When we visualize the tribal peoples living in the 19th century we don’t usually picture the native women outside of their domestic responsibilities. We usually see them caring for young ones, tanning hides, smoking meat, or pounding corn. Most indigenous women were probably doing those things, but a few wanted to go against their customs and join the men in hunting and battle.
It is exciting to be able to recount the stories of women who were appreciated for their skills and bravery. Last time we featured Lozen and Dahteste, two Apache women who fought to the bitter end for freedom for their tribe. Both women were strong and brave and appreciated to this day by their people as true warriors.
Buffalo Calf Road (Cheyenne) and Pi’tamaka (Running Eagle – Blackfeet) are legends among their people. We don’t have as much information about these two women as we would like, but their deeds are still remembered by their tribes.
Buffalo Calf Road (Cheyenne, b. ca. 1844-1879)
It took a long time before the story of Buffalo Calf Road came to light. The account of her brave deeds was not revealed until more than a century after they happened. Women’s stories have been marginalized for generations. It is about time that the stories of women like Buffalo Calf Road are brought forth. The stories of the brave tribal women should be even more exciting just because they are women. Their stories illustrate justice and fairness to women when we realize that men decided that they wanted to follow these women into battle. It tells us that the characteristics of courage, skill, and leadership are more important than the characteristic of maleness at least to some people.
Buffalo Calf Road was a member of the Cheyenne people. We are not sure when she learned how to hunt and fight but it seems likely that when she was a girl she accompanied the young braves in her tribe when they went out. Early on the boys saw that she could shoot as well as they could. They noted how fearless she was. They included her in their hunts and games. During this time the Cheyenne were constantly under threat of attack by the white settlers, miners, other native tribes, and the U.S. Army. Buffalo Calf Road was involved in many skirmishes.
The first clash against the white soldiers that brought Buffalo Calf Road fame was the Battle of the Rosebud, June 17, 1876.
General Crook and his men were trying to round up the Cheyenne and force them to live on a reservation. The Cheyenne were determined to live free on their own land. The Cheyenne warriors met General Crook in battle. At one point, Buffalo Calf Road’s brother, Comes In Sight, was trapped by soldiers. When Buffalo Calf Road saw his peril she dashed to his rescue dodging bullets. She pulled her brother onto her horse and took him to safety. The nearby warriors had been watching and were amazed at what they had thought was a hopeless rescue. After the Cheyenne won the battle against the bluecoats they named the battle for her – The Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother. She was now honored by being named among the braves.
This drawing, from the Spotted Wolf-Yellow Nose Ledger, shows Buffalo Calf Road Woman rescuing her brother through a hail of bullets. Buffalo Calf Road Woman wears an elk tooth dress. Her brother, Comes in Sight, wears a war bonnet. According to the book We, The Northern Cheyenne People, the horse’s split ears indicates that it is a fast one. Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, Bureau of American Ethnology, ms. 166.032.
The Northern Cheyenne call this place Where the Girl Saved Her Brother, in honor of Buffalo Calf Road Woman’s valiant deed. Photo courtesy of the State Historic Preservation Office.
Eight days later, June 25, 1876, the Battle of Little Bighorn took place along the Little bighorn River in Montana Territory. The federal troops were led by Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer. He fought against the Lakota (Western Sioux) and the Cheyenne. Chief Sitting Bull and the native bands defeated Custer, killing all of the government troops. The Indians lost about 50 men. It has become known as “Custer’s Last Stand” but really it was the Indians last stand. The wars with the Sioux and Cheyenne were now over.
Most of the women had stayed in the village to care for the children but some rode onto the battlefield to encourage the men. One of the women, Antelope (Kate Bighead) told of seeing a woman warrior:
Calf Trail Woman 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. She stayed on her pony all the time, but she kept not far from her husband, Black Coyote. . . . At one time she was about to give her pony to a young Cheyenne who had lost his own, but I called out to them, “Our women have plenty of good horses for you down at the river.” . . . She took the young Cheyenne up behind her on her own pony and they rode away toward the river. This same woman was also with the warriors when they went from the Reno creek camp to fight the soldiers far up Rosebud creek about a week before. . . . She was the only woman I know of who went with the warriors to that fight.[1]
In one story that has been handed down it was reported that Buffalo Calf Road Woman charged at a full gallop toward Lt. Colonel Custer with a club in her hand. She struck a blow to his head and knocked him off of his horse. He survived the blow but later died of his battle wounds.
The angry soldiers continued to harass the Cheyenne. The government wanted all of the tribes on the reservation. They hunted down the Cheyenne who were holding out in their village. They attacked the tribe and burned their village to the ground. Buffalo Calf Road and her people had to flee again. Without shelter eleven babies froze to death. Gradually many of the Cheyenne gave up and surrendered.
Buffalo Calf Road and her husband, Black Coyote, refused to give in. She was pregnant with their second child but followed her husband to another hideout. They were a small band now and so they surrendered. Instead of going to a nearby reservation the government force-marched them to the dreaded Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Many Indians were sick and dying. Buffalo Calf Road and her family decided not to stay in that deadly place.
They escaped in the night. They traveled north, mostly on foot, for 1500 miles. When they arrived in the north they split into two bands. One group under Chief Dull Knife headed to a Lakota village where they hoped to be safe. The white army captured them and forced them south again. Buffalo Calf Road and her group followed Chief Little Wolf. They were able to hide out in Nebraska for a while. Unfortunately, Buffalo Calf Road’s husband had developed a sort of madness. He killed a soldier in cold blood and was arrested. Black Coyote and his family were taken to Fort Keogh in Montana where many Cheyenne were already imprisoned. In 1879, Buffalo Calf Road died from diphtheria. Black Coyote committed suicide in his grief.
Buffalo Calf Road did not live to see her people settled on their own land in southeastern Montana in 1884. Today the Lame Deer reservation is comprised of 444,000 acres. The Crow reservation is their neighbor to the west. Their eastern border is the Tongue River. About 5000 tribal members live there today. They remember and honor the warrior woman Buffalo Calf Road.
[1] From https://montanawomenshistory.org/a-young-mother-at-the-rosebud-and-little-bighorn-battles/
