The Girl Who Saved Her Brother Anniversary
Hi! Noah here. Today we went to the anniversary celebration of the battle of the Girl Who Saved Her Brother. We listened to speeches from the Cheyenne tribe members, prayers, sacred songs from the “Cheyenne Boys” and had our faces painted. In the speeches they emphasized the importance of women in the society and how the tribe couldn’t survive without them.
The Battle of Rosebud was a battle fought between American Troops and the Lakota and Cheyenne tribes. This battle is also known as the Battle of The Girl Who Saved Her Brother. Crook, the leader of the American troops, marched into present day Sheridan. The entire purpose of the war was so the tribes could maintain their way of life. The US government didn’t want the tribes to live the way they did. Buffalo Calf Road Woman, a Cheyenne native, saw her brother in the battle about to die. She ran in and saved her brother from his injured horse, which prevented his imminent death. Her actions have played an instrumental role in the current Cheyenne society and the respect for women warriors.
We had our faces painted because it gave us protection and strength. After, we walked up and down a road next to the battle site. The natives did a relay run from Rosebud to Busby to commemorate the girls’ athleticism.
Today, we learned a great amount about the Northern Cheyenne tribe and their history. The point they emphasized the most was that women are the backbone of the society. They even passed out shirts to everyone with a quote on the back that read, “A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground.”
