Moving Robe Woman

Moving Robe Woman
Moving Robe Woman
	Sioux, Tȟašína Máni
Personal details
Born	1854
Died	1935 (aged 80–81); Standing Rock Reservation, South Dakota
Parents	Father, Crawler
Known for	Fought against Custer during the Battle of Little Big Horn to avenge her brother, One Hawk
Nickname(s)	Mary Crawler, Her Eagle Robe, She Walks With Her Shawl, and Walking Blanket Woman

Moving Robe Woman (Sioux name Tȟašína Máni), also known as Mary Crawler, Her Eagle Robe, She Walks With Her Shawl, Walking Blanket Woman, Moves Robe Woman, Walks With Her Robe and Tashenamani [1][2][3] was a Hunkpapa Sioux woman who fought against General George Custer during the Battle of Little Big Horn to avenge her brother, One Hawk, who had been killed.[4][5]

Early life

Moving Robe Woman was born near the area now called Grand River, South Dakota.[5] Her father's name was Crawler; he was also known as Siohan[6] and was the Hunkpapa band chief,[4] also present at the battle. Her mother was Sunflower Face. At the age of 17, Moving Robe Woman traveled to Montana with a war party to battle against the Crows.[3] When she was about 22 years old, she and her family moved to Peji Sla Wakapa, known in English as the Little Big Horn.[5]

Battle of Little Big Horn

When she was 23, she heard news from her parents that her brother was killed by Pehin Hanska (the Lakota name for Custer) and his soldiers. Shortly thereafter, a troop of soldiers charged on horseback into the large Lakota village near the Greasy Grass River and began firing their guns.[5] Later in the battle an Oglala Lakota warrior named Fast Eagle claimed that he had held Custer's arms while Moving Robe Woman stabbed him in the back.[7] However, several other warriors claimed to have killed Custer, and it is uncertain that Moving Robe Woman actually killed him. There are no published post-mortem accounts that describe Custer as having stab wounds, and officers who found his body described him as having died of gunshot wounds.

She also avenged her brother's death by killing two of Custer's men, one with a knife and the other with a revolver. The latter was the army interpreter Isaiah Dorman.[8]

Later years

After the ending of the battle at the Little Big Horn, she moved with her people to Canada, where she remained until 1881. She then moved to the Kenel area of Standing Rock. The Standing Rock Family Information Survey notes that in 1923 at age 70, Moving Robe Woman was living alone in a one room log house with a connected barn on the Grand River west of Bullhead, South Dakota. The survey also noted that she owned 18 horses and 23 cattle.[3]

Interview

An interview with Moving Robe Woman, made at Fort Yates, North Dakota by Frank B. Zahn,[3][4] is published in Richard G. Hardorff's book, Lakota Recollections of the Custer Fight, New Sources of Indian-military History.[5] In the interview she describes her emotions upon hearing of her brother's death at Little Big Horn:

"My Heart was bad. Revenge! Revenge! For my brother's death. I thought of the death of my young brother, One Hawk. I ran to a nearby thicket and got my black horse. I painted my face with crimson and braided my black hair. I was mourning. I was a woman, but I was not afraid."[3]

Visual representations

She was photographed in 1937 at age 83 by F.B. Fiske; the photograph by Fiske is held in the National Anthropological Archives of the Smithsonian Institution.[9]

The American artist Thom Ross has created a 200-piece installation of the battle, including a painting of Moving Robe Woman.[10]

References

"Little Big Horn Warriors (LBH Warriors)" (PDF). Friends of Little Big Horn. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
Shilling, Vincent. "Fight the Power: Heroes of Native Resistance, Women Warriors". Indian Country Today. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
Waggoner, Josephine (2012). Witness: A Hunkpapha Historian's Strong-Heart Song of the Lakotas. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 665. ISBN 9780803245648. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
Hardorff, Richard G. (2004). Indian Views of the Custer Fight: A Source Book. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 185–186. ISBN 0806136901.
Hardorff, Richard G. (1991). Lakota Recollections of the Custer Fight: New Sources of Indian-Military History. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 91–96. ISBN 0803272936.
"LBH (Little Big Horn) Warriors" (PDF). Friends of Little Big Horn. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
Miller, David Humphreys (1957). Custer's Fall: The Indian Side of the Story. New York: Bison Books (E.P. Dutton reprint). p. 210. ISBN 0-8032-8129-3.
Hardorff (2004) p.90,
"Dakota Woman, Mary Crawler". National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
Ross, Thom (Summer 2005). "Custer's Last Stand, An Artist's Perspective". Montana: The Magazine of Western History. 55 (2). Retrieved 20 October 2020.