cheyenne, Lakota, and Arapaho again. This time, it was the sacred Black Hills.
Gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874. The land was “unceded land’ belonging, solely, to the Northern Cheyenne and the Lakota as part of the reservation as defined by the 1868 Treaty. No white person was allowed in those lands, so said the treaty.
The US government attempted to buy the Black Hills from the Lakota and the Cheyenne. The US government demanded the attendance of all bands of the Lakota and Cheyenne to appear at the government agencies on the reservation by January, 1876, to negotiate a sale. Many did not comply including Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and their followers.
In response, the US sent troops to force compliance, renewing the wars with the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho. It did not go well…
The US military decided on a 3-prong attack on the Bighorn and Powder River country after losing the Battle of Powder River in March of that year: Colonel John Gibbon would lead his force from the West; General Alfred Terry (with Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer) from the East; and General George R Crook from the South advancing north from Fort Fetterman (near what is now Douglas, WY).
Crook and his entourage of 993 calvary and mule mounted infantry, 197 civilian packers and teamsters, 65 Montana miners, and 3 scouts, crossed the Tongue River.
On June 8, Crook waited at the Tongue for his Crow and Shoshoni warriors. On June 9, the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho launched a long-distance attack on the camp wounding several soldiers and killing two. On June 14, the 175 Crow and 85 Shoshoni arrived. The Crow and Shoshoni warned Crook that the Cheyenne and Lakota were “as numerous as grass” but that warning was unheeded.
It was on June 16, 1876, that Buffalo Calf Road Woman, now a mother of two children, her husband Black Coyote, and her brother, Chief Comes In Sight traveled with the Northern Cheyenne (led by Chiefs Young Two Moon and Spotted Wolf.) and Lakota (led by Chief Crazy Horse) towards the Little Big Horn. The Cheyenne and Lakota force, numbering 1,000 to 1,800 warriors (some accounts state there were as many as 4,000 warriors on the field that day), were looking for US soldiers on the Rosebud River.
It was on June 17, 1876, that Crook led his exhausted troops up the south fork of Rosebud River. He had hoped to find a large Indian village on Rosebud River to attack.
It was on June 17, 1876, in a remote valley, near the Rosebud River, Montana, the Cheyenne and Lakota engaged US Army troops. It was at this battle that Buffalo Calf Road Woman was recognized for her bravery.
The Indian alliance caught Crook and his resting soldiers out in the open. The battle that ensued was a series of disconnected charges and counter-charges on both sides. The forces created a “front” that stretched over 3 miles wide and consisted of 3 separate pitched skirmishes. It was during one of these skirmishes that Buffalo Calf Road Woman saved her brother.
Chief Comes In Sight’s horse had been shot out from under him, he was in an open gully, alone, trying to escape the advancing army on foot. Buffalo Calf Road Woman, fighting in the battle, saw her brother, alone and in danger. She jumped on the back of a fast horse and charged into the melee of gunfire, pulled her brother onto her mount and they successfully escaped.
At that battle, she earned a new name, “Brave Woman”
The Alliance of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho prevailed that day.
Crook tried to claim victory since he stood at the battlefield alone after the battle but the facts speak differently. Crook was left exhausted with virtually no supplies. He retreated back to the camp along the Tongue and waited for “reinforcements” for 7 weeks. He played no role in the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
The Lakota and Cheyenne returned to that battlefield and piled stones to mark the locations of significant battles. They moved on to the Greasy Grass.
From that day forward, the Battle of the Rosebud was now called “Where the girl saved her brother” (Kse-e se-wo-is-tan-i-we-i-tat-an-e)
Battle of the Little Bighorn (US military), Battle of the Greasy Grass (The Lakota and other plains Indians) or, as commonly referred to, “Custer’s Last Stand”
On June 25, 1876, General George Armstrong Custer, with 600 men comprising the 7th Calvary, entered the Little Bighorn Valley. He had been detached from General Terry’s forces to approach the encampment of the Indian alliance forces (Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho) from the south and east. The plan was to push the Indians to the north and west where they were to be met by the remaining forces under General Terry.
The plan first went awry with the under-estimation of the size of the village on which Custer was advancing. It turned out to be a village of approximately 8,000 with a warrior force of 1,500 to 2,500.
