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Varying Culture of the Northern Cheyenne University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1956 Varying culture of the Northern Cheyenne Verne Dusenberry The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Dusenberry, Verne, "Varying culture of the Northern Cheyenne" (1956). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 4004. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/4004 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NOTE TO USERS Page(s) not included in the original manuscript are unavailable from the author or university. The manuscript was microfilmed as received 11 This reproduction is the best copy available. UMT THE VARYING GULTTIRE OF TFE NORTHERN GHEYZNNE by VERNE DUSMBÏRRY B. S. Mantana State College, 1927 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts ^ MDNTANA STATE UNIVERSITY 1956 Approved b; ^ Deexi. Graduate School \ \ UMI Number: EP34218 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent on the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT Dtoiwtiitfon PiMiMna UMI EP34218 Copyright 2012 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing may be a solitary work, but any writer of facttial material is dependent upon others for the information he presents. So it is with this study. Had it not been for the interest and the hospitality of Carl Pearson, Superintendent of the Northern Cheyenne Agency at Lame Deer, I would have never met the Cheyenne or known their stozy. To Pearson and to his wife, Ruth, I am much indebted, not only for my introduction to the tribe, but as well, for their generous hospitality when I am in Lame Deer, and for their genuine interest in the work I am doing by making available all resources possible. W. R. Hopperstad, social worker for the Northern Cheyenne, has also been most helpful to me as has Frank Cady, owner of the second-hand store at Lame Deer. Mr. Cady*8 business place becomes the central clearing agency for me when I am working in Lams Deer, for at his place I can find where various Indian people are located. Mr. Cady always cheerfully assists in helping make the arrangements for m.e to meet them. To the Northern Cheyenne themselves, I am extremely grateful. Without receiving pay for their services, either as interpreters or infor­ mants, they have cooperated graciously and have given me the information I have desired. The late Eugene Fisher, John Stands-in-Timber, and Rufus \ Wall owing have been especially helpful. I am appreciative of the help given me by Mrs. James Willard (Jess iii iv Donaldson) Schultz and by tfrs. Adrien L. (Florence Ratson) Hess. And to Professor Oarling Malouf, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Mantana State University, goes an untold amount of credit, not only for sharing his knowledge but for the hours of time and patience that he willingly and cheerfully gave to me. Lastly, to my wife, f&rgaret Dusenberry, vho by working and sacrificing her own interests, made this study possible financially. N \ TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgments ill List of Tables vi List of Illustrations vii Introduction 1 Chapter I. LEGENDS AND MEMDRIES OF A SEDENTiRY PEOPLE .... 6 Earliest î-îëmories. First Historical References. Archaelogical Evidences. The Sutaio.. II. THE PLAINS AND WAR, 1825-1877 20 First Treaty. Division of the Tribe. • Waî-s vrith the Whites. Lavement of the Northern Group into Montana. Battle of the Little Big Horn and Subsequent Events. III. THE RESERVATION YEARS—COOPERATION AND DISPAIR . 4-0 • Farming along the Yellowstone. Establishment of the Reservation; Disputes. Over Boundaries. Introduction of Schools and Churches. Govern­ mental Policies. IV. PCLITICAL STRUCTURE—THEN ATH) NOW 71 The Council of Forty-four. Bands. The Mlitary Societies. Women*8 Societies. V. SOCIAL RELATIONS—PAST AI® PRESEîfT 98 Conception, Pregnancy, and Birth. Naming. Education. Courtship and t:krriage. Polygyny. Divorce. Women. Death. Institutionalized Friendships. Berdaches. Marder. VI. SOI^ffi RELIGIOUS CERI^'JDNIES AND BELIEFS 130 Renewal of the Arrows. The Sacred Hat. Ta-soofli*. Mstai, Spirits. Cardinal Directions. Sweat Lodge Symbolism. VII. CONCLUSION. 