Some names have been recovered through oral tradition, through the work of Native historians and family memory, through the painstaking research of scholars who took Lakota and Cheyenne testimony seriously.

But many names were never recorded, and some of those will never be recovered.

Deeds, Moving Robe Woman’s brother, is known by name because his sister’s story preserved him.

He was among the first to die on June 25, 1876 — killed in the initial confusion when Reno’s soldiers appeared, too young to have accumulated much of a warrior’s record, his death the event that sent his sister riding into a battle that the United States Army lost and the Lakota won.

His name survived because her grief gave it weight.