Cheyenne

Boggsville, Cradle of the Colorado Cattle Industry

Map of the Boggsville and Las Animas area

The manuscript “Boggsville, Cradle of the Colorado Cattle Industry” by C. W. Hurd, published by the Boggsville Committee in 1957, serves as an introductory exploration of the rich history of Boggsville, Bent County, and the Arkansas Valley. This work aims to address the frequently asked questions from locals, tourists, and history enthusiasts about the notable individuals and events that shaped the region during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The manuscript provides a glimpse into the lives of pioneers who were instrumental in taming the frontier and establishing the foundations of the Colorado cattle industry. It highlights the significance of Boggsville as a central point in the pioneer narrative of the West, emphasizing the area’s contributions to the development of the cattle industry in America.

General History of the Western Indian Tribes 1851-1870 – Indian Wars

At the Sand Creek Massacre

Up to 1851, the immense uninhabited plains east of the Rocky Mountains were admitted to be Indian Territory, and numerous tribes roamed from Texas and Mexico to the Northern boundary of the United States. Then came the discovery of gold in California, drawing a tide of emigration across this wide reservation, and it became necessary, by treaty with the Indians, to secure a broad highway to the Pacific shore. By these treaties the Indians were restricted to certain limits, but with the privilege of ranging, for hunting purposes, over the belt thus re-reserved as a route of travel.

William Cody – “Buffalo Bill” His Life and Adventures – Indian Wars

gen phil sheridan

One of the best known, and since the death of the renowned Kit Carson, probably the most reliable guide on the Western frontier, is William Cody, otherwise known as “Buffalo Bill.” His exploits have been the theme of a dozen novelists, and in the year just past (1870-72) his movements have been as accurately and frequently chronicled by the daily press throughout the country as they would have been had he been an official magnate of the highest degree. There is something especially attractive in the romance attending the career of one of these noted hunters, which never palls upon … Read more

Explanation of Plot of Cheyenne Village Site on Sheyenne River – Tributary of Red River

Dr. O. G. Libby, of University, N. D., and Dr. A. B. Stout, of the New York Botanical Garden, who ten years ago examined this old Cheyenne village site on the Sheyenne River, most kindly consent that I should announce the results of their work there; and Dr. Melvin R. Gilmore, Curator of the Historical Society of North Dakota, where the maps and notes on this village site are deposited, agrees that the material should be published. This generous permission enables me to add to this paper the maps made in 1908 by Dr. Libby and Dr. Stout, as well … Read more

Early Cheyenne Villages

Cheyenne Sun Dance

Information as to the region occupied by the Cheyenne in early days is limited and for the most part traditional. Some ethnologists declare that Indian tradition has no historical value, but other students of Indians decline to assent to this dictum. If it is to be accepted we can know little of the Cheyenne until they are found as nomads following the buffalo over the plains. There is, however, a mass of traditional data which points back to conditions at a much earlier date quite different from these. In primitive times they occupied permanent earth lodges and raised crops of corn, … Read more

Cheyenne Genealogy

Researchers who believe they are descended from the Cheyenne will be limited in their research to the amount of records available which provide specific names, and even further, those records which provide proof of relationships. The first source for Cheyenne genealogy should be the Free US Indian Census Schedules 1885-1940 as they cover the years of 1885-1940 and you will likely only need to go back to a grandparent to find somebody alive in the 1930’s. Determining an ancestor in these records would verify descendancy, especially in those census after 1930 when the degree of Indian Blood is provided. Proving descent … Read more

Otter Creek Homesteaders

Otter Creek flows north into Montana out of the highlands in Wyoming and empties into the Tongue River at Ashland. Capt. Calvin Howes developed one of the earliest ranches on Otter Creek. He arrived in Montana in the early 1880’s and established the Circle Bar O Ranch on the lower Powder River. In 1884, Captain Howes drove 2,000 head of cattle from Texas to Otter Creek and maintained a successful cattle operation that survived the disastrous winter of 1886-87. The Creek’s naming is attributed to Howes. In total there were 50 families, 246 people on Otter Creek/Tongue River – Little … Read more

Tongue River Homesteaders

In January 1881, all of the Northern Cheyenne that were sent to Fort Keogh were eventually allowed to move south and take homesteads near the Tongue River and on Rosebud and Muddy Creeks under the Indian Homestead Act of 1875. However, in 1900, the Northern Cheyenne families were removed or agreed to move under duress off of their private or individual holdings on which the Army under General Miles’ command had helped them settle and placed on the newly expanded reservation. In 1884 the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation was created on unsurveyed lands north of Tongue River. The Reservation boundaries … Read more

