The event has been interpreted in various ways.

Some accounts emphasize the personal dimension — the tragedy of someone seeking connection to their birth people and being killed for it.

Others emphasize the political dimension — the fragility of the peace established by the Fort Laramie Treaty, and the ways in which old enmities persisted alongside formal agreements.

What neither interpretation should obscure is the specific quality of character the mission reveals.

To ride toward an enemy nation with a small party and the intention of opening peace negotiations required a specific kind of courage — different from the courage of the warrior raid, more vulnerable and in some ways more demanding.