No account of Little Bighorn from the Lakota perspective omits Sitting Bull’s vision, and Moving Robe Woman’s story is properly understood within that context.

At the Sun Dance held before the battle, Sitting Bull underwent the piercing ceremony and received a vision: soldiers falling upside down into the Lakota camp, like grasshoppers falling from the sky.

He interpreted this as a prophecy that a great victory was coming — but he added a warning: the Lakota must not take the belongings of the dead soldiers, or they would invite suffering.

The vision circulated through the camp before June 25.