Some were conducting anthropological research.

Some were journalists looking for dramatic content for popular publications.

The conditions of recording — through interpreters, often years or decades after the events described, with the subject aware of how their words might be used — inevitably shape what is recorded.

This does not mean the testimony is unreliable.

It means that the testimony needs to be read critically, as all historical sources do, with attention to the conditions of its production.

Moving Robe Woman’s account, read in this way, is consistent with what other witnesses described: the initial attack on the Hunkpapa circle, the massive Lakota response, the defeat of Reno’s charge.