Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1936-09-05
Bv WALTER I'D TAYLoR

BY WALTER ED TAYLOR
Down In the rolling hin country
OF southeastern Montana, sand
wfched between the Roebud and
Tongue rivers flowing n0xth for
their conflux with the Yellowstone,
live 1,500 Cheyenne Indians the
remnant Of once fierce and pow
erfuI tribe Of the plains. Their
A00.000-acre domain Is particularly
suited 10 stock raising and they
are the proud owners Of several
large herds.
The first historical mention of the
Cheyennes was made as eaNE as 1880,
when a PARTY Of that tribe, under the
name of Chaa, described as living at
the headwaters of the Mississippi, vis-
tied LaSalle's fort, Crevecour, on the
Illinois river, near the present site Of
Peoria, to invite the French to come
to their territory. which they repre-
sented as Astounding In beaver and
other fur animals At q later period
the Cheyennes moved to the river which
now bears their name. At that time
they were an agricultural people, noted
among other tribes for their ability to
raise fine crops. They had come thou
sands OF miles from their original nome
in what is now eastern Canada. The
Cheyenne, like many other tribes. LETT
the far northeast In the middle OF the
18th century when the first trading
posts were being established there by
the Hudson's Bay Co.
Lewis and Clark held friendly COM
munication with the Cheyennes on the
upper Missouri in 1905 and later in
1906. These two explorers stated that
the tribe had once lived in village
and cultivated corn on the Cheyenne
river until driven out Of the district by
the Sioux-the same Sioux with whom
they we're TO be allied 100 years later
in the Custer massacre. They fled be-
fore the Sioux and crossed the Mis-
souri,, establishing q fortified village,
the ruins of which were still visible In
1904, q few miles north of the present
site of Fort Yates, N. D.
According to tribal tradition, the
Cheyennes made long journeys TO the
southwestern Spanish settlements TO
steal horses. There were no traders
among the Cheyennes at the time Of
Lewis and Clark but the tribe trans |
ported its buffalo robes to the famous
Aricara village on the Missouri in what /
1t now South Dakota, where they met |
traders from the Hudson's Bay Co. The
story of the tribe is fun Of clashes with /
the Sioux until 1910, when the final
peace between the two tribes was made
Because of their continual quarrels
with other tribes, the Cheyennes
changed their way Of living entirely.
Once they had been q peaceful agricul-
tural people, but their villages had
been destroyed so consistently by their
enemies that by the middle OF the last
century the tribe had become one Of the
fiercest Indian groups in the west. IN
I'll the 1865 the Cheyennes had no
trouble with whites, but were almost
continually engaged In war with the
Utes and the Assinniboines.
First Clash With Whites
The first serious trouble between
and white men occurred in
1857, near the Upper Platte bridge, and
was caused by four horses held by the
Indians and said to belong TO the white
men, The Chcyennes agreed to give
ID three of the horses but refused TO
surrender the fourth, saying that 1t
had long been in their camp. The COM
handing officer at Fort Laramie, q
man not famous for his tact, ordered
,he Cheyennes arrested. One was caught
BY the guard; the others broke and ran.
Printed reports of the clash say the SOL
diers fired upon the Indians and killed
lne. The man arrested was Wolf Fire
and he died in the guard house. This
vas merely the first of long series Of
iuch incidents, the most outrageous Of
which was the Sand Greek massacre Of
1854, when q large number Of Chey-
nnes, vartously estimated at from 100
o 300 persons, many OF them women
md children, were killed by United
states troops under a Colonel Chiving-
on.
The first incidental mention Of the
yheyennes in the annual reports OF
he commissioner Of Indian affairs was
a 1885, and the first prominent men O
ion several years later. On July 4, y
874. a severe defeate of the northern a
yheyennes was inflicted by Captain a
,ates, Second cavalry, on Badwater 81
reek, Wyo. AS q result, many Of the Ii
indians came in and surrendered. %
hose who did not joined the western K
ioux under Crazy Horse and Sitting N
'ltll, refused to go upon the reServa- r,
ons in 1875, and roved about the coun- Il
y, frequently clashing with troops and &
tizens in
Active Warfare Starts 81
Early in 1876, Generals Terry and st
rock were directed to begin active OPP bt
-ations against these renegades. On W
[arch II, 1876, Colonel Reynolds with tt
bout 500 men Of the Second and Third tr
avalry charged the camp OF Crazy
orse on Powder river, destroyed more til
IAN 100 tepees and routed the Indians, m
whom more than third were Chey- nj
mes In this raid Reynolds captured Is
hat he described as "a perfect maya WI
ne of ammunition. war material and re
neral supplies" Where the Indians so
,tained the supplies has never been re
veeIed 1t is one of the mysteries Of M
ontana history. til
On June II, Crook engaged the main
rec Of Indians on the Rosebud, near
e present Tongue River reservation. re