It is the account of a trained observer trying to make sense of someone who didn’t fit his categories — and doing so with more honesty than most of his contemporaries managed.

He described her physical appearance as he saw it on October 27, 1851, when he introduced her to the Swiss artist Rudolph Friederich Kurz at Fort Union.

By Denig’s reckoning, she was approximately forty-five years old at that point.

Kurz described her in his own journal as “modest in manner and good-natured.” Despite this demure demeanor, Kurz also noted that on this occasion she presented a Blackfoot scalp to Denig — one she had personally taken in battle.

The combination that Kurz observed — modesty and good nature alongside the presentation of a recently taken scalp — captures something essential about the way she moved through the world.