But the moment that most significantly expanded Buffalo Calf Road Woman’s public profile came in 2005, when Northern Cheyenne elders publicly shared aspects of their oral tradition regarding her role at the Little Bighorn — including the specific claim that she had struck Custer.

The book “Buffalo Calf Road Woman: The Story of a Warrior of the Little Bighorn” by Rosemary and Joseph Agonito, published in 2005, brought her story to a wider audience through a narrative reconstruction based on historical research and consultation with Cheyenne sources.

The 150th anniversary of the Little Bighorn, in 2026, will bring new attention to all aspects of the battle — including, scholars hope, more thorough integration of Indigenous perspectives into the public historical record.

But even before that anniversary, Buffalo Calf Road Woman’s name has been growing in recognition.

She has appeared in documentaries, in academic papers, in historical novels, in educational curricula developed by Native American educators who want their students to know her story.

She is being reclaimed — by the Northern Cheyenne community, by historians who take oral tradition seriously, and by the growing movement to recognize the contributions and humanity of Native women in American history.

SECTION 14: THE NORTHERN CHEYENNE TODAY — A LIVING COMMUNITY

The story of Buffalo Calf Road Woman does not end in 1879.

It continues in the living community that has preserved her memory — the Northern Cheyenne Nation, which today occupies a reservation in southeastern Montana and remains one of the most culturally intact Native communities in the United States.

The Northern Cheyenne Reservation was established in 1884, a few years after the Exodus — a bitter irony, since so many people died to force the government to recognize their right to live in their homeland.