[[link removed]]

9 INSPIRING NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN WHO HAVE GONE TRAGICALLY OVERLOOKED
IN THE HISTORY BOOKS  
[[link removed]]


 

Kaleena Fraga; Edited By Cara Johnson
November 22, 2021
All That’s Interesting
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ From fierce female warriors to brave political activists, take a
look at some of the most powerful and influential Native American
women throughout history. _

A rare photograph of Buffalo Calf Road Woman, the Native American
woman who knocked Custer off his horse., Wikimedia Commons

 

tories about Native American women have long lingered in the shadows.
Even accounts of well-known figures like Pocahontas are misunderstood.
In fact, “Pocahontas” wasn’t even her real name.

Lesser known to history are women like Susan La Flesche Picotte, who
went to medical school to treat her people, Buffalo Calf Road Woman,
who knocked George Armstrong Custer off his horse, and Wilma
Mankiller, who became the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee
Nation.

Facing oppression, racism, and sexism, the nine Native American women
featured below fought to make the world a better place. They didn’t
always succeed — but they did help clear a path for the generations
that followed.

As Wilma Mankiller once put it: “Every step I take forward is on a
path paved by strong Indian women before me.”

 

Susan La Flesche Picotte: The First Native American Woman To Receive A
Medical Degree

 
Susan La Flesche Picotte became one of the few women of her day to go
to medical school.  (Photo in the public domain)
 

When Susan La Flesche Picotte was a girl, her father asked
[[link removed]]
her and her sisters: “Do you always want to be simply called those
Indians or do you want to go to school and be somebody in the
world?”

Born to the Omaha people in 1865, La Flesche Picotte grew up in a
world full of fracturing tribal traditions. Her father led one faction
of the tribe, which believed that the Omaha needed to start accepting
some white customs. The other faction, led by medicine men and
traditionalists, called their rivals’ log cabins “The Village of
the Make-Believe White Men.”

But La Flesche Picotte saw the need for some modernization. And she
saw the need for a Native American to lead it. As a child, she
remembered sitting with an old, sick woman who was waiting for a white
doctor to treat her. Though he promised to come, he never did — and
the woman died.

“It was only an Indian,” La Flesche Picotte recalled, “and it
not matter.”

Determined to make a difference, La Flesche Picotte enrolled in the
Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. In 1886, she took the train
across the country at age 21 so that she could become a doctor. Few
women — of any race — in the late 19th century took such a step.
At the time, male doctors had claimed
[[link removed]] that
academic stress could make women infertile.

Undeterred, La Flesche Picotte graduated first in her class and became
the first Native American woman to earn a medical degree. Though she
was encouraged to practice on the East Coast, she chose to return home
to the Omaha Reservation to treat vulnerable patients there. Before
long, she became the primary physician for more than 1,200 people.

Sometimes, the work could be taxing. La Flesche Picotte often traveled
for hours in inclement conditions to reach people, some of whom
distrusted her unfamiliar diagnoses. But La Flesche Picotte kept at it
— treating both Native American and white patients — and even
raised enough money to build a modern hospital in the reservation town
of Walthill, Nebraska.

She died in 1915, eulogized by both local priests and members of the
Omaha. 

 

Buffalo Calf Road Woman: The Native American Woman Who Knocked Custer
Off His Horse

 

As the Battle of the Little Bighorn raged between U.S. troops and
Native Americans in Montana, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer suddenly
found himself facing a female fighter. Her name was Buffalo Calf Road
Woman.

Not much is known about the woman who charged toward Custer, knocking
him off his horse and quite possibly striking the final blow that
killed him. Buffalo Calf Road Woman — also called Buffalo Calf Trail
Woman or Brave Woman — was likely born in the 1850s to the Northern
Cheyenne. She married a man named Black Coyote and had two children
with him.

