Part 1

Part Document-Based Activity

Part 1: Seeing Shadows

MISSION 3: “A Cheyenne Odyssey”

Part I of “A Cheyenne Odyssey” to answer the questions on the “Northern Cheyenne

Life” Graphic Organizer.

Source 1: Excerpt from an Interview with Iron Teeth

Iron Teeth, a Northern Cheyenne woman born in 1834, was interviewed by Thomas B. Marquis in 1929. Her memoir is a valuable source of information on Northern Cheyenne life on the Great Plains. (Excerpt from pp. 4-6.)

“My grandmother told me that when she was young our people did not have any horses. When they needed to go anywhere they put their packs upon dogs or upon little pole travois drawn by dogs. The people themselves had to walk. In those times they did not travel far, nor often. But when they got horses they could move more easily from place to place. Then they could kill more of the buffalo and other animals, and so they got more meat for food and gathered more skins for lodges and clothing.

We planted corn every year when I was a little girl in the Black Hills. With sharpened sticks we punched holes in the ground, dropped in grains of corn, then went hunting all summer. When the grass died we returned and gathered the crop. But the Pawnee and the Arikaras got to stealing or destroying our growing food, so we had to quit the plantings. We got into the way then of following all the time after the buffalo and

other game herds.

We learned of vegetable foods growing wild. We gathered wild turnips, wild sweet potatoes and other root foods. We found our best places for berries. . . .”

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

1. How did the acquisition of horses change the Northern Cheyenne’s way of life?

2. When Iron Teeth was a little girl, how did the Northern Cheyenne obtain food in the Black Hills? How

did this change?

3. The Pawnee and Arikaras were other Indian tribes adapting to life on the Great Plains. Why do you

think they stole or destroyed the corn planted by the Northern Cheyenne? How did the Northern

Cheyenne respond to theft and destruction?

4. What can you infer about women’s economic activities in this society?

Source 2: Excerpt from Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer

Wooden Leg was a Northern Cheyenne warrior who lived during the nineteenth century. He witnessed the transition from traditional life on the Plains to life on reservations. He participated in several famous battles, including the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which the Cheyenne called the Battle of the Greasy Grass. Like other Cheyenne warriors, Wooden Leg was also responsible for hunting buffalo and other wildlife that his band depended on. In this excerpt, he describes how hunting brought the Cheyenne into conflict with the Crow, another tribe on the Great Plains.

“Great herds of buffalo west of the Bighorn used to draw the Cheyenne over into that Crow country for the hunt. We camped on the eastern side but our hunting parties crossed the river and went as far as Shooting at the Bank Creek. Each hunter led one or more pack horses to carry the meat and skins taken… As we were camped on the east side of the Bighorn…three Crows were seen one day chasing antelope on our side of the river. Report of their presence there was brought to our camp. An old man herald mounted his pony and went about the camp circle calling out: ‘Crows are after our antelope herds. They may steal our horses.’ Six Cheyenne young men got their war clothing packs, mounted their war ponies, and set out to find the bold Crows… They crossed the Bighorn River…During the course of the pursuit they killed two

Crows. The third one was followed on to the main Crow camp beside Shooting at the Bank Creek. The six Cheyennes lingered there to spy upon the camp. The lingering was too extended, for soon they found themselves engaged in a fight with a much larger band of Crows. A Cheyenne wearing a double tailed warbonnet had his horse shot down, then the man himself was shot through the thigh, this disability rendering him an easy mark for fatal blows that soon fell upon him.

Excerpted from Marquis, Thomas B. Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer. Lincoln: University of

Nebraska Press, 1957. [Originally published as A Warrior Who Fought Custer in 1931.]

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

1. According to Wooden Leg, why did the Cheyenne cross the river into Crow territory?

2. Horses allowed Plains Indians to hunt buffalo over larger territories. What does Wooden Leg say are

two other uses for horses? Why do you think the Cheyenne were so concerned that the Crow would steal

their horses?

3. What does Wooden Leg’s description tell you about the life of young men in a warrior society?

Source 3: Tipis

Plains Indians tribes like the Northern Cheyenne used tipis for shelter. Tipis were made of buffalo hides attached to wooden poles, and could be quickly assembled, dismantled, and transported. Usually, the members of one family slept in a single tipi. Tipis and outdoor cooking were the domain of women. Most of the family's work was accomplished outside the tipi, as the Cheyenne to take advantage of natural light and avoid the danger of large fires inside the tipis. Women also made the tipis, and were responsible for setting up, taking down, and transporting tipis and their contents.

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

1. Why was it so important that tipis were easy to build and transport? How are they an example of the

Northern Cheyenne’s adaptation to life on the Great Plains?

2. What do tipis tell you about the importance of the buffalo in Northern Cheyenne society?

3. How did women’s labor support the nomadic way of life on the Great Plains?

Source 4: Bladder Bag

In the nineteenth century, the Northern Cheyenne and other Plains Indians used bags made from the

bladders of buffalo to transport various materials, including water. After a buffalo was killed, its bladder

was inflated with air and then dried. The bags were then rubbed between the hands to soften them. They

held about two liters of liquid. Source: http://www.kshs.org/p/american-indians-and-the-buffalo/16095

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER:

1. Which members of Northern Cheyenne society do you think made bladder bags? Why do you think so?

2. Who do you think used bladder bags and in what ways?

3. In what ways was the practice of using bladder bags an adaptation by the Northern Cheyenne to life on

the arid Great Plains?