151 LIST OF TABLES Table Page I Band Divisions of the Cheyenne 81 II Area Names for Northern Cheyenne Residents 84 III Cheyenne Mlitary Societies 86 \ \ LIST CF ILLUSTRATIONS Group Interview Charles Sitting îÈin Tip! Housing the Sacred ïïat vli INTRODUCTION The Northern Cheyenne, numbering approximately two thousand people, live on their reservation in parts of Big Horn and Rosebud counties in southeastern Montana. Their agency. Lame Deer, is approx­ imately sixty-five miles south of Forsyth, Montana, and one hundred and five miles southeast of Billings. Although I have spent nearly twenty years in rather close association with Indian people in Montana, it was not until the summer of 1954 that I first met the Cheyenne. Having had a Northern Cheyenne student in one of my classes part of the preceding quarter and feeling confident that knowing one person would be helpful in meeting others, I went to their annual Sun Dance. And I was totally unprepared for vh&t I found. Instead of the friendly cooperation that I usually encounter when I go to a strange reservation, I received monosyllabic replies when I asked for my former student. (Months later, I learned that he was in a hospital on the Wind River reservation in %-oming.) Instead of hearing the native language spoken only by a few of the older people, I heard nothing but the Cheyenne tongue being used. Instead of seeing dark-skinned people with varying degrees of color, I saw a people all of whom were dark. (Later, I learned that 80 percent of them are listed on the agency rolls as full bloods.) Instead of seeing an ostentatious display of wealth reflected s in dress and in automobiles, I saw poorly garbed individuals driving old and delapidated cars. And I saw horses everywhere with youngsters riding 1 2 them barebacked with the aplomb and, grace that one associates with Indian . riders—but what one rarely sees on reservations today, I remained but two days. The rebuffs were courteous but firm. At first, after I had returned home, I was puzzled by the attitude that I had seen, but then I decided that I had found a people \iho were still Indians—perhaps as Indian as any that could be found In the Northwest. Certainly, more Indian than any in Montana. Later in the summer, I wrote to the superintendent, Carl Pearson, \dio not only cordially invited me to return to the reservation but informed me that many of the old records of the Northern Cheyenne were available at Lame Deer and that I would be welcome to use them. When the summer session ended, I went back to Lame Deer. Through the efforts of the superintend­ ent, I met two of the tribal leaders—John Stands-in-Timber and the late Eugene Fisher, then president of the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council. They were extremely cooperative and friendly. From ttiem and from the old records I secured sufficient information for an article on the Northern Cheyenne which I later published. The two weeks I spent on the reserva­ tion at that time opened many doors that two months before looked closed to me forever. Since then, I have visited the reservation several times. Ifeny of the Northern Cheyenne read my article and commented to me pleasantly about it. Others have volunteered other information to me. While now I feel that the Northern Cheyenne are as friendly and cooperative and courteous as any Indian people whom I have met, I am still convinced that they are more nearly allied with the past than are any other tribe whom \ I have visited. When the time came for me to make a study of an Indian tribe in the Northwest, I chose the Northern Cheyenne because of this 3 personal reaction, this intuitive feeling—that they are Indians. To make a complete study of their acculturation would have been a project too big for the time allotted. Consequently, I decided to see if I could determine if anything in their history indicated the resistance to change that a cursory acquaintanceship with the Northern Cheyenne today seemed to show. To my surprise, I found the Cheyenne to have been an adaptable people, and, as my reading progressed, ones whose culture has been varied and changing. Basically, the study is one of enculturation. To understand why the Northern Cheyenne are more Indian-like in their attitude today, one has to study the process of enculturation as it operates on mature people. Herskovits defines enculturation^ as being that procéss that "marks off man from other creatures," and "the means of which he achieves competence in his culture." He elaborates upon the definition further by saying that "the enculturation of the individual in the early years of his life is the prime mechanism making for cultural stability, while the process, as it operates on more mature folk, is highly important in inducing change." Enculturation, then, operates on two levels.
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