She first distinguished herself about a week before the Battle of the
Little Bighorn during the Battle of the Rosebud. Then, Buffalo Calf
Road Woman insisted on riding alongside male warriors as they set out
to confront U.S. troops. Despite some grumbling from other fighters,
they let her join.

During the battle, she sprang into action when she noticed that U.S.
soldiers had trapped her brother, Chief Comes in Sight, in a gully.
She rode straight into the melee, grabbed her brother, and pulled him
onto her horse.

Her bravery impressed the other warriors, who dubbed the conflict
“The Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother.” But Buffalo Calf
Road Woman’s true claim to fame came about a week later, as the
Northern Cheyenne, Lakota Sioux, and Arapaho faced off against Custer
and his troops.

According to Wallace Bearchum, the Director of Tribal Services for the
Northern Cheyenne, Buffalo Calf Road Woman acted bravely during the
Battle of the Little Bighorn. Fighting “out in the open,” she
never took cover
[[link removed]]
during the conflict, and “she stayed on her horse the entire
time.”

When Buffalo Calf Road Woman spotted Custer, she raised a club — and
charged him. And according to the tribe’s oral history, her blow
sent him flying off his horse, a move which may have led to his death.

Though the Cheyenne won the battle, they lost the larger war. Buffalo
Calf Road Woman spent the rest of her short life fighting off attacks
and seeking safety with her tribe. She died in 1879, likely of
diphtheria.

Her story remained untold for over a century — but the Cheyenne
never forgot about her. Fearing retribution, they kept their silence
about the Battle of the Little Bighorn until 2005. Then, they told the
world about Buffalo Calf Road Woman and the blow that may have very
well killed Custer.

 

Lyda Conley: The First Native American Woman To Argue Before The
Supreme Court 

 
Lyda Conley boldly argued before the Supreme Court to save her
tribe’s ancestral burial ground.  (Public Domain photo)
 

When Eliza “Lyda” Burton Conley realized that white developers
wanted to snatch up her tribe’s ancestral burial ground, she
resolved to defend it. Conley got a law degree — no small feat for a
woman in 1902 — and physically guarded the cemetery’s entrance
with her musket.

“I will go to Washington and personally defend [the cemetery],”
Conley avowed
[[link removed]].
“No lawyer could plead for the grave of my mother as I could, no
lawyer could have the heart interest in the case that I have.”

Born to a mother from the Wyandotte tribe and an English farmer around
1868, Conley grew up in Kansas. She later learned that some developers
wanted to repurpose the Huron Indian Cemetery, located in Kansas City,
Kansas. As the city grew, it had become a valuable piece of land.

Conley had a personal stake in the matter. Her family had buried her
mother and one of her sisters in the cemetery. But Conley also
believed that an 1855 federal treaty with the Wyandotte protected the
land from development.

Determined to make her case, she enrolled as one of the only women at
the Kansas City School of Law and gained admission to the Missouri Bar
in 1902. When Congress approved legislation to sell the land and move
the bodies buried there four years later, Conley was ready to fight
back.

First, she filed an injunction against the U.S. Secretary of the
Interior and Indian Commissioners in the U.S. District Court. Then,
Conley and one of her sisters set up camp in front of the cemetery.
Armed with a gun, they built a shack called “Fort Conley” to
discourage any potential trespassers.

The battle went all the way to the Supreme Court, where Conley became
the first Native American woman to argue a case before the justices.
They listened to her, but they ultimately sided with the developers.

Nevertheless, Conley continued to fight. She spent most of her time at
the cemetery — until she was murdered during a robbery in 1946.
After that, others picked up the baton, inspired by her devotion to
the cause.

In 1971, the Huron Indian Cemetery was added to the National Register
of Historic Places. And in 2017, it was designated a National Historic
Landmark, preventing any development in the future. Lyda Conley
didn’t live to see it, but the cemetery — where she too was buried
— was saved.

