Seeking info on Mochi aka Buffalo Calf Woman

[ashantai]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the community- and I'm so happy to have found it! I would be really grateful if anyone could help me regarding information on a Cheyenne/Tsistsista woman named Mochi (also called Buffalo Calf Woman, or Buffalo Calf Road Woman, or Buffalo Calf Trail Woman).

She was a survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre and became a woman warrior of the Bowstring Military Society for about a decade. She participated in the German Family murders along with her second husband, Chief Medicine Water, and was later jailed for three years as a prisoner of war. She has also been credited as saving her brother Chief Comes in Sight at the Battle of Rosebud, and some Cheyenne oral tradition credits her as being the person who delivered the blow which unhorsed General Custer before he died. Supposedly Custer had "bad medicine" and so the warriors wouldn't touch him, so it was left to a woman to kill him.

I am searching for anything on this woman or her family- stories, photos, etc.

Thanks so much in advance to anyone who can help!!

[philrob]

Ashanti
you are confusing two different women. Mochi went to Fort Marion with her husband. Buffalo Calf Road woman was a Northern Cheyenne.
The English Westerners Society published a paper by the late Peter Harrison on Mochi called " Mochi Cheyenne Woman Warrior" in 2009 which is worth getting hold of if you can.

[ashantai]

Hi, thanks for getting back to me. Yes, I know there seem to be some conflicting ideas about whether these were two different women or whether they were one and the same. I'm interested in any and all information on either woman, whether or not they're different. I'll try to find a copy of the paper you speak of- thanks very much!

[Gary]

Hi Ashanti

You can order a copy of "Mochi" from:

www.westernerspublications.ltd.uk

The price is £3.50/$7.00 + postage.

Mochi, a Southern Cheyenne and Sand Creek survivor, was the wife of Medicine Water. They have descendants in Oklahoma. Buffalo Calf Road Woman was a Northern Cheyenne woman who saved her wounded brother, Comes in Sight, at the Battle of Rosebud in 1876. The Cheyennes call this battle The Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother. Gary

[shatonska]

Buffalo Calf Woman
madmikesamerica.com/2010/06/buffalo-calf-road-woman/

Mochi
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mochi_%28Cheyenne%29

[ashantai]

Thanks everyone! I'm wondering, have any of you ever read "Extraordinary People in Extraordinary Times: Heroes, Sheroes, and Villains" by Patrick M. Mendoza (1999)?

This is the first source I read that tells the story of Mochi, in which she is one and the same with the Buffalo Calf Woman that saved her brother:

"... She continued fighting alongside her husband, and during one great battle against the Pawnee, Mochi rode down amidst a group of enemy warriors and rescued her brother, who had had his horse shot out from under him. The Cheyenne called this battle 'the time in which the girl saved her brother from the Pawnee.'..."

Most of the references he lists for this chapter are interviews with some of Mochi's descendants, so I wonder if the family's oral tradition does say that the two women were the same. Either way, interesting stuff and I'm really grateful for the help!

[jeroen]

I think the confusion comes from the fact that Mochi (or better Mo'kehuduovse) can be translated as Buffalo Calf Woman. She was a Southern Cheyenne woman married to Medicine Water. They surrendered in 1875 and were among those sent to Fort Marion
See this thread
amertribes.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=group&action=display&thread=724

for some images of Mochi and her husband. She died soon after her return to the Southern Cheyenne reservation.
The lady that saved her brother at the Rosebud battle was named Buffalo Calf Road Woman; she was Northern Cheyenne and married to Black Coyote.
So definitely not one and the same woman.

[binkylandia]

Great post, I read in wikipedia that "During the unprovoked attack, Mochi witnessed her mother being shot in the forehead and killed by an American soldier who had entered their tipi. According to her account, he then attempted to rape her, prompting her to shoot and kill him with her grandfather's rifle. She then fled the camp with the other survivors trying to evade Chivington's men.", I don't know where they got that info, Mochi has never granted an interview as far as I know!

[tatanka]

As far as photographs of Buffalo Calf Road Woman are concerned, according to the Agnitos and despite their exhaustive research, they found none.