Cheyenne

The Cheyenne inhabit the great plains area west of the Mississippi and east of the Rocky Mountains. However, the Cheyenne were not always on the great plains. Originally, the Cheyenne inhabited the woodlands area in the Mississippi Valley, in what is now southeast Minnesota. The woodland Sioux, Assisiboine and Cree forced them to move west

The Cheyenne moved to the prairie areas and began to farm like their neighbors the Mandan and Hidatsa who were Sioux speaking tribes. Here the Cheyenne had permanent earth lodge villages. They had a secure living with their crops and communal hunting. However, war and disease lead the Cheyenne to leave the sedentary life for a nomadic life which became possible with the introduction of horses. The crowded, badly vented earten lodges "were deathtraps for a population which had no natural immunity to smallpox and measles"

After crossing the Missouri River, the Cheyenne encountered the Sutai, a tribe who spoke a form of Algonkin, as the Cheyenne did. The languages, both being Algonkin, were understandable to each other. The Sutai became thought of as a band within the Cheyenne. In the plains area, and with the Sutai, the Cheyenne became a hunting and gathering population.

The Cheyenne lived in a valley next to a herd of buffalo. There was also a beautiful bird that also lived there and every time the warriors went to hunt the buffalo the bird would fly up and warn the buffalo that the Indians were coming to kill them and they would flee. Slowly the tribe was starving to death until a warrior decided to do something about it; so one night he went out on the prairie and dug a hole. He got into the hole and covered it with limbs and grass and then placed some bait on top. The next day the bird saw the bait and landed on top of the trap. The warrior grabbed the bird and tied a cord to its leg. He then threatened to punish the beautiful bird but the bird begged and pleaded that he would never warn the buffalo again so the warrior released him. The beautiful bird flew into the sky and then laughed at the warrior and said; "I lied to you, I lied to you. I am going to warn the buffalo." The warrior then pulled the bird down from the sky by the cord and told the bird that this time he would be punished.

The warrior built a smoky fire and turned the beautiful bird over and over in the smoke and this is how we got the CROW.

"A nation is not conquered
Until the hearts of its women are on the ground.
Then it is finished,
No matter how brave its warriors
Or how strong their weapons."

Cheyenne proverb