The Cheyenne of the Plains

Tribe: The Cheyenne. The name is actually Sioux for the Cree Indians. They called themselves the  "So-tea-o'o" and the "Tsististas" to represent their two locations, the Northern Cheyenne who live in Montana and the Southern Cheyenne who live in Oklahoma.

Meaning of Name: They roughly translate to "People like us" and "Those who are like this."

Location:  Originally from their own tribal earthen villages in Minnesota and the Great Lakes region, they grew corn, squash, beans and harvested wild rice.  They were forced by the Ojibwe into the Dakotas in the 1700's where they, like the Arapaho, took up the horse culture and nomadic lifestyle. They currently live in reservations in Oklahoma and Montana.

Original Language: Algonquin.

Tribal Affiliations: The Sioux and the Arapaho.

Traditional Enemies: The Crow, the Kiowa, the U.S. Army and just about any tribe that wasn't Cheyenne, Sioux or Arapaho.

Traditional Style of Housing: They used to live in small villages in houses made of mud, but then, like the Arapaho and the rest of the People of the Plains, they moved to transportable teepees when they started the nomadic life.

Traditional Attire: Like the Sioux and the Arapaho, the Cheyenne men wore beaded and fringed buckskin breechcloths, leggings, tunics and moccasins, with long feathered head-dresses for the chiefs and single-feathers for the other men. After European contact, the men wore vests, shirts and pants. Before contact, the Cheyenne women wore long fringed and beaded dresses and moccasins, and both wore their hair in two long braids. After contact, they switched to cotton dresses. Many of the women and some of the men wore jewelry made of bird-bones. Chokers, bibs and long rectangular pieces to wear like long scarves were made of rows of beads and bird-bone by the medicine men or their assistants. They not only protected the wearer's throat and heart from attack, but symbolically put the wearer's in touch with nature, especially the nature of the birds.

Traditional Foods: The Cheyenne were a hunting and gathering tribe, and so the men hunted bison, small game, black bears, bighorn sheep, elk, moose, mountain goats, deer, caribou, pronghorn and fished.  The women gathered service berries, black walnuts, chestnuts, acorns, hickory nuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, pinions, cranberries, cherries, huckleberries, blueberries, crabapples, plums, blackberries, raspberries, mulberries, elderberries, persimmons, agave, yucca, and probably traded for corn, squash and beans.

Position of Women: Neutral. Not as bad as the Arapaho and not as good as the Apache, the Cherokee or the Iroquois. Like most of the People of the Plains, they set up the teepees, which they owned, did the cooking, made the clothes, butchered the meat, cleaned and tanned the hides, raised the children, and took care of the horses. They were not allowed to become chiefs, but they could become healers or warriors. However, the dominant power base was male, and the widows and children could inherit nothing from their husbands and fathers when they died because their goods were either buried with them, or they were distributed to non-relatives. On the other hand, the widow and her children could receive goods from dead non-relatives, which was something and at least meant that they would be taken care-of.

Cheyenne Courtship: Like the Arapaho, the Cheyenne valued virginity in their young women. They did practice bride-prices, probably of horses or buffalo skins. Marriage was expected to last for life. Polygamy was allowed if there was a deficit of men due to war so that the widows and their children would be looked after and supported by the surviving men of the tribe.

Interesting Tidbits: As in the movie "Little Big Man," the Cheyenne Indians considered riding up to their enemies, touching them with a stick and then riding away to be an award-worthy enterprise. This was called "counting coup."

Traditional Religion: Native American Church, part of the peyote culture. Also Catholic and Mennonite influences.

Slavery and the Cheyenne: Like most of the Plains Indians, they probably took slaves in raids and used them for menial labor.

Current Population: There are more than 22,000 registered Cheyenne.

Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Casinos, real estate, corporations.

Famous Cheyenne: None that I have heard of.