They wrote in Cheyenne, in the language the boarding schools tried to destroy.

They wrote in the memory of elders who passed it to children who passed it to their children.

This form of writing is not inferior to the written historical record.

In some ways, it is more resilient — more personal, more embedded in community, more resistant to the kinds of revision and suppression that printed records are subject to.

The story of Buffalo Calf Road Woman survived a century and a half of systematic assault on the cultural memory of the Northern Cheyenne people.

It is still here.

It is growing — spreading from the community that held it into the wider public record, carried by researchers and writers and educators who recognize its importance.

One day — perhaps not far from now — her name will be as well-known as his.

Not because her story will displace his, but because the full history of the Little Bighorn, the Rosebud, and the Indian Wars will finally include all the people who were actually there.

When that day comes, the history of America will be truer, richer, and more just than it has been.