She grew up knowing who her mother was.

And so the memory was preserved.

SECTION 12: WHY HER STORY DISAPPEARED — THE MACHINERY OF FORGETTING

The story of how Buffalo Calf Road Woman’s memory was preserved by the Northern Cheyenne while being almost completely absent from mainstream American historical consciousness is worth examining carefully, because it is not accidental.

The mechanisms by which Native American women — and Native American perspectives generally — were excluded from the dominant historical record are well-documented, and they operated at multiple levels simultaneously.

At the most basic level, the documentary record of the Indian Wars was created almost entirely by American military personnel, government officials, journalists, and the white settlers who were the intended beneficiaries of federal Indian policy.

These people had neither access to, nor particular interest in, the interior lives and individual stories of the people they were fighting against.

When they recorded Native actions, they typically recorded them in aggregate — “the hostiles attacked” — rather than noting specific individuals.

When they did record individual Native actors, they tended to note only the leaders of high official status — chiefs whose identities were known to the Army because of prior negotiations.

Buffalo Calf Road Woman was not known to the Army by name.