 

Sarah Winnemucca: The Paiute Woman Who Stood Up For Her People 

 
Sarah Winnemucca was the first Native American woman to write an
English-language autobiography.  (Photo:  Wikimedia Commons)
 

Outraged at how white settlement had devastated her people, Sarah
Winnemucca began to speak out. She traveled America in the 1880s and
wrote a fiery autobiography called _Life Among the Paiutes_ in 1883.

“For shame! For shame!” Winnemucca wrote. “You dare to cry out
Liberty, when you hold us in places against our will, driving us from
place to place as if we were beasts.”

Born Thocmetony (Shell Flower) to the Northern Paiute people,
Winnemucca spent most of her life straddling the line between the
“white” world and the “Native” world. She grew up traveling
with her tribe in modern-day Nevada and Oregon, but she later attended
a convent school in San Jose, California — until furious white
parents forced her to leave.

Afterward, Winnemucca accompanied her family to their new reservation
near Pyramid Lake in Nevada. Unfamiliar with the dry landscape — and
victims of thefts by government agents who stole their aid money —
many Paiutes starved to death. Winnemucca, who had mastered English
from an early age, attempted to act as an interpreter for her people.

But it was tough work. Not only did Winnemucca have to work with cruel
government agents like William V. Rinehart, but many of her own people
grew to distrust her. Meanwhile, things for the Paiutes seemed to get
worse and worse. So Winnemucca decided to speak out on their behalf.

Starting in San Francisco, Sarah Winnemucca traveled around the
country and spoke her mind. Wearing traditional clothing and billing
herself as a “princess,” Winnemucca described the hardships forced
upon her people.

“I would be the first Indian woman who ever spoke before white
people,” Winnemucca told a reporter, “and they don’t know what
the Indians have got to stand sometimes.”

Her fearless activism eventually caught the eye of members of the
Transcendentalist movement, who arranged for the publication of her
autobiography. Pen in hand, Winnemucca didn’t hold back.

“Since the war of 1860 there have been one hundred and three (103)
of my people murdered, and our reservation taken from us; and yet we,
who are called blood-seeking savages, are keeping our promises to the
government,” Winnemucca thundered. “Oh, my dear good Christian
people, how long are you going to stand by and see us suffer at your
hands?”

At first, her book seemed like it might make a difference. The
president, Rutherford B. Hayes, and the U.S. government as a whole
promised to help with reforms. But their words fell flat — and
nothing changed.

Winnemucca spent some of her final years teaching at a Paiute school
in Nevada before it was shut down due to the Dawes Act, which mandated
that Indigenous children be taught in white-run schools. Though she
died in 1891, her powerful testament to the plight of her people lives
on.

 

Maria Tallchief: The Native American Woman Who Transformed Ballet 

 
Maria Tallchief became the first Native American prima ballerina.
 (Photo: School of American Ballet)
 

As a girl growing up in early-20th-century Oklahoma, Maria Tallchief
[[link removed]] and her sister were
often encouraged to act out “Indian” dances at country fairs.

“It wasn’t remotely authentic,” Tallchief later wrote
[[link removed]]
of the experience.

“Traditionally, women didn’t dance in Indian tribal ceremonies.
But I had toe shoes on under my moccasins, and we both wore fringed
buckskin outfits, headbands with feathers, and bells on our legs.
We’d enter from opposite wings, greet each other, and start moving
to a tom-tom rhythm.”

But Tallchief’s early experiences didn’t dissuade her from
pursuing dancing. The daughter of an Osage man and a Scottish-Irish
woman, she’d found a passion for the craft and soon leaped into the
world of ballet.

After training in Los Angeles, Tallchief moved to New York and snagged
a part in Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, a leading touring company, in
1942. There, Tallchief’s talent attracted the ire of some of the
other dancers. But it also caught the eye of famed choreographer
George Balanchine.

Before long, Tallchief became Balanchine’s muse — and briefly his
wife. At Balanchine’s New York City Ballet, he even created a role
specifically for Tallchief in his 1949 version of Stravinsky’s _The
Firebird_.

