Cheyenne are a group of Native Americans separated geographically into two groups, the Northern Cheyenne and the Southern Cheyenne. According to the 2020 United States census, there are about 10,000 Cheyenne. Some Northern Cheyenne live on a reservation in Montana, and some Southern Cheyenne live in Oklahoma. Many Cheyenne also live and work in cities.
All the Cheyenne once fished and hunted in the region around Lake Superior. After the mid-1700’s, they moved to the Great Plains, where they lived in tipis and hunted buffalo. In the early 1830’s, the Cheyenne divided into the Northern and Southern groups. Troops of the Colorado militia massacred more than 150 peaceful Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek, Colorado, in 1864. The survivors moved to a reservation in Oklahoma in 1869.
The Northern Cheyenne fought to keep their hunting lands when white settlers tried to take them. In 1876, Northern Cheyenne and Sioux forces defeated Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana. The U.S. government gave the Northern Cheyenne a reservation in Montana in 1884.
See also Black Kettle; Custer, George Armstrong; Indian wars (Wars on the Plains); Sand Creek Massacre; Washita Battlefield National Historic Site.
