What Denig could observe: her physical appearance, her household structure, her behavior in his presence, what the Crow said about her in his presence, and what she presented to him directly.

What he could not observe: her inner life, her specific understanding of her own identity and role, the full complexity of her relationships with the people around her, most of the specific military engagements she participated in, her private conversations and decisions.

Beckwourth’s memoir is a different kind of source — entertaining, vivid, and largely unreliable in its specifics.

If Pine Leaf is Woman Chief, then Beckwourth gives us a highly fictionalized account of some of the same events that Denig documented more accurately.

The value of Beckwourth’s account is the detail and color it provides in areas where Denig is sparse — but that detail cannot be trusted without corroboration.