#buffalocalfroadwoman — Public Fediverse posts
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This video is a detailed description of the battle as recorded in the official (army) history. The army lost this one. They were out generaled by Red Cloud. Young Crazy Horse played a key role as leader of the very successful decoy action.
The army called it the "Battle of Rosebud". The Cheyenne called it "The fight where the girl saved her brother". Her name was Buffalo Calf Road Woman. She was a serious badass. Her brother, Chief Comes in Sight, had his horse shot out from under him. He was surrounded and in mortal peril. Buffalo Calf Road Woman road through heavy fire, dragged him up onto her horse, and escaped. At the sight of her courage the Cheyenne rallied and pushed General Cook's men into defeat, retreat, and history.
This video tells that part of her story, but fails to elaborate on what may be her most consequential feat. A few days later she fought at Greasy Grass where she was seen to knock Custer off his horse, either with a war club or the butt of one of her pistols. Others say she grabbed his saber and stabbed him with it. There were many witnesses on both sides. As always, eye witness accounts vary and contradict one another. Either way, Custer hit the ground and died shortly afterward. By all accounts she was a very good shot, so I wonder why she didn't just shoot him. But she didn't.
There are conflicting stories of what happened when Custer hit the ground. In one, Buffalo Calf Road Woman held Custer down while two women stabbed him with awls. In another it was two men with knives. In another she killed him herself. The coroner who autopsied Custer said he died, not from stabbing, but from multiple arrows fired at close range while he was down. Either way, Buffalo Calf Road Woman sealed his fate. It happened nothing like the way it is portrayed in the movies.
Buffalo Calf Road Woman later died of diphtheria in May 1879, while locked up at Fort Keogh, just prior to her thirtieth birthday or shortly after her fortieth (accounts vary).
When her husband, Black Coyote, father of her two children, heard she was dead, he hung himself in his cell.
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"It’s a Shame the Battle of the Rosebud Isn’t More Popular"
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Native Warrior Women
Indian women have always been written out of history, but their bravery is being rediscovered in archives and Native oral traditions.
May 11, 2023
“#Cheyenne warrior #BuffaloCalfRoadWoman had fought a number of battles in leadership roles. At the Battle of the #LittleBigHorn, it is told she charged #Custer, grabbed his saber and stabbed him, knocking him off his horse, killing him. Afterward, Cheyenne and #Arapaho women stabbed their awls in Custer’s ears, chanting ‘you will listen to our people in the next world.’ They were avenged.'
"She wasn’t the only female warrior at the Little Big Horn. The Arapaho Chief, #PrettyNose, fought there, too. She lived to be 101 years old and her grandson served in the Korean War as a U.S. Marine and later an Arapaho chief, just like his grandmother.
"Lozen (c. 1840-June 17, 1889) was a female warrior and prophet of the Chihenne Chiricahua #Apache who fought beside #Geronimo. She was the sister of Victorio, a prominent chief. Born into the #Chihenne band during the 1840s, Lozen was, according to legends, able to use her powers in battle to learn the movements of the enemy. The Apache tribesman, scholar and author, James Kaywaykla, was a child during the fighting days of Geronimo, Lozen and Victorio. Kaywaykla wrote, as a child:
"'I saw a magnificent woman on a beautiful horse—Lozen, sister of Victorio. Lozen the woman warrior! High above her head she held her rifle. 'She could ride, shoot, and fight like a man, and I think she had more ability in planning military strategy than did Victorio.'
"He added that Chief Victorio honored his sister as a great warrior: "Lozen is my right hand ... strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy. Lozen is a shield to her people."
Lozen fought beside Geronimo after his breakout from the San Carlos reservation in 1885, in the last campaign of the Apache wars. The band was pursued relentlessly by both the U.S. and Mexican cavalries. According to Alexander B. Adams in his book Geronimo, Lozen would try to ascertain where the enemy was by standing 'with her arms outstretched, chant a prayer to Ussen, the Apaches' supreme deity, and slowly turn around.' The band often relied on her strategic prowess.
"In 1885, Geronimo and about 140 of his followers, including Lozen, fled the reservation when they heard rumors that they were to be imprisoned on Alcatraz Island. Lozen and another female warrior, Dahteste, were designated to try to negotiate a peace treaty. Ultimately, after Geronimo's final surrender, Lozen traveled as a prisoner of war to the barracks in Mount Vernon, Alabama. There, along with many of her fellow warriors, Lozen died in confinement of tuberculosis in 1889.
"#Dahteste was a #Mescalero Apache warrior who rode with Lozen. Dahteste was fluent in English and often acted as a translator for the Apache people and was designated to lead in treaty negotiations with the American and Mexican armies. When Geronimo surrendered, she was arrested alongside Geronimo and Lozen, but was shipped to St. Augustine, Florida, rather than the barracks in Alabama. Nevertheless, like other prisoners in Florida, she contracted tuberculosis and pneumonia, but managed to survive both. Some scholars believe that #Lozen and Dahteste were #TwoSpirits and lovers."
https://www.notesfromthefrontier.com/post/native-warrior-women