History

The Cheyenne tribe first lived around the Great Lakes in parts of Illinois and Minnesota. The name they had for themselves was “Tsitsistas” meaning “the people”. A westward migration ensued which was most likely caused by conflict with surrounding tribes. They were split into two groups around 1832, one near the Platte River and the other around the Black Hills. In the 1850s as more settlers moved west and put pressure on the tribe, the Cheyenne as well as other tribes started to resist the settlers which eventually escalated to the Colorado War from 1864-1865. After multiple brutal massacres of peaceful Cheyenne people by white troops, the Cheyenne and other surrounding tribes struck back in The Battle of Little Big Horn. They were victorious against the troops, making efforts to push the people out of their land more intense. After a forced march of the Cheyenne people to Oklahoma, nearly 1000 lives were taken from malaria. This group of southern Cheyenne Natives stayed on a reservation in Oklahoma as the northern group attempted to flee back north but were killed and split up into parts of Nebraska and Montana by the U.S army. A reservation was eventually created for this northern group in Montana in 1884.