| Ehyophsta | |
|---|---|
| Ehyophsta, (Cheyenne: "Yellow-Haired Woman") | |
| Personal details | |
| Died | 1915 |
| Relations | Uncle, Bad Faced Bull. |
| Parent | Stands-in-the-Timber |
| Known for | Fought in the Battle of Beecher Island |
Ehyophsta ( "Yellow-Haired Woman") (b. circa 1826, d. 1915) was a Cheyenne woman warrior. She was the daughter of a chief, Stands-in-the-Timber, who died in 1849, and the niece of Bad Faced Bull. She fought in the Battle of Beecher Island in 1868, and also fought the Shoshone that same year, where she counted coup against one enemy and killed another. She fought the Shoshone again in 1869, and during battle she stabbed and killed an enemy, saving a member of her own people.
It is said that she rode her father's horse, and sang songs alongside a fellow woman warrior, Buffalo Wallow Woman of the Lakota. She was also a member of a secret society composed exclusively of Cheyenne women. During this period, Cheyenne women often participated in battle, dressed and armed the same as the male warriors were.
She died in August of 1915 at the Tongue River Reservation in Montana, aged eighty-nine.
She is one of the women in the Heritage Floor of the famous feminist installation art work, The Dinner Party, by Judy Chicago.
References
- Grinnell, George Bird; Fitzgerald, Joseph A. (2008). The Cheyenne Indians: Their History and Lifeways : Edited and Illustrated. World Wisdom, Inc. ISBN 978-1-933316-60-4.
- Chicago, Judy (2014-07-08). The Dinner Party: Restoring Women to History. The Monacelli Press, LLC. ISBN 978-1-58093-397-1.
- Southwestern Studies. Texas Western College Press. 1998. ISBN 978-0-87404-157-6.
- ^ Grinnell, George Bird (1962). The Cheyenne Indians Their History and Ways of Life.
- Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (2023-12-20). Women Warriors in History: 1,622 Biographies Worldwide from the Bronze Age to the Present. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-5032-6.
- Tucker, Phillip Thomas (2002). Cathy Williams: From Slave to Female Buffalo Soldier. Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-0340-6.
- "The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Ehyophsta". Brooklyn Museum: Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Retrieved 2013-08-13.
- Salmonson, Jessica Amanda (1991). The Encyclopedia of Amazons. Paragon House. Page 78. ISBN 1-55778-420-5
- Reader's Digest Association (1995). Through Indian eyes: the untold story of Native American peoples. Pleasantville, N.Y: Reader's Digest Association. ISBN 089577819X.