Woman Chief: The Native American Leader Who Defied Gender Expectations
Wikimedia CommonsThe only illustration of Pine Leaf, whom historians believe later became known as Woman Chief.
The story of Woman Chief is a fascinating one that explores intertribal relations as well as gender norms among Native American warriors.
Born to the Gros Ventre people in Montana around 1806, Woman Chief was kidnapped by the Crow people at 10 years old — and later grew up to become one of the most formidable chiefs they had ever seen.
While Woman Chief’s birth name remains unknown, it’s believed that the child was initially named “Pine Leaf” while in captivity. Eventually taken in by a Crow family, Woman Chief showed promise as a potential warrior at a young age, especially when it came to activities like horseback riding.
Years later, when Woman Chief successfully fended off Blackfoot attackers raiding the Crow camp, the future leader gained respect from other warriors. And while leading a new group of fighters on raids against the Blackfoot, Woman Chief returned each time with the scalps and horses of the enemy.
To the Crow, Woman Chief was Two-Spirit, meaning that they had both a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit. As the story goes, Woman Chief was celebrated for their gender identity and had many female sexual partners — including four wives. And while Woman Chief mostly pursued male-dominated activities, they opted to wear feminine clothing, even in battle.
A Black mountain man named James Beckwourth — who lived with the Crow in the early 19th century — described a warrior that he called Pine Leaf as one of the strongest Native American leaders around. While it remains unconfirmed that Pine Leaf was indeed the same person as Woman Chief, Beckwourth’s description of Pine Leaf certainly matched. And according to him, Pine Leaf only agreed to get married after killing 100 enemies.
Named Woman Chief (“Bíawacheeitchish”) in the Council of Chiefs, the new leader successfully negotiated peace with their birth tribe after the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. But just a few years later, their own people ambushed them in 1854 near the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. Knowingly or not, they had killed the child who had been taken from them years earlier.
