Cheyenne Nation

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Cheyenne

Population
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Regions with significant populations
Ancestral Homelands: Kansas to North Dakota Descendants: Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southern Montana. Southern Cheyenne had settled in southern then moved to Oklahoma.
Status
Federally recognized
Linguistic Group
Algonquian
Cultural Group
not yet researched
Other Related Ethnic Groups
other tribes

Alternate Names: Chayenne 

Tribal Headquarters

Northern Cheyenne

Northern Cheyenne Tribe
Box 128
Lame Deer, Montana 59043
Phone: 1-406-477-6284
Fax: 1-406-477-6210

• Official web site of the Northern Cheyenne Nation

Southern Cheyenne

History

Brief Timeline

• 1804: Lewis and Clark encountered the Cheyenne tribe near the Black Hills of South Dakota.
• 1825: Treaty at Teton River
• 1851: Treaty at Fort Laramie
• 1857: Treaty known as Pawnee Treaty
• 1860: Battles of Ash Hollow and Sand Creek
• 1861: Treaty at Fort Wise
• 1865: Two treaties one at Little Arkansas River
• 1867: Treaty at Council Camp
• 1876: The Northern Cheyenne helped defeat General George Armstrong Custer's forces at the Little Bighorn
• 1881 - 1883: Little Chief and some of this band of Northern Cheyenne moved from the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Indian Territory to the Pine Ridge Agency, Dakota Territory.
• 1884: Northern Cheyenne granted a reservation lands in Montana

Additional References to the History of the Tribe

Frederick Webb Hodge, in his Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, gave a more complete history of the Cheyenne tribe, with estimations of the population of the tribe at various time periods. Additional details are given in David Bushnell's Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi.

Records

The Cheyenne Tribe was under the following jurisdictions.

Agencies

The following agencies of the Bureau of Indian Affairs had jurisdiction over the Cheyenne for the time periods indicated. BIA agencies were responsible to keep such records as census rolls, allotment (land) records, annuity rolls, school records, correspondence, and other records of individual Indians under their jurisdiction. For details, see the page for the respective agency.

The agencies which had jurisdiction over a major portion of the Cheyenne in the United States were:

Upper Missouri Agency 1824-46

Northern Cheyenne Agency,

Upper Platte Agency 1846-70

Upper Arkansas Agency 1855-74

Cheyenne and Arapahoe Agency 1875-80

Red Cloud Agency (South Dakota and Wyoming)

Superintendencies

St. Louis Superintendency

Central Superintiendency

Colorado Superintendency

Dakota Superintendency

Northern Superintendency

Wyoming Superintendency

Correspondence and Census

Tribe	Agency	Location of Original Records	Pre-1880 Correspondence M234 RG 75 Rolls 962 Roll Number	FHL Film Number	Post-1885 Census M595 RG 75 Rolls 693 Roll Number	FHL Film Number
Cheyenne	Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, 1824-1952	Fort Worth	Rolls 119-26	-	Rolls 11, 16-17, 27-32,362-67,425, 478-79, 574-79	FHL 573873-573877, and FHL 574191
Cheyenne	Upper Missouri Agency, 1824-46	Washington D.C.	Rolls 883-88	-	-	-
Cheyenne	Upper Platte Agency, 1846-70	Washington D.C.	Rolls 889-96	-	-	-
Cheyenne	Upper Arkansas Aggency, 1855-74	Washington D.C.	Rolls 878-82	-	-	-
Cheyenne	Red Cloud (Pine Ridge) Agency, 1867-1961	Kansas City	Rolls 715-26	-	Rolls 362-69	FHL 573873-573877,and FHL 574191
Cheyenne, Northern	Northern Cheyenne Agency 1884-1952	Seattle	-	-	-	FHL Films 574192-574199
Cheyenne, Northern	Tongue River Agency, 1886-1939	Washington D.C.	-	-	Rolls 574-79	FHL Films 583033-583038
Cheyenne	Seger School (Concho Agency), 1891-1952	Fort Worth	-	-	Roll 479	FHL Film 581489
Cheyenne	Cantonment Agency, 1903-27	Fort Worth	-	-	Rolls 16-17	FHL 563873-563877,and FHL 574191
Cheyenne	Red Moon Census, 1909-12, 1914-16	Fort Worth	-	-	Roll 425	FHL 573873-573877,and FHL 574191

Treaties

During the latter part of the 18th Century and most of the 19th Century, treaties were negotiated between the federal government and individual Indian tribes. The treaties provide helpful information about the history of the tribe, but usually only include the names of those persons who signed the treaty. For more information about treaties, click here.

