Pretty Nose

{{Infobox person

| name = Pretty Nose

| image = Arapaho woman Pretty Nose, 1879, restored.jpg

| caption = Pretty Nose in 1879, with woven cloth belt and buffalo robe

| birth_date = {{circa}} 1851

| death_date = after 1952

| citizenship = Arapaho

| known_for = Participation in the Battle of the Little Bighorn

| relatives = Mark Soldier Wolf (descendant)

}}

Pretty Nose ({{circa}} 1851 – after 1952) was an Arapaho woman who participated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. She lived to be at least 101 years old and reportedly became a war chief.{{cite web|url=http://projects.aljazeera.com/2014/native-veterans/soldier-wolf/|title=The Story of Soldier Wolf|author=Tristan Ahtone|publisher=Al Jazeera America|date=September 28, 2014|access-date=July 26, 2015|archive-date=October 1, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001022839/http://projects.aljazeera.com/2014/native-veterans/soldier-wolf/|url-status=live}}{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/frontieryearsla00brow |title=The Frontier Years: L. A. Huffman, Photographer of the Plains |publisher=Holt |location=New York |author1=Mark Herbert Brown |author2=William Reid Felton |year=1955 |page=[https://archive.org/details/frontieryearsla00brow/page/202 202]-[https://archive.org/details/frontieryearsla00brow/page/204 204] }}{{cite web |last1=Hilleary |first1=Cecily |title=Smithsonian to Honor Native American Veterans With National Memorial |url=https://www.voanews.com/usa/smithsonian-honor-native-american-veterans-national-memorial |publisher=Voice of America |access-date=1 October 2020 |archive-date=15 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200115115100/https://www.voanews.com/usa/smithsonian-honor-native-american-veterans-national-memorial |url-status=dead }}

Biography

Pretty Nose was Arapaho, though in some sources she is referred to as Cheyenne.{{cite archive |first=L. A. |last=Huffman |author-link=Laton Alton Huffman |item =Pretty Nose, Cheyenne Girl, Fort Keogh. |item-url=https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/72096 |type=Image |date=1878 |series= |file= |box= |collection=L. A. Huffman Photograph Collection |collection-url=https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/112996 |repository= |institution=Montana Historical Society Library and Archives |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303023908/https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/72096 |archive-date=2024-03-03 }} She was identified as Arapaho on the basis of her red, black and white beaded cuffs.{{efn-ua|The two tribes were allies at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and are still officially grouped together as the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes}}

Pretty Nose took part in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 with a combined Cheyenne/Arapaho detachment.{{cite web|date=June 25, 2020|title=Women warriors|url=https://www.govserv.org/US/Riverton/285558848638120/Northern-Arapaho-Tribal-Historic-Preservation-Office|website=Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Office|access-date=October 9, 2020|archive-date=October 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004170410/https://www.govserv.org/US/Riverton/285558848638120/Northern-Arapaho-Tribal-Historic-Preservation-Office|url-status=dead|quote=Pretty Nose fought with the Cheyenne/Arapaho detachment (at Little Bighorn)}}

Pretty Nose's descendant, Mark Soldier Wolf, became an Arapaho tribal elder who served in the US Marine Corps during the Korean War. She witnessed his return to the Wind River Indian Reservation in 1952, at the age of 101. At the time he reported her wearing cuffs that he said indicated she was a war chief.

Pretty Nose was portrayed in the 2017 novel The Vengeance of Mothers: The Journals of Margaret Kelly & Molly McGill by Jim Fergus.{{Cite book|last=Fergus|first=Jim|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zp0uDwAAQBAJ&q=%22pretty+nose%22+arapaho&pg=PA173|title=The Vengeance of Mothers: The Journals of Margaret Kelly & Molly McGill|date=2017-09-12|publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-250-09342-4|language=en}}{{cite web|author=Jane Krebs|date=September 21, 2017|title=The Vengeance of Mothers: The Journals of Margaret Kelly & Molly McGill|url=https://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-vengeance-of-mothers-the-journals-of-margaret-kelly-and-molly-mcgill|access-date=October 13, 2020|work=BookReporter}}{{Cite book|last=Fergus|first=Jim|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/960930869|title=Mille femmes blanches. 2, La vengeance des mères : les journaux de Margaret Kelly et de Molly Mcgill : roman|date=2016|publisher=Cherche-Midi|others=Piningre, Jean-Luc.|isbn=978-2-7491-4329-3|location=Paris|oclc=960930869}}{{Cite web|title=Jim Fergus : Touche pas la femme indienne !|url=https://www.femmeactuelle.fr/actu/news-actu/jim-fergus-touche-pas-la-femme-indienne-2030303|access-date=2020-10-20|website=Femme Actuelle|date=3 October 2016 |language=fr}}

Photographs

A photograph taken by Laton Alton Huffman {{Circa|1880}} shows Pretty Nose with a young woman named Spotted Fawn.{{cite web | url=http://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections/WC064/c4928| title="Spotted Fawn" & "Pretty Nose," Cheyenne| work=Princeton University Library| access-date=December 1, 2015| archive-date=November 19, 2015| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119175640/http://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections/WC064/c4928| url-status=live}} One source from the Montana Memory Project implies that they were sisters.{{cite web | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151119183212/http://cdm15018.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p267301coll3/id/3371/rec/18| url=http://cdm15018.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p267301coll3/id/3371/rec/18 | title=Cheyenne Girls : Sisters| work=Montana Historical Society |archive-date=November 19, 2015| date=1878 |access-date=December 1, 2015}} She appeared in several of silver prints by Huffman, and they are now part of the collection of the Princeton Library.{{Cite web | title=Princeton University Library Collection of Western Americana Photographs (WC064) -- "Spotted Fawn" & "Pretty Nose," Cheyenne| url=https://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections/WC064/c4928| access-date=2020-10-20| website=findingaids.princeton.edu}} Her photo is featured on the cover of The Spirit of Indian Women magazine.{{Cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/spiritofindianwo0000unse| title=The Spirit of Indian Women| date=2005| publisher=Bloomington, Ind : World Wisdom imprint| via=Internet Archive| isbn=978-0-941532-87-7}}