Denig recorded her death, and that recording is itself an act of posthumous recognition — the acknowledgment that someone had died who was significant enough to note.

His biographical account was written in 1855-56, in the year and a half after her death, while she was still present in his memory and in the memory of the Crow community.

The songs that the Crow had sung about her victories continued to be sung, presumably, for some time after her death.

When they stopped being sung, and why, and what specific memories were lost in the silence — these are among the questions the historical record cannot answer.

What can be said is that her life, as documented, demonstrates the specific range of human achievement — the specific combination of capability, determination, and social intelligence — that it takes to rise from captivity in a foreign nation to leadership in that nation.