Treaties to which the Cheyenne Indians were a part were:

The year link (year of treaty) will connect to an online copy of the treaty.

• 1825 July 6, at mouth to Teton River
• 1851 September 17, at Fort Laramie
• September 24, 1857, referred to in Pawnee treaty
• 1861 February 18, at Fort Wise
• 1865 October 14, at Little Arkansas River
• 1865 October 17,
• 1867 October 28, at Council Camp

Tribal Office Records

The Tribal Office is responsible for enrollment records, vital records, tribal police records, tribal court records, employment records and many others. They are an entirely different set of records from those kept by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Most of them remain in the Tribal Office. For details, contact that office at the address for the Tribal Headquarters listed above.

Vital Records

Prior to the Indian Reorganization Act, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, through their agencies, may have recorded some vital events. Some were recorded on health forms, such as the "Sanitary Record of Sick, Injured, Births, Deaths, etc." Others were recorded as supplements to the "Indian Census Rolls." Some were included in the unindexed reports and other correspondence of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Some vital records for the (name of tribe) Indians include:

• Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency: M595, births and deaths 1925-1934, FHL 574191

Important Web Sites

• History of the Cheyenne Indians
• Official web site of the Northern Cheyenne Nation
• Wikipedia article on the Cheyenne Nation
• cheyenneancestors

Bibliography

Cheyenne

• Carlson, Paul H. The Plains Indians. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, c1998. FHL Book 970.1 C197p

General

• Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives; Record Group 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
• Hodge, Frederick Webb. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1906 Available online.
• Klein, Barry T., ed. Reference Encyclopedia of the American Indian. Nyack, New York: Todd Publications, 2009. 10th ed. WorldCat 317923332; FHL book 970.1 R259e.
• Malinowski, Sharon and Sheets, Anna, eds. The Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. Detroit: Gale Publishing, 1998. 4 volumes. Includes: Lists of Federally Recognized Tribes for U.S., Alaska, and Canada – pp. 513-529 Alphabetical Listing of Tribes, with reference to volume and page in this series Map of “Historic Locations of U.S. Native Groups” Map of “Historic Locations of Canadian Native Groups” Map of “Historic Locations of Mexican, Hawaiian and Caribbean Native Groups” Maps of “State and Federally Recognized U.S. Indian Reservations. WorldCat 37475188; FHL book 970.1 G131g.

Vol. 1 -- Northeast, Southeast, Caribbean

Vol. 2 -- Great Basin, Southwest, Middle America

Vol. 3 -- Arctic, Subarctic, Great Plains, Plateau

Vol. 4 -- California, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Islands

• Sturtevant, William C. Handbook of North American Indians. 20 vols., some not yet published. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978– .
  

Volume 1 -- Not yet published

Volume 2 -- Indians in Contemporary Society (pub. 2008) -- WorldCat 234303751

Volume 3 -- Environment, Origins, and Population (pub. 2006) -- WorldCat 255572371

Volume 4 -- History of Indian-White Relations (pub. 1988) -- WorldCat 19331914; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.4.

Volume 5 -- Arctic (pub. 1984) -- WorldCat 299653808; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.5.

Volume 6 -- Subarctic (pub. 1981) -- WorldCat 247493742; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.6.

Volume 7 -- Northwest Coast (pub. 1990) -- WorldCat 247493311

Volume 8 -- California (pub. 1978) -- WorldCat 13240086; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.8.

Volume 9 -- Southwest (pub. 1979) -- WorldCat 26140053; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.9.

Volume 10 -- Southwest (pub. 1983) -- WorldCat 301504096; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.10.

Volume 11 -- Great Basin (pub. 1986) -- WorldCat 256516416; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.11.

Volume 12 -- Plateau (pub. 1998) -- WorldCat 39401371; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.12.

Volume 13 -- Plains, 2 vols. (pub. 2001) -- WorldCat 48209643

Volume 14 -- Southeast (pub. 2004) -- WorldCat 254277176

Volume 15 -- Northwest (pub. 1978) -- WorldCat 356517503; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.15.

Volume 16 -- Not yet published

Volume 17 -- Languages (pub. 1996) -- WorldCat 43957746

Volume 18 -- Not yet published

Volume 19 -- Not yet published

Volume 20 -- Not yet published

• Swanton John R. The Indian Tribes of North America. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin #145 Available online.
• Waldman, Carl. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. New York, New York: Facts on File, 2006. 3rd ed. WorldCat 14718193; FHL book 970.1 W146e 2006.

Family History Library (FHL); now called, FamilySearch Library (FSL)