SECTION 8: THE CHEYENNE NAMES FOR THESE BATTLES

The Northern Cheyenne have their own names for both of the battles that Buffalo Calf Road Woman is connected to, and these names are historical documents as significant as any written report.

“Where the Girl Saved Her Brother” — the Rosebud.

“Where the Woman Killed Him” — the Little Bighorn.

Consider what these names tell us.

The dominant American historical tradition names the Little Bighorn battle primarily after Custer — “Custer’s Last Stand” is the phrase that has defined the event in American popular memory for nearly a hundred and fifty years.

This name centers the American military figure, frames the battle as a final dramatic moment of individual heroism (however misguided), and defines the event through the perspective of the defeated party.

The Cheyenne name centers a woman.

This is not a minor difference in emphasis.

It is a fundamentally different understanding of what the battle meant, who mattered in it, and how its significance should be remembered.