252 



CHEYENNE 



[b. a. 



which may be the Turtle r. tributary of 

 Red r., or possibly tlie St Croix, entering 

 the Mississippi below the mouth of the 

 Minnesota, and anciently known by a 

 similar name. Consult for early habitat 

 and migrations: Carver, Travels, 1796; 

 Clark, Ind. Sign Lang., 1885; Comfort in 

 Smithson. Rep. for 1871; La Salle in 

 Margry, Decouvertes, ii, 1877; Lewis and 

 Clark, Travels, i, ed. 1842; Mooney in 

 14th Rep. B. A. E., 1896; Williamson in 

 Minn. Hist. Soc. Coll., i, 1872. 



Although the alliance between the 

 Sutaio and the Cheyenne dates from the 

 crossing of the Missouri r. by the latter. 



CHEYENNE WOMAN AND CHILD 



the actual incorporation of the Sutaio into 

 the Cheyenne camp-cin;le probably oc- 

 curred within the last hundred years, as 

 the two tribes were regarded as distinct 

 by Lewis and Clark. There is no good 

 reason for supposing the Sutaio to have 

 been a detached band of Siksika drifted 

 down directly from the n., as has been 

 suggested, as the Cheyenne expressly 

 state that the Sutaio spoke "a Cheyenne 

 language," i. e. a dialect fairly intelligible 

 to the Cheyenne, and that they lived s. w. 

 of the original Cheyenne country. The 

 linguistic researches of Rev. Rudolph 



Fetter, our best authority on the Chey- 

 enne language, confirm the statement 

 that the difference was only dialectic, 

 which probably helps to account for the 

 complete assimilation of the two tribes. 

 The Cheyenne say also that they obtained 

 the Sun dance and the Buffalo-head medi- 

 cine from the Sutaio, but claim the Medi- 

 cine-arrow ceremony as their own from 

 the beginning. Up to 1835, and probably 

 until reduced by the cholera of 1-849, the 

 Sutaio retained their distinctive dialect, 

 dress, and ceremonies, and camped apart 

 irom the Cheyenne. In 1851 they were 

 still to some extent a distinct people, but 

 exist now only as one of the component 

 divisions of the (Southern) Cheyenne 

 tribe, in no respect different from the 

 others. Under the name Staitan (a con- 

 traction of Sutai-hitdn, pi. Sutai-liitdnio, 

 'Sutai men') they are mentioned by 

 Lewis and Clark in 1804 as a small and 

 savage tribe roving w. of the Black-hills. 

 There is some doubt as to when or where 

 the Cheyenne first met the Arapaho, with 

 whom they have long been confederated; 

 neither do they appear to have any clear 

 idea as to the date of the alliance between 

 the two tribes, which continues unbroken 

 to the present day. Their connection 

 with the Arapaho is a simple alliance, 

 without assimilation, while the Sutaio 

 have been incorporated bodily. 



Their modern history may be said to 

 begin with the expedition of Lewis and 

 Clark in 1804. Constantly pressed farther 

 into the plains by the hostile Sioux in 

 their rear they established themselves 

 next on the u^jper branches of the Platte, 

 driving the Kiowa in their turn farther to 

 the s. They made their first treaty with 

 the Government in 1825 at the mouth of 

 Teton (Bad) r., on the Missouri, about 

 the present Pierre, S. Dak. In conse- 

 quence of the building of Bent's Fort on 

 the upper Arkansas, in Colorado, in 1832, 

 a large part of the tribe decided to move 

 down and make jjermanent headquarters 

 on the Arkansas, while the rest continued 

 to rove about the headwaters of North 

 Platte and Yellowstone rs. This separa- 

 tion was made permanent by the treaty of 

 Ft Laramie in 1851 , the two sections being 

 now known respectively as Southern and 

 Northern Cheyenne, but the distinction 

 is purely geographic, although it has 

 served to hasten the destruction of their 

 former compact trivial organization. The 

 Southern Cheyenne are known in the 

 tribe as Sowonift, 'southerners,' while 

 the Northern Cheyenne are commonly 

 designated as O 'miosis eaters,' from the 

 division most numerously represented 

 among them. Their advent upon the 

 Arkansas brought them into constant 

 collision with the Kiowa, who, with the 

 Comanche, claimed the territory to the 



