
Overview
The Cheyenne culture is complex, deeply spiritual and beautiful, the Tsitsistas language is still spoken, and traditional people have retained their ways. Formerly named the Tongue River Indian Reservation, the 707 square miles of what nearly 5000 residents call ‘God’s Country’ is the home of the Tsitsistas – the Morning Star People, or the Northern Cheyenne. Following the so-called Indian Wars, the Northern Cheyenne were sent to Oklahoma to join their southern relatives, but the hot, humid climate of ‘Indian Territory’ did not suit them at all - the people got sick and were dying in terrible numbers. In desperation, a small band left and headed back up north to their traditional lands, an odyssey of sheer determination and incredible courage, now known as the Cheyenne Exodus, and the US government finally gave them their own reservation.
About Your Day
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A historical buffalo jump, where as part of the pact between the two and four-legged the buffalo sacrificed themselves that the People might live and be sustained.
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Hearing the stories of the Exodus and paying respects at burial sites of venerated chiefs Two Moons or Little Wolf.
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See the historic old Indian Agency then the modern Tribal Government building and learning about the Cheyenne systems of traditional versus BIA Indian governance, visit St Labre – the mission school, and other tribal galleries/trading posts to view and buy locally made arts.
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The Deer Medicine Rocks – the site of Sitting Bull’s vision prior to the Battle of the Little Bighorn where he saw the soldiers falling down into camp upside down, with no ears – signifying they had not listened to warnings and thus they would bring downfall upon themselves. .