Sand Creek Massacre

On the night of November 28, 1864, about seven hundred and fifty men, cavalry and artillery, were marching eastward across the plains below Fort Lyon. There was a bitter, determined look on their hard-set features that betokened ill for some one. For five days they had been marching, from Bijou Basin, about one hundred and fifty miles to the northwest, as the crow flies, but some fifty miles farther by their route. When they started the snow was two to three feet deep on the ground, but, as they progressed, it had become lighter, and now the ground was clear. … Read more

Desire to Punish the Cheyenne Indians

It is equally certain that the desire of punishing these Indians was increased, with loyal people, by the belief that their hostility was produced by Southern emissaries. How far their hostility was so produced will never be definitely known, but there was reason for the belief, without doubt. Soon after the beginning of the war the insurgents had occupied Indian Territory and enrolled many Indians in Confederate regiments. The loyal Indians tried to resist, but, after two or three engagements, about seven thousand of them were driven into Kansas. From the men among them three regiments were organized, and the … Read more

Were the Cheyenne Responsible for the Sand Creek Massacre?

But were the Cheyennes responsible for all this? Quite as much so as any of the tribes. They began stealing stock early in the spring, and, on April 13, a herdsman for Irving, Jackmann, & Co. reported that the Cheyennes and Arapahoes had run off sixty head of oxen and a dozen mules and horses from their camp, thirty miles south of Denver. Lieutenant Clark Dunn was sent after them with a small party of soldiers. He overtook them as they were crossing the Platte, during a heavy snowstorm. A parley was commenced, but was interrupted by part of the … Read more

Ash Hollow and Cheyenne Expedition

In 1856, eight years after our last look at the eastern edge of the Mountain country, there had not been much alteration in its appearance in the matter of settlements. There still remained the two pueblos on the Arkansas, one at the mouth of the Fontaine Que Bouille, the present city of Pueblo, Colorado, and the other some thirty miles farther up the stream, called Hardscrabble. The former was established in 1840, and the latter two or three years later. Their character may be gathered from the following extract from a letter of Indian agent Fitzpatrick, in 1847: “About seventy-five … Read more

Tribes of the Pike’s Peak Region

A Comanche Village

It would be interesting to know who were the occupants of the Pike’s Peak region during prehistoric times. Were its inhabitants always nomadic Indians? We know that semi-civilized peoples inhabited southwestern Colorado and New Mexico in prehistoric times, who undoubtedly had lived there ages before they were driven into cliff dwellings and communal houses by savage invaders. Did their frontier settlements of that period ever extend into the Pike’s Peak region? The facts concerning these matters, we may never know. As it is, the earliest definite information we have concerning the occupants of this region dates from the Spanish exploring … Read more

Rev. Frank Wright, a Choctaw Indian

Third session, Thursday morning, October 17 Rev. Frank Wright, a Choctaw Indian, was introduced as the next speaker. Rev. Frank Wright. With the Choctaws the land question is, When shall we get hold of our land? All we want is the land. We were the first of the five tribes to agree to take it in severalty, and we are the last to get our allotments. I do not know why. So far as making farmers of the Indians, in dealing with a man you have got to take him as you find him. You cannot make blacksmiths of all … Read more

Games of the Plains Tribes

Amusements and gambling are represented in collections by many curious devices. Adults rarely played for amusement, leaving such pastime to children; they themselves played for stakes. Most American games are more widely distributed than many other cultural traits; but a few seem almost entirely peculiar to the Plains. A game in which a forked anchor-like stick is thrown at a rolling ring was known to the Dakota, Omaha, and Pawnee. So far, it has not been reported from other tribes. Hoop Game Another game of limited distribution is the large hoop with a double pole, the two players endeavoring to … Read more

Treaty of February 15, 1861

Articles of agreement and convention made and concluded at Fort Wise, in the Territory of Kansas, on the eighteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, by and between Albert G. Boone and F. B. Culver, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the following named chiefs and delegates, representing the confederated tribes of Arapahoe and Cheyenne Indians of the Upper Arkansas River, viz: Little Raven, Storm, Shave-Head, and Big-Mouth, (on the part of the Arapahoes), and Black Kettle, White Antelope, Lean Bear, Little Wolf, and Left Hand, or Namos … Read more

Treaty of May 10, 1868

Articles of a treaty made and concluded at Fort Laramie, Dakota Territory, on the tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, by and between the undersigned commissioners on the part of the United States, and the undersigned chiefs and head-men of and representing the Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapahoe Indians, they being duly authorized to act in the premises. Article 1. From this day forward peace between the parties to this treaty shall forever continue. The Government of the United States desires peace, and its honor is hereby pledged to keep … Read more