Owl Woman

Owl Woman (Cheyenne name: Mis-stan-stur) (died 1847), was a Cheyenne princess. She married an Anglo American trader named William Bent, with whom she had four children. She 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. She was a daughter of White Thunder, a well-respected medicine man of the Cheyenne tribe.

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. The Arkansas River delineated the border, with Mexico to the south and the United States northwards. 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.

The area was also subject to turmoil as Native American plains tribes of the central and southern plains sought to define or redefine their territory. Tribes moved to new lands within the plains for various reasons: they may have been displaced in their previous land, had internal disputes that caused them to relocate, sought better hunting or gathering grounds, or sought land that was most conducive to their way of life. The Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne and Arapahoe were among the disputing tribes. 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.

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