In a rave review of Tallchief’s performance, a _New York Times_
dance critic swooned that Balanchine had “asked her to do everything
except spin on her head, and she does it with complete and
incomparable brilliance.”

Tallchief also danced as the Swan Queen in Balanchine’s version of
_Swan Lake_ and the Sugar Plum Fairy in his version of _The
Nutcracker_. Even after she and Balanchine divorced in 1950, she
continued dancing with his company and other companies until the late
1960s. She later went on to work as a dance instructor and artistic
director in Chicago.

Maria Tallchief, who died at age 88 in 2013, is remembered today as
America’s first major prima ballerina, and the first Native American
prima ballerina. But Tallchief always saw herself as a dancer above
anything else.

“Above all, I wanted to be appreciated as a prima ballerina who
happened to be a Native American, never as someone who was an American
Indian ballerina,” she once said.

 

Nancy Ward: The Cherokee “War Woman” Who Fought For Peace

 
A statue of Nancy Ward that once stood in Tennessee.  (Photo:
 Pinterest)
 

Nancy Ward [[link removed]] — born
Nanyehi or “she who walks among the spirits” — became famous
during a battle between the Cherokee and the Creek Nation in 1755.
While chewing lead bullets for her husband to make them deadlier, she
saw him fall and die on the battlefield. In response, she quickly
grabbed his rifle, rallied the troops, and helped lead the Cherokee to
victory.

Afterward, the Cherokee bestowed
[[link removed]]
a new title upon her: Ghighau, a “Beloved Woman.” They also made
her the head of the Women’s Council of Clan Representatives and gave
her a vote on the Cherokee General Council.

But despite being known as a “war woman,” Ward was less interested
in war than in peace. She’d grown up as the niece of a Cherokee
chief named Attakullakulla, who believed that the Cherokee needed to
coexist with British colonists in order to survive. Ward embraced his
point of view.

As colonists increasingly pushed into Cherokee territory, Ward
advocated for peaceful coexistence. And, for a short time, the
Cherokee and the white settlers lived side by side. Ward even married
a white man, Bryan Ward, and she learned how to make cheese and butter
from a white woman settler.

Ward attempted to keep things peaceful even as the colonists continued
to take tribal land. She discouraged the frequent Cherokee raids on
white settlements. And when the American Revolutionary War broke out
in 1775, Ward took the side of the colonists — even though most
Cherokee wanted to take advantage of the situation to drive out the
settlers.

When the colonists and the Cherokee tried to take steps toward a
truce, they appointed Ward as their negotiator. She pleaded for peace.

“You know that women are always looked upon as nothing,” Ward
said, “but we are your mothers; you are our sons. Our cry is all for
peace; let it continue. This peace must last forever. Let your
women’s sons be ours; let our sons be yours. Let your women hear our
words.”

Although her efforts produced an uneasy truce, it didn’t last.

As time marched on, the settlers continued to gobble up Cherokee
territory — and Ward’s once-powerful belief in peaceful
coexistence began to fade. She was left to beg tribal leaders to not
agree to a deal proposed by the U.S. government, which would exchange
their tribal lands for different lands.

“We have raised all of you on the land which we now have. Your
mothers, your sisters ask and beg of you not to part with any more of
our land,” said Ward, who was about 80 years old by then.

Despite her protests — and the protests of other women — the deal
went through. Ward died in 1822 as the last Ghigau of the Cherokee.

 

Sacagawea: The Shoshone Interpreter Who Led The Lewis And Clark
Expedition 

 
Sacagawea, as depicted on a mural alongside Lewis and Clark at the
Montana House of Representatives.  (Photo in the public domain)
 

When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out in 1804 to explore
lands past the Mississippi River, they enlisted a French-Canadian
trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau to be their interpreter and guide.
Charbonneau brought along his 16-year-old wife, a Native American
teenager named Sacagawea. In the end, she proved much more vital to
the mission.

