The women who were part of her household occupied positions that carried specific social recognition — being a chief’s wife was a recognized social status in Crow society, with specific rights and recognition.

Whatever the full complexity of these relationships — which is simply inaccessible given the absence of their own accounts — they represent another dimension of her achievement: not only did she accumulate the war honors and the council rank of a chief, she built and maintained the kind of substantial household that chiefly status in Crow society required.

The Rudolph Kurz Encounter: A Closer Look

Rudolph Friederich Kurz was a Swiss artist who spent roughly six years in the American West, from 1846 to 1852, documenting what he saw in journals and sketches.