The Native Woman Who Became A Chief — The Forgotten Story Of Woman Chief, The Warrior Who Led The Crow

It was the formal recognition of a specific, verified war record that met or exceeded the standard for chiefly authority.

The Landscape of Her Life

The specific landscape that Woman Chief moved through — the Yellowstone River valley, the Bighorn Mountains, the northern plains — deserves description for readers who may not have a clear picture of the physical world she inhabited.

The Yellowstone River rises in the mountains of what is now Yellowstone National Park and flows northeast for roughly 700 miles before meeting the Missouri River at the location where Fort Union was built.

The river valley is extraordinary country — well-watered, sheltered from the worst of the northern plains winters, rich in the game animals that sustained plains economies.