From my reading of wildlife books, playing dead only seems to work with Grizzly and Brown Bears as they may see humans as rivals to dominate. Once their opponent is down and submissive or "dead," the Grizzly may feel that they have dominated and move on. No so with Black Bears who don't seem to see it that way at all and will continue an attack even if the person is playing dead.
When we heard that story we were hunting grizzlies in Alberta Canada in a very remote area. the Indian man who told us about his wife was our guide. I feel certain the bear was a Grizzly but I don’t remember if he told us it was. He said the bear covered her up and intended to come back and eat her later.
Yep. When a black bear attacks it sees you as food. Playing dead just means it will start eating you while alive. If the Indian woman was attacked by a black bear it probably wasn’t hungry, just saving her for later. She was lucky (although she may not have felt lucky at the time).