Cheyenne

The Cheyennes are a Native American nation, closely allied with the Arapahos and loosely allied with the Lakotas (Sioux). They moved from the Black Hills to the plains of what is now eastern Colorado at the invitation of George Bent, an Indian Trader, owner with others of Bent's Fort, near present day Lamar, Colorado.

In the Indian Wars the Cheyennes were the victims of the Sand Creek Massacre in which the Colorado Militia killed 600 Cheyenne. In the early morning on November 27, 1868 the Battle of the Washita River started when United States Army Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer lead an attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne legally living on reservation land with Chief Black Kettle. 103 Cheyenne were killed, mostly women and children. This was later regarded as the first substantial US victory in the war. Then on November 25, 1886 in retaliation for the dramatic American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, United States Army troops under General Ranald Mackenzie sacked Chief Dull Knife's sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River. The soldiers destroyed all of the villager's winter food and clothing and then slashed their ponies' throats. Chief Dull Knife's people were made refugees and were eventually persuaded by their leader to surrender to the US Army.

Two fine books about the Cheyennes are John Stands in Timber's "Cheyenne Memories" and Marie Sandoz's famous "Cheyenne Autumn". Another brief history can be found in Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee".

Cheyenne is the name of some places in the United States of America:

• Cheyenne, Oklahoma
• Cheyenne, Wyoming
• Cheyenne Mountain