Top 5 Things to Know Before You Play
MISSION 3: “A Cheyenne Odyssey”
Before you begin playing MISSION US: “A Cheyenne Odyssey,” here are five important pieces of information to consider. This information may or may not help you as Little Fox makes his way through life on the Plains.
In the early 1800s, peaceful trade relations existed between whites and Plains Indians.
Trade between Plains Indians and Europeans dates back to the early 1700s, as British and
French fur traders traveled from the Hudson Bay into what is now North Dakota. By the late
1700s, there were permanent trading posts within Indian lands on the Missouri River in
Montana. After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States expanded into the Great
Plains, and the number of American traders there grew. Plains Indians traded buffalo hides and
fur in exchange for knives, iron pots, blankets, cloth, guns, beads, coffee, tobacco, and other
goods. To strengthen trade relations, Indians often brought white traders into their tribal
networks through marriage. Because both sides benefited from trade, the relationship between
whites and Indians was mostly friendly and cooperative until the 1860s.
The US government forced many Eastern Indian tribes to move west to the Great Plains.
From the beginning of European settlement in North America, whites came into conflict with
Indian tribes that already occupied the land. Europeans regarded Indians as “uncivilized
savages” and tried to convert them to Christianity. Indians that did not assimilate were pushed
further west. With the founding of the United States, the new nation developed a powerful and
rapidly growing capitalist economy that ran counter to many Indian cultures.
In 1830, President Andrew Jackson pushed an Indian Removal Act through Congress that
offered reservations west of the Mississippi to the Cherokee, Choctaws, Creek, Chickasaws, and
Seminole tribes in exchange for their current lands in the Southeast. Under threat of military
intervention, many tribal leaders signed away their eastern territory. US troops used force to
remove those who did not move voluntarily, herding some 15,000 Indians in an 800-mile trek to
Oklahoma that became known as the Trail of Tears.
The Cheyenne were allied with some Plains tribes, and fought wars against other Plains tribes.
The Cheyenne had extensive trade, social, and military relationships with other Plains Indians.
As one of the smaller tribes on the Plains, the Cheyenne formed strategic alliances that shifted
depending on the circumstances. From the 1860s to the 1880s, the Cheyenne worked closely
with the Lakota and Arapaho, sharing campsites, trading goods, aiding one another in
skirmishes or battles, and intermarrying. Interactions with the Crow, Shoshone, and Pawnee
tribes tended to be more hostile, with frequent horse raids and competition over hunting
grounds. Since the various tribes spoke different languages, they often communicated with one
another through a Plains Indian Sign Language that developed across the region.
Many US leaders believed that the United States had a special mission to expand west and settle the entire continent.
The United States more than tripled in size between 1800 and 1860. The country expanded by
making treaties, purchasing land, and fighting wars with nations that already controlled the
land, including Indian tribes, Great Britain, France, Spain, and Mexico. The discovery of gold in
California in 1848 further increased the push westward. Hundreds of thousands of people from
the eastern United States and other areas moved west (which had a devastating effect on the
native population; it fell by over 100,000). Politicians and business leaders called for the
construction of a transcontinental railroad that would reduce the time and effort required to
cross the country. In 1862, Congress set aside millions of dollars to build the railroad, which
was completed in 1869. The expansion of the United States was costly, both in terms of
government and private spending, but also in the hundreds of thousands of Indians and
Mexicans who were pushed off their land. Americans justified these costs with the idea of
“Manifest Destiny.” Manifest Destiny was the widely-held view that the United States had a
God-given mission to expand west across the continent, spreading American government and
culture.
White Americans disagreed about how to deal with Plains Indians, and vice versa.
After the Civil War, conflicts between whites and Plains Indians greatly increased. The
construction of the transcontinental railroad, along with the encroachment of thousands of
western settlers, miners, and ranchers, began to negatively affect the Plains Indians’ nomadic
way of life. Some Indians responded by attacking white settlers, their livestock, and their
property. Other Indians negotiated with the United States in an effort to minimize violence.
White people also had different approaches to the conflict. Some whites, including many
northern reformers who had opposed slavery, sympathized with the Indian perspective. They
believed that the United States should gradually assimilate Indians into American society
through education, Christianity, and farming. Soldiers, miners, and settlers, who were often in
direct contact with Indians, often took a much more intolerant position. Some even believed
that the army should try to exterminate all of the Indians.