Owl Woman was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame for her role in managing relations between Native American tribes and the Anglo-American men.

In the 1820s, the central plains area in which several Native American tribes lived had been subject to political and economic turmoil resulting from the Mexican War of Independence.

There were many opportunities for trade alliances, in part to replace those that had involved the now-deposed Spanish governors, and there was also encroachment on the area by the United States as that nation pursued its policy of manifest destiny.

[5] The Cheyenne likely moved into the plains in the 17th and 18th century from Minnesota and by the mid-1800s lived with the Arapaho north of the Arkansas River in land near Bent's Fort in Colorado.

[8][9] By around 1832, although possibly as late as 1834,[10] a permanent trading post called Bent's Fort, which was a substantial adobe construction capable of accommodating 200 people,[8][11] had been built on the northern "Mountain Route" of the Santa Fe Trail and was open for business.

[13] The fort was operated in partnership with his brother, Charles,[14] and Ceran St Vrain, a fur trader who had already established significant trading contacts in New Mexico.

Many Cheyenne who were gathered with them believed that this celestial event was a signal of the end of the world and it was subsequently referred to as "the Night the Stars Fell".

He also realized that a formal marital alliance with Bent, and in particular the children that would result from such a relationship, would represent another element of the new beginning, of peace for the Cheyenne and indeed the region.

[9] The fort and the area immediately outside it was a multi-cultural, multilingual center with permanent inhabitants from many nations and also visitors, including the temporary camps of native tribes such as the Sioux, Apache and Kiowa, as well as Comanche and Cheyenne.

Hyde writes in Empires, Nations and Families that "Bent's Fort was the one spot on the Santa Fe trail where exchanges with Indians were welcomed and encouraged, and the effects of those conversations on both sides were far-reaching ... archeological evidence tells us that people sat in the courtyard together and smoked—a lot".

[nb 3] Bent managed trade to and from the fort: he provided a safe zone in the area and a supply of goods for its store, as well as facilitating the movement of buffalo robes back to St. Louis for sale.

Up to 100 employees needed to support the fort and trade included: clerks, guards, traders, teamsters, trappers, a tailor, blacksmith, carpenter and herders.

Bent's Fort held dances regularly; Charlotte was described by Colonel Henry Inman as "the center of attention, the belle of the evening.

The trading environment improved after 1840, when Bent's Fort became the site of a truce between the Comanche, Apache and Kiowa tribes on the one hand and the Cheyenne and Arapahoe on the other, creating what Hyde describes as "network of enormous significance.

Although they had continued to assert their power after Mexican independence, the influx of displaced tribes from elsewhere, the westward push of white settlers and the development of the Santa Fe Trail meant that there were many bloody battles and much loss of life.

Realizing that long-term peace was preferable to reciprocating attacks, this was agreed and the formalization of the arrangement at the fort over several weeks during the summer of 1840 saw Bent playing a central role as host to the various camps and their celebrations.

[33][34] Hyde has said that For William Bent, Owl Woman, and their families and business associates, the Arkansas River as border between Mexico and the United States was an abstraction.

[35]George Ruxton subsequently observed, in 1848, how the council room at the fort was used, "Chiefs of the Shain, Kioway and Araphó sit in solemn conclave with the head traders, and smoke the "calumet" over their real and imaginary grievances.

"[40] From Bent's point of view, marriage to a Cheyenne would not merely provide him with female companionship and a social escort for functions held at the fort but, perhaps more importantly, reinforce an alliance with the tribe that would be a useful adjunct to his burgeoning trading activities.

[3] As a part of the ritual, Owl Woman was carried into a lodge which was constructed for them in the Cheyenne village near the fort,[45] while Bent dispensed largesse in the form of numerous gifts.

[47][nb 6] The couple each spent time at their partner's residence: the lodge created for Owl Woman and Bent's quarters within the fort, which were furnished according to their backgrounds.

[nb 7] Alongside the Arkansas River for 40 miles (64 km) Big Timbers was a prime location for hunting buffalo, a major source of food for the Cheyenne.

Always movement—sometimes to Big Timbers close to the buffalo herds, sometimes to the fort, but always someplace where grass was thick, wood plentiful, and water fresh and sweet.

[58]Within a short time after the marriage the couple were, according to Hyde, "the central business and social leaders of the region", having combined their familial and trading connections with the various tribes, the traders, and the authorities of both New Mexico and the US Army to considerable effect.

[17] It was while at the fort in 1845 that topographical engineer Lieutenant James W. Abert asked Owl Woman to sit for him as the subject of a watercolor painting.

Having a white man for her husband, she has not been obliged to work, therefore her hands are in all their native beauty, small, delicately formed, and with tapering fingers; her wavy hair, unlike the Indians generally, was fine and of silken soften.

Her cape and under garment were bordered with bands of beads, and her beautiful leggins, which extended only to the knee, were so nicely joined with the moccasin that the connection could not be perceived, and looked as neat as the stockings of our eastern belles, and the modest attitude in which she sits is characteristic, but will be best conceived by the sketch.

In 1849 a cholera epidemic swept through the Cheyenne tribe killing up to half of the people, including the children's grandmother, Tail Woman.

[71] From 1854, subsequent to the death of Owl Woman, George was sent away to be educated at a school run by an Episcopalian in Westport, Missouri, causing him to be separated from his family for much of the time.

William and Charles Bent, White Thunder, and Owl Woman created a place and a moment that used the trading systems of the Native people and the roads, wagons, and goods made by Europeans to link two very different worlds.