Woman Chief’s multiple wives served the same practical function they served for male chiefs of equivalent standing.

They were also, for Denig, a notable detail — he wrote about this aspect of her household with evident fascination, suggesting that it struck him as one of the most remarkable aspects of her life.

The interpretation of these relationships has varied considerably in different historical contexts.

The concept of Two-Spirit identity — a term developed by Indigenous scholars and community members to describe gender-diverse individuals in Indigenous cultures — has been applied by some commentators to Woman Chief.

The Crow themselves had concepts for gender-diverse people, and there is a rich scholarly conversation about how best to understand and describe these identities across different cultural frameworks.