The Broader Context of Women Warriors

Woman Chief was the most famous and most extensively documented of the Crow’s women warriors, but the broader context of women warriors and women leaders across the plains nations in this period is worth acknowledging.

The tradition of women who participated in military activities, either alongside warriors or in specifically recognized warrior roles, existed in multiple plains nations.

The conditions of plains life — where communities were frequently attacked, where the defense of a camp required everyone capable of defense to participate — created contexts in which gender roles in military activity were not always rigidly enforced.

The Piegan Blackfoot had their own famous woman warrior in Running Eagle, whose story was later fictionalized by J.