Buffalo Calf Road Woman - Warrior at Little Bighorn

This past June marked the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Little Bighorn where General Armstrong Custer and his men of the 7th Cavalry met their demise at the hands of the Plains Indians near the Little Bighorn River in southeastern Montana. Scholars have debated the details of Custer's last moments for years. One version emerged in 2005 when the Cheyenne came forward following the expiration of a 100-year vow of silence and revealed that the warrior who knocked Custer off his horse was a woman, Buffalo Calf Road Woman, also known as Buffalo Calf Trail Woman. 

Library of Congress

 

 According to another Native American woman who witnessed the battle at a distance, 

"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.”  (Source) 

She was with her husband, Black Coyote, and remained mounted on her horse during the battle.  And this wasn't the only engagement she participated in.  A week before the Little Bighorn, eyewitnesses place her at the Battle of the Rosebud where she saved her brother.  

Library of Congress

 

After he became unhorsed when his mount was killed, she rode into the fray with bullets flying, took him up, and delivered him to safety.  Her heroic actions inspired the Cheyenne to call the engagement the "Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother" by the Cheyenne.

 

https://offbeathistory.com/buffalo-calf-road-woman/

 

At Rosebud Creek, the US commander was George Crook, who led the Union forces at the Battle of New River Bridge during the Civil War where women fought on both sides.  The Federal woman was killed, an incident that  future president of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, noted.  You can read more about this in a previous blog post I wrote as well as in my book, Behind the Rifle. 

 

Following the surrender, Buffalo Calf Road Woman relocated to Oklahoma with her family and most of the Cheyenne.  However, they longed to return to their home in Montana, and once they entered the state, her husband killed a Cheyenne chief along with a US soldier, resulting in the government capturing him, his warrior wife, and their family.  While her husband was incarcerated, Buffalo Calf Road Woman contracted a disease and died in 1879.  When Black Coyote learned of his wife's passing, Black Coyote hanged himself in prison while waiting execution.

There are no known photos of Buffalo Calf Road Woman.  One purported to be her is circulating on multiple sites.

  

 

However, they are incorrect.  

This image is part of the Edward S. Curtis collection housed in the Library of Congress and labeled simply as "Cheyenne Girl" taken circa1905.  Given that Buffalo Calf Road Woman died in 1879, it is impossible for this image to be her.  But she may have resembled this woman.   

 Buffalo Calf Road Woman was not the only Native American Woman to fight in combat.  Over a decade prior, Stella Ross Christian from Arkansas fought for the Confederate army at Pea Ridge.  You can read more about her in my book, Behind the Rifle.