Information on
the Cheyenne Indians
Recorded by Members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
1804
The following excerpts from the journals
of Lewis and Clark and their men present a picture of the Cheyenne
people as the Anglo-Americans saw them. The modern reader must be
careful to understand that what these white men saw and recorded
was not necessarily correct from the Indian perspective.
The following passages have been freely adapted
and excerpted from the original texts, and the spelling has been
corrected to make them easier to read. For students wishing to quote
these passages, the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition,
edited by Gary Moulton and published by the University of Nebraska
Press, is the recommended source. For those who wish more in-depth
information about Lewis and Clark's relations with various Indian
tribes, including background from the Indian perspective, the best
book is James P. Ronda's Lewis and Clark among the Indians.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984. The very best way to
obtain accurate information from the tribal perspective is to contact
tribal councils for individual tribes - in other words, to consult
the people themselves.
Cheyenne was the name the Sioux gave to the
tribe; it means "people of a different speech." The Cheyenne
called themselves Tsistsistas, meaning "the beautiful people."
Sometime in the late 1600s the Cheyenne were pushed out of the territory
in Minnesota where they had farmed and lived in permanent villages.
In the late 1700s they gained the use of the horse and moved out
onto the plains to become semi-nomadic hunters of the buffalo. They
stopped farming and making pottery during this transition, but at
the time of Lewis and Clark were still settled in earth lodge villages
along the Missouri River. In about 1832 the Cheyenne split into
two groups, the Northern, which stayed along the Platte River in
Wyoming, and the Southern along the Arkansas River in Colorado.
They had also begun the process of becoming allies with their former
enemies, the Sioux. By the time of the Plains Indian Wars in the
1860s through 1890s, the Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux were close allies,
fighting together at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and other
confrontations with the U.S. Army. It was the Cheyenne people who
suffered at the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado in 1864 and the
"Battle" of the Washita in Oklahoma in 1868. Today, most
Cheyennes live on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation headquartered
at Lame Deer, Montana. Some Southern Cheyennes share Federal trust
lands with the Southern Arapahos in Oklahoma.
Contact Information:
www.ncheyenne.net/default.htm
President, Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council
P.O. Box 128
Lame Deer, Montana 59043
*****
Journal Excerpts:
[Clark]
1st of October Monday 1804
The Cheyenne Nation has about 300 lodges, hunt the buffalo, and
steal horses from the Spanish settlements, which they do in 1 month.
[Clark]
16th of October Tuesday 1804
A little above our camp on the larboard side passed an old Cheyenne
Village, which appears to have been surrounded with a wall of earth;
this is the retreat of this nation & first stand after being
reduced by the Sioux and drove from their country on the heads of
Red River of Lake Winnipeg, where they cultivated the lands.
[Clark]
21st August 1806.
The sun being very hot the Cheyenne Chief invited us to his lodge
which was pitched in the plain at no great distance from the river.
I accepted the invitation and accompanied him to his lodge, which
was new and much larger than any which I have seen. It was made
of 20 dressed buffalo skins in the same form of the Sioux and lodges
of other nations of this quarter. About this lodge was 20 others,
several of them of nearly the same size. I inquired for the balance
of the nation and was informed that they were near at hand and would
arrive on tomorrow and when all together amounted to 120 lodges.
After smoking I gave a medal of the small size to the Cheyenne Chief
&c. which appeared to alarm him. He had a robe and a fleece
of fat buffalo meat brought and gave me with the medal back and
informed me that he knew that the white people were all medicine
and that he was afraid of the medal or anything that white people
gave to them. I had previously explained the cause of my giving
him the medal & flag, and again told him the use of the medal
and the cause of my giving it to him, and again put it about his
neck, delivering him up his present of a robe & meat, informing
him that this was the medicine which his great father directed me
to deliver to all the great Chiefs who listened to his word and
followed his councils, that he had done so and I should leave the
medal with him as a token of his sincerity &c. He doubled the
quantity of meat, and received the medal. The Big White Chief of
the Mandans spoke at some length explaining the cause of the misunderstanding
between his nation and the Arikaras, informing them of his wish
to be on the most friendly terms &c. The Cheyenne accused both
nations of being in fault. I told to them all that if they ever
wished to be happy that they must shake off all intimacy with the
Sioux and unite themselves in a strong alliance and attend to what
we had told them &c. which they promised all to do and we smoked
and parted on the best terms. The Mandan Chief was saluted by several
Chiefs and brave men on his way with me to the river. I had requested
the Arikaras & Cheyenne to inform me as soon as possible of
their intentions of going down with us to see their great father
or not.
[Clark]
Friday 22nd August 1806.
The Cheyenne are portly Indians, much the complexions of the Mandans
& Arikaras, high cheeks, straight limbed & high noses. The
men are large, their dress in summer is simply a robe of a light
buffalo skin with or without the hair and a breech clout & moccasin.
Some wear leggings and moccasins, their ornaments are but few and
those are composed principally of such articles as they procure
from other Indians such as blue beads, shell, red paint, rings of
brass, broaches &c. They also wear bear's claws about their
necks, strips of otter skin (which they as well as the Arikaras
are excessively fond of) around their neck, falling back behind.
Their ears are cut at the lower part, but few of them wear ornaments
in them. Their hair is generally cut in the forehead above their
eyes and small ornamented plats in front of each shoulder. The remainder
of the hair is either twisted in with horse (of) or buffalo hair
divided into two plats over the shoulder or what is most common
flows back. Their women are homely, coarse featured, wide mouths;
they wear (on) simply a leather habit made in a plain form of two
pieces of equal length and equal width, which is sewn together with
sinews from the tail to about half way from the hip to the arm.
A string fastens the 2 pieces together over the shoulders, leaving
a flap or lapels which fall over near half way their body both before
and behind. Those dresses usually fall as low as mid leg. They are
frequently ornamented with beads and shells & elk tusks of which
(they) all Indians are very fond of. Those dresses are also frequently
printed (into) in various regular figures with hot sticks which
are rubbed on the leather with such velocity as to nearly burn it.
This is very handsome. They were their hair flowing and are excessively
fond of ornamenting their ears with blue beads. This nation peaceably
disposed, they may be estimated at from 350 to 400 men inhabiting
from 130 to 50 lodges. They are rich in horses & dogs. The dogs
carry a great proportion of their light baggage. They confess to
be at war with no nation except the Sioux with whom they have ever
since their remembrance been on a defensive war, with the bands
of Sioux. As I was about to leave the Chief of the Cheyenne lodge
he requested me to send some traders to them, that their country
was full of beaver and they would then be encouraged to kill beaver,
but now they had no use for them as they could get nothing for their
skins and did not know well how to catch beaver. If the white people
would come amongst them they would become acquainted (with them)
and the white people would learn them how to take the beaver.
|