A Note on Sources and Their Limitations

Any honest account of Woman Chief’s life has to acknowledge what the sources cannot tell us.

The primary reliable source — Denig’s biographical essay — was written by an outsider, in English, for a professional audience, decades after many of the events it describes.

Denig knew her personally for twelve years, which gives his account a base of credibility that most sources for this period lack.

But even a reliable outsider observer is limited by what he could observe and understand.