She was the most famous female war leader in the history of the upper Missouri tribes, according to the man who knew her best among those who left written records.

She died in 1854, far from any monument, with no obituary in any newspaper, and was nearly lost to history for the century and a half that followed.

The reasons she was lost tell us about history’s failures.

The fact that she can be recovered tells us that the record, even when thin, can be read carefully.

The fact that the Crow Nation never forgot her tells us that the communities who lived these histories were always the most reliable keepers of them.

She was Bíawacheeitchish.