Before joining up with Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea had had a painful
life. She was born to the Shoshone tribe around 1789 but was later
kidnapped by a rival tribe, the Hidatsa. They eventually sold her to
Charbonneau.

By the time Lewis and Clark appeared on the scene, Sacagawea was
heavily pregnant. She gave birth to her son in February 1805, strapped
him to her back, and joined up with the exploration party.

There, she proved indispensable. Her mere presence helped discourage
attacks by other Native Americans, who saw her and her baby as a sign
that Lewis and Clark were on a peaceful mission. Plus, she could also
interpret Hidatsa and Shoshone languages, and identify edible plants
and roots.

“The men who were complaining of the head ake and cholick yesterday
and last night are much better to day,” Clark wrote in 1806. “
gathered a quantity of fenel roots which we find very paliatiable and
nurushing food.”

She proved herself in other ways as well. When a boat flipped during a
river crossing, Sacagawea not only saved herself and her son from
drowning but also managed to gather important documents that had
fallen into the water.

“The Indian woman… has been of great service to me as a pilot
through this country,” Clark wrote.

But despite her invaluable work, Sacagawea received little more than
recognition. After parting ways with Lewis and Clark, Charbonneau
received $500 and 320 acres of land. Sacagawea did not get anything.

 

Wilma Mankiller: The Fearless Cherokee Chief

 
Chief Wilma Mankiller, pictured in 1993. (Photo: Judy Weintraub/The
Washington Post)
 

In 1987, Wilma Mankiller did what no other Native American woman had
done before — she became the Principal Chief of a major tribe.

During her tenure, which lasted until 1995, Mankiller oversaw a budget
that grew to $150 million a year, watched Cherokee membership triple,
and advocated for better education, healthcare, and housing services.
And when she ran for reelection in 1991, she won 83 percent of the
vote.

She fought hard to get there. Born to a Cherokee father and a white
mother in 1945 in Oklahoma, Mankiller and her family were eventually
forced to move to San Francisco as part of a relocation policy of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs. It was, Mankiller later reflected
[[link removed]], “my own
little Trail of Tears.”

But living in California would change her life. As a teenager,
Mankiller had a front-row seat to the social movements of the 1960s.
And in 1969, she watched with awe and admiration as Native American
activists occupied Alcatraz to raise awareness of the U.S.
government’s treatment of Natives.

“When Alcatraz occurred, I became aware of what needed to be done to
let the rest of the world know that Indians had rights, too,”
Mankiller recalled.

Though she was married to an Ecuadorian businessman from 1963 to 1977,
the pair ultimately divorced. Mankiller then returned home to Oklahoma
with her two daughters. There, she volunteered with tribal affairs and
started to work with the Cherokee Nation as an economic stimulus
coordinator. Before long, Mankiller had founded the Community
Development Department for the Cherokee Nation to help increase access
to water and housing.

Her hard work caught the eye of Ross Swimmer, the tribe’s Principal
Chief. He selected her as his running mate in his re-election campaign
in 1983, making Mankiller the Deputy Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

When he resigned two years later, Mankiller took his place and later
won the election in her own right in 1987. “Prior to my election,”
she said, “Cherokee girls would have never thought that they might
grow up and become chief.”

Though health problems forced Mankiller to step down in 1995,
Mankiller remained heavily involved with the Cherokee Nation. Her
legacy of hard work eventually earned her the Presidential Medal of
Freedom in 1998.

She died in 2010 at age 64 and was soon memorialized as a trailblazer.

 

Pocahontas: One Of The Most Famous Native American Women In U.S.
History

 
The only known depiction of Pocahontas that was made during her life.
Circa 1616.  (Photo in the public domain)
 

For many, the name “Pocahontas” conjures up lighthearted images of
animated Disney characters. But Pocahontas
[[link removed]] was a real Native
American woman whose story differs significantly from the famous
Disney movie. Indeed, “Pocahontas” wasn’t even her real name.