The next problem arose when Custer, planning to conceal his forces in the Wolf Mountains, let his scouts locate the village and mount a dawn attack on June 26, found out his regiment had been detected by Lakota and Cheyenne warriors.
As Custer advanced, he continually misinterpreted the intel he was receiving thereby under-estimating what he was up against. He still did not believe he would be confronting many warriors.
He released his Shoshoni and Crow from his command – he didn’t think he needed them. He was being watched by the Cheyenne and Lakota warriors every step of the way,
General George Armstrong Custer and the 210 men he led into battle were killed, Custer’s body found on top of a hill, now named Custer’s Hill of “Custer’s Last Stand”. There was no one left to tell the story from the Army’s viewpoint (well except for one injured calvary horse).
The exact details of the battle and Custer’s death have been a subject of debate for over a century.
On June 25, 1876, Buffalo Calf Road Woman, fought openly on horseback through the entire Battle at Greasy Grass (The Indian name for the Little Bighorn valley).
The “historical account” went something like this:
Within 48 hours after the battle, the large Indian encampment/village broke up into small groups and they all scattered from the area. After the battle, she and her husband, Black Coyote stayed on the move. Eventually, she and the band of Cheyenne with whim she travelled and fought, were captured. Black Coyote killed one soldier while defending his family. He was tried and sentenced to death. Instead of being put to death by the US Army, he committed suicide while in captivity. Buffalo Calf Road Woman, now Brave Woman, fell ill during the Diphtheria epidemic of 1878-1879 (She caught, “:the white man’s coughing disease”). She died in Miles City, MT, May 1879.
But THIS is not the end of “Her Story”. It is only the story given and written by the white historians.
It took over 100 years for the Cheyenne Nation’s story of Buffalo Calf Road Woman to be told. Over 100 years for “Her Story” to be revealed by the Chiefs of the Cheyenne Nation. It was hidden to protect the nation and the people from reprisals and agreed upon, by the chiefs of that mighty nation, to be held close for 100 years.
In June of 2005, the Northern Cheyenne broke their silence. They agreed to recount their oral history of the events at the Greasy Grass; At Custer’s last Stand.
Frank Rowland, a Cheyenne elder, told the Montana-based Independent Record, “The chiefs said to keep a vow of silence for 100 summers. One-hundred summers have now passed and we’re breaking our silence.”’
According to the oral history of the Cheyenne, it was Buffalo Calf Road Woman who knocked Custer from his horse; It was she who delivered the final shot that killed Custer.
In an account given in the 1967 book, Custer on the Little Bighorn, by Thomas B. Marquis’s posthumous 1967 book, by a female eye-witness:
“Most of the women looking at the battle stayed out of reach of the bullets, as I did. But there was one who went in close at times. Her name was Calf [Road] Woman …[she] had a six-shooter, with bullets and powder, and she fired many shots at the soldiers. She was the only woman there who had a gun.”
According to Wallace Bearchum, Director of Tribal Services for the Northern Cheyenne, though Buffalo Calf Road Woman was a skilled “marksman”, she used a club to knock Custer off his horse. It was Buffalo calf Woman, with a few other warrior women, ““finished off Custer and the other Calvary soldiers right after the battle was over,” going “from soldier to soldier to finish them off or take things from them …”
Buffalo Calf Road Woman’s story is the story of the indigenous peoples in the Americas. She is the strength, the warrior spirit and the bond of the people to the land and native culture.
That same warrior spirit has been seen throughout modern history in the activists fighting for the rights of their people. Activists like Zitkala-Sa (aka, Gertrude Simmon) in her fight to end “assimilation” and to preserve native culture; Grace Thorpe in her fight against the exploitation of native lands and workers in uranium extraction and her anti-nuclear activism; Madonna Gilbert Thunder Hawk who was a participant in the Alcatraz and Wounded Knee Occupations and one of the founders of WARN (Women of All Red Nations); Katsi Cook and her activism for women’s health, her fight against environmental racism, and her founding of Mother’s Milk Project; Madonna Thunder Hawk, a leader in the American Indian Movement (AIM), as an organizer against the Dakota Access Pipeline, and tribal liaison for the Lakota People’s Law Project partnering with native American communities to protect the sacred lands, human and civil rights ,and reunite indigenous families….