Herstory Profiles: Remember their Names, Buffalo Calf Road Woman and Mollie Kyle Burkhart by Anjeanette LeBoeuf

This month saw the release of a Martin Scorsese film which was based on the book written by David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon. While the book and film did try to be more intentional and more inclusive of its representation of the Osage peoples, the film is largely told through the perspective of white men. And if you have been following the Herstory Profile series this year, you know that where there is a historical event, there is a woman who has been overlooked, rewritten, or lost.

Indigenous Women and Non-Binary Peoples are one of the largest populations of missing and murdered peoples in the US. This Herstory Profiles will focus on two Indigenous Women who embody strength, courage, determination, and compassion.

A previous written FAR post was spent talking about the significance of the appointment of Deb Haaland as the Secretary of the Interior. So go check out that post as Secretary Haaland is one who also needs to be celebrated.

Our first tremendous lady is that of Buffalo Calf Road Woman. There is only a short four years that we have of the life of Buffalo Calf Road Woman. What we do know is filled with amazing feats and heartbreaking events. Buffalo Calf Road Woman was a member of the Cheyenne tribe. She was born and grew up when her tribe was engaging with increasing precarious and persistent encroachment of Western Expansion.

We are first introduced to Buffalo Calf Road Woman in the heat of battle. She would spend three years fighting alongside her peoples. She was known to never let her husband and brother ride without support, even if it meant her saddling her horse and loading her guns.  

When the US Army started to further push the Cheyenne off lands, Buffalo Calf Road Woman saw her brother’s horse fall and her brother wounded. She didn’t think twice about charging into the battle to save him. The Battle of the Rosebud (or The Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother as recalled by the Cheyenne) became notorious. The Cheyenne were able to successfully hold off the US Army to allow for women and children to escape. Buffalo Calf Road Woman highly skilled with a six shooter while on horseback and was given a new name Brave Woman.

In 1876, Buffalo Calf Road Woman rode alongside her husband in the infamous Battle of Little Bighorn. She not only road into battle but was one of the people who brought down General Custer. Her participation in the Battle of Little Bighorn was protected and kept hidden so as not to incur retribution from the US.

Her strength and courage would continue as her family was forced to go on the run. She would give birth to her second child while being a refugee. Her family would eventually be forced to live on guarded reservations. Buffalo Calf Road Woman would continually challenge the oppression and mistreatment from the US Government which caused her to become imprisoned. While imprisoned, she would die from diphtheria or something similar as described as “the white man’s coughing disease.”

Even after her death, her participation in the Battle of Little Bighorn and her role in the death of Custer, caused the Cheyenne elders to vow a 100 summers silence. In 2005, the Northern Cheyenne leaders told the full story of the Battle of Little Bighorn and once again spoke the name of Buffalo Calf Road Woman and her role in the courageous fight for her people.

We next turn to Mollie Burkhart Cobb. Mollie has become thrown into the current public attention as she is front in center to the historical events which have been recorded in the book and current movie, The Killers of the Flower Moon. The book helps to bring to public knowledge the Osage Killings from 1910-1930s, also known as the Reign of Terror, where 60 plus Osage were killed, many more disappeared, and countless others who had suspicious deaths. The more realistic number of deaths is in the hundreds.

When the Osage were forcibly placed in the reservations in Oklahoma, oil was found beneath the soil. The Osage were able to negotiate and retain the mineral rights which caused them to become quite powerful and rich. The United States in an attempt to not only damper the rising fortunes of the Osage but also to cash in on the spoils passed a law which requited all Osage to have white guardians who managed the profits from the oil. This guardianship saw many white men marry Osage Women. With the marriages also saw many Osage women – mysteriously passing away permanently transferring their mineral rights to their husbands.

Enter Mollie. Mollie Kyle was born in 1886 in an Osage lodge, speaking Osage and would become one of the most prosperous Osage members with the growing oil demand. Mollie caught the eye of William Hale who coveted Mollie’s mineral rights and fortune. Hale convinced his nephew Ernest Burkhart to woo Mollie. Ernest and Mollie would marry. Within 10 years, Hale had orchestrated the deaths of all of Mollie’s family, leaving her the sole heir to her entire family’s rights and fortunes. The rising amounts of deaths brought the attention of outside authorities. It was discovered that Mollie was being poisoned and that it was Hale and Ernest who were responsible. She would survive the poisoning and would divorce Ernest. She would go on to marry again. She would live until 1937. Her descendants still live on and carry her memory, fight to bring awareness to the horrendous events that lead to hundreds of Osage being killed.

With the release of the motion picture Killers of the Flower Moon, it is crucial for us to stay focused on the lives of the Osage and the voice of Mollie Burkhart.

May we continue to remember the lives of Buffalo Calf Road Woman and Mollie Kyle Burkhart Cobb. May we lift up the lives of all women and non-binary peoples who have been taken from us. May we fight for a better future for us all.

Please check out the Archive Photos related to the Osage and Mollie here

***feature image photo credit from Hannah Styles’s article posted here