Born around 1596, Pocahontas was named Amonute. She also had the more
private name of Matoaka, and later picked up the nickname Pocahontas,
which means “playful one.” The daughter of Chief Powhatan,
Pochahontas likely spent her early life learning tasks assigned to
Powhatan women.

But everything changed when Pocahontas was 11 years old. Then, in
1607, a group of English people arrived and started to settle in
Jamestown. Pocahontas met one of the colonists that year: a man named
John Smith.

In the Disney version of her story, Pocahontas falls in love with
Smith. In reality, Pocahontas was just a child when she met him. And
Smith claimed that he was captured by Pocahontas’s tribe — and
feared for his life.

As Smith told it, the Powhatan tribe was about to execute him. But
then, Pocahontas saved his life by throwing herself between him and
his would-be executioner. However, many historians suspect that Smith
misinterpreted what happened. One theory states that the
“execution” was actually a tribal ceremony that formalized
Smith’s place among the Powhatan.

But Smith’s encounter with the Powhatan did open up relations
between the settlers and Native Americans. For a short while, they
lived in peace and the Native Americans helped out the settlers by
offering them supplies. But then, the settlers started demanding more
and more supplies. Amid rising tensions, Smith returned to England for
medical care.

After Smith left, Pocahontas continued to interact with the white
settlers — though not always by choice. Around 1613, she was
kidnapped by a group of English colonists and held for ransom. Since
she was Chief Powhatan’s favorite daughter, Pocahontas tragically
became a bargaining chip for the English in the midst of their many
conflicts with the Powhatan.

During her captivity, she met John Rolfe
[[link removed]], who became her husband
and later brought her and their son to England. There, Pocahontas was
exhibited as evidence of the settlers’ success in “taming” a
“savage.” By that point, Pocahontas had converted to Christianity
and taken on the name “Rebecca.”

She sadly died on the trip home — leaving no record of her own
thoughts and reflections on her tragic, short, and historic life.

_After reading about these remarkable Native American women, look
through these stunning __Native American photos taken by Edward
Curtis_
[[link removed]]_.
Then, learn more about the devastating __Native American genocide_
[[link removed]]_._

_[KALEENA FRAGA is a senior staff writer for All That's Interesting
since 2021 and co-host of the History Uncovered Podcast, Kaleena Fraga
graduated with a dual degree in American History and French Language
and Literature from Oberlin College. She previously ran the
presidential history blog History First, and has had work published in
The Washington Post, Gastro Obscura, and elsewhere. She has published
more than 1,200 pieces on topics including history and archaeology.
She is based in Brooklyn, New York._

_Editor: CARA JOHNSON is a writer and editor based in Charleston,
South Carolina and an editor at All That's Interesting since 2022,
Cara Johnson holds a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from
Washington & Lee University and an M.A. in English from College of
Charleston. She has worked for various publications ranging from
wedding magazines to Shakespearean literary journals in her nine-year
career, including work with Arbordale Publishing and Gulfstream
Communications.]_

* Indigenous peoples
[[link removed]]
* indigenous people
[[link removed]]
* Native Americans
[[link removed]]
* Native American women
[[link removed]]
* indigenous women
[[link removed]]
* Genocide
[[link removed]]
* Racism
[[link removed]]
* sexism
[[link removed]]
* U.S. history
[[link removed]]
* National Day of Mourning
[[link removed]]
* Thanksgiving
[[link removed]]
* Susan La Flesche Picotte
[[link removed]]
* Buffalo Calf Road Woman
[[link removed]]
* Lyda Conley
[[link removed]]
* Sarah Winnemucca
[[link removed]]
* Maria Tallchief
[[link removed]]
* Nancy Ward
[[link removed]]
* Wilma Mankiller
[[link removed]]
* Sacagawea
[[link removed]]
* Pocahontas
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Bluesky [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]