The Native American people known as the Cheyenne originally were farmers in what is now Minnesota. By the early 19th century, however, they had moved onto the Great Plains and become roving buffalo (bison) hunters and warriors. Like many Native American peoples living to the east, they spoke an Algonquian language.

Society and culture

After arriving on the plains, the Cheyenne lived like other Plains Indian tribes. The buffalo was central to their lifestyle. They ate the meat, used the bones for tools, and made clothing and tepees from the skins. Women prepared the meat and gathered plants for food.

The Cheyenne were organized in ten major bands governed by a council of 44 chiefs and seven military societies. One of these societies, the Dog Soldiers, played a key role in defending the Cheyenne against U.S. forces. The bands separated in winter but came together in the warmer months for the buffalo hunt and for major ceremonies.

A unique ceremony of the Cheyenne centered on a sacred bundle that was thought to bring success when carried during war. In the bundle were four sacred arrows—two painted for hunting and two for battle—and a hat made from the skin and hair of a female buffalo. During the four-day ceremony, the Cheyenne performed rituals to renew the arrows and therefore the tribe. The Cheyenne also performed the Sun Dance, which was common among the Plains tribes.

History

The Cheyenne people have moved many times. They lived first in the upper Mississippi Valley, in what is now Minnesota. There they farmed, gathered wild rice, and made pottery. In the late 17th century they moved west to the banks of the Sheyenne River in what is now eastern North Dakota. During this period the Cheyenne acquired horses, which changed their way of life. On horseback, the Cheyenne began to hunt buffalo. To follow the herds, they gradually abandoned their villages and gave up farming and pottery making.

The Cheyenne stayed in the Sheyenne River region until a major village of theirs was destroyed by the Ojibwa, a Native American tribe that had obtained guns from French traders. The Cheyenne then moved farther west, settling along the Missouri River. In the early 19th century the Sioux pushed the Cheyenne southwest, to the area of the Black Hills in what is now South Dakota.

The Cheyenne eventually spread across much of the Great Plains. In about 1832 many Cheyenne moved south to the Arkansas River, in what is now southern Colorado. This divided the tribe into northern and southern branches. The Northern Cheyenne continued to roam the plains, but the Southern Cheyenne chose a more settled lifestyle.

The Cheyenne fought for years against a number of other Native American groups, including the Kiowa and the Comanche. By 1840, however, they had made peace with many of their former enemies. The biggest threat that remained for the tribe was the expansion of the United States. From the 1850s through the 1870s the Cheyenne were constantly in conflict with U.S. soldiers, settlers, and gold seekers heading west. The worst episode during this period came in 1864, when U.S. troops killed as many as 500 Cheyenne in a peaceful village near Sand Creek in Colorado. Four years later Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer's soldiers killed the Southern Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle near the Washita River in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). In 1876 the Northern Cheyenne fought with the Sioux in the famous battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana, during which Custer was killed.

The Treaty of Medicine Lodge (1867) had set aside a reservation in Indian Territory for the Southern Cheyenne and their allies the Arapaho. Soon after the battle at the Little Bighorn, the United States defeated the Northern Cheyenne and moved them to the reservation by force. Some escaped and returned to the north, and later a Northern Cheyenne reservation was set up in Montana. The reservation in Oklahoma was dissolved in the late 19th century, but many Cheyenne still live in the state.

At the end of the 20th century the Cheyenne population was about 11,000. In 1992 Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, a Northern Cheyenne, became the first Native American in more than 60 years to be elected to the U.S. Senate.