[5] Kaúxuma traveled throughout the Pacific Northwest, serving as a courier and guide to fur trappers and traders,[5] and as a prophetic figure, predicting the arrival of deadly diseases among the peoples of the area.
[4][5] Thompson encountered Kaúxuma next on Rainy Lake, near the Upper Columbia River, in July 1809, where he says "she had set herself up for a prophetess and gradually had gained, by her shrewdness, some influence among the natives as a dreamer, and expounder of dreams.
[9] John Robert Colombo, author of Mysterious Canada: Strange Sights, Extraordinary Events, and Peculiar Places, extracted the quotes about Manlike Woman from David Thompson's Narrative of His Explorations in Western America: 1784-1812 (1916), edited by J.B. Tyrrell.
[4] "A Kutenai woman wearing men's clothing" (and fluent in French) is also recorded in 1825 at the Flathead trading post, serving as an interpreter to the fort's factor,[4] who was Franklin's source, a Mr. Stewart of the Hudson's Bay Company.
[citation needed] Kaúxuma acquired the name Qánqon Kámek Klaúla, "Sitting in the Water Grizzly",[4][5] after crouching while crossing a stream (returning from an unsuccessful raid) so others would not "discern his sex".