The history of the Cheyennes is that of many of those wandering tribes
of the prairies. They were the remnant of a once powerful people called
the Shaways, inhabiting a branch of the Red River which flows into Lake
Winnipeg. Every Indian tribe has some rival tribe with which it wages
implacable hostility. The deadly enemies of the Shaways were the Sioux,
who, after a long course of warfare, proved too powerful for them, and
drove them across the Missouri. They again took root near the Warricanne
Creek, and established themselves there in a fortified village.
The Sioux still followed with deadly animosity; dislodged them from
their village, and compelled them to take refuge in the Black Hills,
near the upper waters of the Sheyenne or Cheyenne River. Here they lost
even their name, and became known among the French colonists by that of
the river they frequented.
The heart of the tribe was now broken; its numbers were greatly
thinned by their harassing wars. They no longer attempted to establish
themselves in any permanent abode that might be an object of attack
to their cruel foes. They gave up the cultivation of the fruits of
the earth, and became a wandering tribe, subsisting by the chase, and
following the buffalo in its migrations.
Their only possessions were horses, which they caught on the prairies,
or reared, or captured on predatory incursions into the Mexican
territories, as has already been mentioned.
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