page_title: The Pawnee capture of the Cheyenne Sacred Arrows
section_title: Sacred Arrows
hierarchical_section_title: The Pawnee capture of the Cheyenne Sacred Arrows / Background / Sacred Arrows
caption_attribution_description: English: Bear Butte, South Dakota, the sacred Mountain of the Cheyennes.
context_page_description: The Pawnee capture of the Cheyenne Sacred Arrows occurred around 1830 in central Nebraska, when the Cheyenne attacked a group from the Skidi Pawnee tribe, who were hunting bison. The Cheyenne had with them their sacred bundle of four arrows, called the Mahuts. During the battle, this sacred, ceremonial object was taken by the Pawnee. The Cheyenne initially made replica arrows but also tried to get the originals back. They recovered one from the Pawnee directly, either given to them or taken by them, and a second was captured by the Lakota and returned to the Cheyenne in exchange for horses. The two corresponding replicas were ceremonially returned to the Black Hills, where the arrows were traditionally believed to have originated. Eventually the bundles were re-established and the societies and their ceremonies continue into the present day.
context_section_description: According to his traditional biography, the Cheyenne ancestral hero Sweet Medicine received the Sacred Arrows as a gift from supernatural beings, after being taken into a sacred cave at Bear Butte in the Black Hills. The two Buffalo Arrows in the bundle were painted red and provided for good hunting. The two Man Arrows were painted black and were instead for war′. When the four arrows were tied near the top of a lance in two separate pairs and carried against an enemy after the performance of the proper ceremony, they promised victory, and had already been present in the total destruction of a big Crow camp at Tongue River in 1820.
  The renewal of the arrows form one of the most sacred of the Cheyenne ceremonies, and traditionally take place during the same time every summer, as well as in response to unfortunate events, such as a homicide or other tragedy.
caption: Bear Butte. The Cheyenne prophet Sweet Medicine received the Sacred Arrows on Bear Butte, South Dakota.
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