The nimíipuu were, by the military analysis, remarkably effective fighters and movers.

They regularly defeated forces that outnumbered them in the specific engagements, and they covered ground that their pursuers thought was impassable.

But the military analysis misses what the flight actually was.

It was a family trying to stay alive.

It was grandmothers and infants and warriors and young women and elderly men trying to keep moving when keeping moving was the only alternative to capture or death.

It was leaders trying to make decisions in real time, with incomplete information, under conditions of exhaustion and grief, about what to do when every option carried severe costs.