CHEYENNE, shi-en' (Sioux, "red,* i.e. foreigners— enemies: their own name "ours*) an important Indian tribe of the great Algonquin stock, and its westernmost member except the Blackfeet. In the 18th century they lived on the Cheyenne River in eastern North Dakota, but were gradually driven' southwest by the Sioux to, the forks of the Big Cheyenne near the Black Hills, where Lewis and Clark found them in 1803. Originally settled agricul turists, their acquisition of horses turned them, like the other plains Indians, into nomad raid ers and led to their foraying even to Mexico, and claiming lands as far apart as the upper Missouri in northern Montana, and the forks of the Platte, though they numbered but little over 3,000. The first United States treaty with them was made in 1825 in the former locality. They had already fraternized with the Sioux; and when their location at the Black Hills grew unsatisfactory, one section (the "Northern joined the Ogallalla Sioux in driv ing the Crows from the Powder and Tongue river valleys in southeast Montana, while the remainder (the "Southern Cheyenne))) moved south and formed a confederacy with their Algonquin kinsmen, the Arapaho, on the Arkan sas. In 1851 a treaty was made with the North ern band at Fort Laramie, on the North Platte, to cut roads through their lands. A number of treaties were made with the Southern, but it is alleged that the commissioners neither made them intelligible nor executed them fairly; the Cheyenne, with their Indian allies, committed the usual atrocities which were their one method of retaliation; the settlers clamored for their extermination; the military desired to cow them by heavy punishment ; the Indian Depart ment blamed both and wished peace. The
Indian commissioner in 1864 sent some 400 Cheyenne and Arapaho to a camp at Sand Creek, Colo.; Colonel Chivington fell upon them 29 November (see SAND CREEK MASSACRE), and butchered 131 men, women and children. A bloody and costly war followed; the next year the tribe consented to go upon a reserva tion, except a band called the "Dog Soldiers,* who held out. In 1867 Hancock burned their village at Pawnee Fork, and another war with them began. On 27 Nov. 1871, Custer inflicted a crushing defeat upon them at the Washita in ITidian Territory, killing Black Kettle, their chief, and compelling them to return to their reservation. The Northern band all this time remained peaceful, despite urgent solicitations from their brethren and the Sioux. Fresh treaties were made in 1866 and 1868. The Northern Cheyenne are on a reservation in the Tongue River Valley, Custer County, Mont.; the Southern Cheyenne are united with the Arapaho, in Oklahoma; their reservation was on the Canadian River, near Elreno, but was opened up in 1892. The tribe numbers about 3,055, and is governed by a council of five chiefs. The Cheyenne are a tall, finely built race, the best physically of all the plains In dians except the Osages; but rather dull intel lectually. Their language is one of the most difficult even of Indian tongues. They live in tepee, observe the Sun Dance, and maintain a complex social organization. Consult Dorsey, 'Field Columbian Museum Publications> (Chi cago 1905).