Distinctly Montana Magazine

41 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m Moving Robe's involvement in the valley fight was corrobo- rated by Rain In The Face, a Hunkpapa warrior, who utilized her presence as a rallying cry to fortify the courage of his men. As he explained to Charles A. Eastman, "Always when there is a wom- an in the charge, it causes the warriors to vie with one another in displaying their valor." During an interview conducted in 1931 by Frank B. Zahn, Moving Robe Woman was reluctant to divulge details of ac- tions that she personally took in the battle. However, Richard Hardorff, author of Lakota Recollections of the Custer Fight, concludes that Moving Robe "killed two of Custer's wounded troopers—shooting one and hacking the other man to death with her sheath knife." Based primarily on the narrative of Eagle Elk, an Oglala warrior and cousin of Crazy Horse, Hardorff also concludes that the man Moving Robe dispatched with her pistol was Isaiah Dorman, a black civilian, who was hired specifically as an interpreter for Custer's Sioux scouts. Weasel Tail, a Blood Indian veteran of the intertribal wars, stated that "A lot of the old timers took their wives on war par- ties." Young, childless women most commonly engaged in this practice, usually within the context of horse raids. Weasel Tail's wife accompanied him on five occasions, for which he offered this rationale: "She said she loved me and, if I was to be killed, she wanted to be killed with me." According to Father Peter J. Powell, threads of Northern Cheyenne oral history suggest that, within their tribe, "wom- en who had gone to war with their husbands formed their own guild and society," which held meetings that no one else could attend. He emphasized, however, that "the number of these women among the People was very small." Nevertheless, (LEFT) Moving Robe Woman (Lakota), riding alone into a volley of gunfire (MIDDLE) Woman Chief (Apsáalooke), the most re- nowned, best-documented, and most accomplished 19th-century Plains Indian woman warrior, who was killed in 1854 by her biological kin, the Gros Ventre. (BOTTOM) Buffalo Calf Road Woman (Cheyenne) res- cued her brother, Comes In Sight, during the Battle of the Rosebud and fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn This image, thought to be the Woman Chief known as Pine Leaf, is attributed as such in The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, which was published in 1856.

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