What followed — known in history as the Northern Cheyenne Exodus — was one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the Indian Wars: a small, exhausted, starving community of people outmaneuvering multiple Army columns across more than a thousand miles of terrain, fighting when they had to, hiding when they could, driven by the desperate need to reach their home.

Buffalo Calf Road Woman was part of this exodus.

SECTION 10: THE EXODUS — A THOUSAND MILES HOME

The Northern Cheyenne Exodus of 1878 is one of the great survival stories in American history — and one of the least known.

Three hundred people, including children who couldn’t walk fast and elders who were ill, moving through a landscape full of Army patrols with orders to stop them.

They had some weapons — not many, and not many bullets.

They had horses — not as many as they would have liked.

They had the knowledge of their homeland’s terrain, which had been accumulated over generations and was encoded in the memories of the adults who led the group.

They moved primarily at night.

They avoided settlements and roads.