This was not lesser work.

It was the work that kept people alive.

But Cheyenne women were not confined to these domestic roles in the way that the Victorian ideology of the dominant American culture of the era would have understood.

Cheyenne society had long recognized that individuals — regardless of their gender — might have particular gifts, particular callings, particular paths that the community needed them to walk.

Women who showed exceptional courage, skill, or spiritual power were acknowledged and respected for these qualities.

There were women who went to war.

There were women who had warrior status, who counted coup, who earned honors in battle.

The historical record — from both Cheyenne oral tradition and from accounts left by white observers — documents cases of Cheyenne women who fought alongside the men when the community was attacked, who defended children and elders when enemies came, who chose paths that the broader culture reserved for them even if those paths crossed the lines of conventional gender expectation.

Buffalo Calf Road Woman was one of these women.

She was the daughter of Cheyenne parents whose names have not been preserved in the historical record.