Cheyenne History Timeline

About 1730, Cheyenne introduced horse culture to Lakota bands, helping transform mobility, hunting, and warfare across the Plains.

By 1776, the Lakota had overwhelmed the Cheyenne and taken over much of their territory near the Black Hills.

Around 1811, the Cheyenne formally allied with the Arapaho. The alliance strengthened both peoples and remained important throughout their history.

With the help of the Medicine Arrows, the Cheyenne massacred a Crow camp in 1820, reflecting their long conflict with the Crow.

A notable 1836 fight along the Washita River with the Kiowa resulted in the deaths of 48 Cheyenne warriors of the Bowstring Society.

Many Cheyenne and Arapaho attacked a Kiowa and Comanche camp along Wolf Creek in Oklahoma, causing heavy losses on both sides.

Conflict among the Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, and Plains Apache ended in 1840 when the tribes formed an alliance.

The Cheyenne’s southern expansion and alliance with the Kiowa led to their first raid into Mexico in 1853.

An incident at the Platte River Bridge near present-day Casper, Wyoming, resulted in the wounding of a Cheyenne warrior and contributed to rising hostilities.

After attacks along the emigrant trail, Colonel Edwin V. Sumner led the 1st Cavalry Regiment against the Cheyenne in the spring of 1857.

Colorado territorial governor John Evans and militia commander John Chivington began attacks against Indigenous people camping and hunting on the Plains.

Image source: Colorado War

The US Army closed the road across the Plains from August 15 through September 24, 1864, amid escalating conflict with Cheyenne and Arapaho communities.

Colorado militia attacked a Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment led by Black Kettle at Sand Creek, despite its flag of truce and stated allegiance to the United States.

Image source: Sand Creek massacre

About 1,000 Cheyenne and allied warriors carried out a retaliatory attack on Camp Rankin, a stage station and fort at Julesburg.

George Armstrong Custer and his troops attacked Black Kettle’s band at the Battle of Washita River.

Image source: Battle of the Washita River

Northern Cheyenne fought alongside Lakota and Arapaho forces in the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876.

Image source: Battle of the Little Bighorn

Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie’s column discovered and defeated a Northern Cheyenne village in Wyoming Territory on November 25, 1876.

The Pawnee captured the Cheyenne’s Sacred Arrows during an attack on a hunting camp around 1830, an important event in Cheyenne religious history.

A cholera epidemic reached the Plains Indians in 1849 and caused severe loss of life among the Cheyenne and other Indigenous peoples.

Indian Affairs counted 3,446 Cheyenne people: 2,037 Southern Cheyenne in Oklahoma and 1,409 Northern Cheyenne in Montana and South Dakota.

A Cheyenne named Three Fingers gave the horn back to the Hat, part of the history of the Sacred Medicine Hat Bundle.

A sacred pipe that had come into the possession of Burnt All Over was given by Hattie Goit of Poteau, Oklahoma, to the Oklahoma Historical Society.

The Oklahoma Historical Society negotiated with the Northern Cheyenne to return the sacred pipe to James Black Wolf, tribal keeper of the Sacred Medicine Hat Bundle.

The 2020 US census counted 22,979 Cheyenne, reflecting substantial population recovery during the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 affirmed Cheyenne and Arapaho territory on the Great Plains between the North Platte River and the Arkansas River.

Image source: Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851)

Beginning in 1859, the Colorado Gold Rush brought European-American settlers into lands reserved for the Cheyenne and other Plains peoples.

Image source: Pike's Peak gold rush

US negotiations with Black Kettle and other peace advocates produced the Treaty of Fort Wise, which exchanged the territory guaranteed in 1851 for a much smaller reservation in southeastern Colorado.

Image source: Treaty of Fort Wise

Led by Little Wolf and Dull Knife, a portion of the Northern Cheyenne began returning north on September 9, 1878. Most were recaptured or killed after escaping in severe winter conditions in January 1879.

After the Dull Knife Fight and Crazy Horse’s surrender at Fort Robinson, several Cheyenne chiefs and their people also surrendered. They sought to live with the Sioux under the 1868 Fort Laramie treaty.

President Chester A. Arthur established the Tongue River Indian Reservation, now the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, by executive order, covering 371,200 acres.

President William McKinley extended the reservation to the west bank of the Tongue River, increasing its area to 444,157 acres.