Beckwourth’s memoir, which was more popular, centered her under a fictionalized name as a supporting character in a frontiersman’s adventure story.

Neither mechanism produced the kind of sustained public attention that creates lasting fame.

The recovery of her story in recent decades — through the work of historians of Native American women’s history, gender studies scholars, and increasingly through popular digital media — represents a partial correction of this gap.

Her name is now more widely known than it was a generation ago.

The correction is not yet complete.