Northern Cheyenne Reservation

Travel Montana

A view from 1939:

The reservation lies between the Crow reservation and Tongue River. Most of it is rolling grassland, but there are some forests. Tribal lands total 209,720 acres. Some property, individually owned, is leased to white farmers. Agricultural advisers and a livestock association help the Cheyenne to obtain a fair income from their land and stock. Part of the land is irrigated.

The Cheyenne still use tepees occasionally in summer, but have adopted the easily prepared canned food of the white man. A school at Busby not only gives courses in modern cooking, but also produces beef, vegetables, and milk to feed its pupils. There are Roman Catholic and Mennonite congregations among the Indians, and a "peyote" cult of unknown strength.

The Cheyenne were in general too nomadic to do much craftwork, but their bead-work is excellent. In the office of the county superintendent of schools at Forsyth are some fine examples of this work, with the beads strung on finely drawn sinews through punched holes.

The Cheyenne call themselves Tsis-tsis-tas (similarly bred). "Cheyenne" is from the Sioux Shahiela or Shahiena, though sometimes said to be derived from the French chien (dog). The Dog Soldiers are a Cheyenne society.

White men first met the tribe in the Dakotas, but had no trouble with them until the northern (Montana) group split off. The first fight (1857) grew out of an argument over horses. A series of clashes followed; the Indians steadfastly refused to go on a reservation.

On March 17, 1876, Colonel Reynolds with about 500 men routed them on Powder River. On June 17 Sioux and Cheyenne forces held back General Crook on the Rosebud, near the present reservation, and eight days later they wiped out Custer. But the power of the whites was too great for them. By the end of October 5,000 Indians were taken; many others fled to Canada. After one more fight the Cheyenne surrendered. One thousand were taken (1877) to a reservation in Indian Territory. A year of malaria and ill-treatment sent some back toward Montana, burning, killing, and stealing. They fought three battles against heavy odds, with a loss of but 15. Captured in October 1878, they were taken to Fort Robinson, Neb., only to make an attempt at escape in which many were killed. In the end they won their right to live in Montana. As it was evident they preferred death to returning south, they were given this reservation in 1884.

Before it split, the tribe was governed by a council of 44 chiefs. The four oldest members among them could delegate authority to a single chief. At present the council deals only with intra-tribal affairs; a superintendent enforces Federal rules. The O-mis-sis, largest and most important of the tribe's ten divisions, includes most of the Northern Cheyenne.

" Medicine" is at once a symbol and an invocation of what white men call luck. Places, things, or actions that have brought misfortune are "bad medicine." Tribes have a big medicine, families and individuals lesser ones.

The sacred cap is big medicine that honors the buffalo, once the chief source of food. The cap is made of the skin of a buffalo cow. Attached to it are two carved and painted horns. The keeper of the cap, like the medicine arrow keeper, is one of the most important men in the tribe.

A Cheyenne myth says that the Great Medicine (Creator) made three kinds of people: men covered with hair; white men with hair on their heads, faces, and legs; red men with long hair on their heads only. The hairy men were strong, the white men cunning, the red men swift. Long ago the hairy men left their home in the north, and the red men followed. The hairy ones disappeared, and when the red men returned the white men were gone. Included in the story are descriptions of great floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and climatic changes—in effect a history of North American geology in legendary form.

Source: Montana: A State Guide Book; Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration for the State of Montana; September, 1939.