Description: Now available in paperback, this sweeping, sympathetic ethnographic history covers the story of the Cheyenne people from their prehistoric origins north of the Great Lakes to their present life in the reservations in Oklahoma. It is based on archaeological material as well as historical and linguistic evidence, and draws vividly on the oral traditions of the Cheyenne themselves.

After an investigation of Cheyenne origins, the author describes the troubled relationship between this people and the European settlers they encountered. Early contacts were largely peaceful, and it was not until well after the American Revolution, when the Cheyenne became involved in the intricacies of the Civil War, that full-scale conflict broke out between them and the US Federal army. The tragic massacre of Cheyenne women and children at Sand Creek was avenged two decades later at the Battle of Little Big Horn, but the scale and swiftness of Federal retaliation served ultimately to accelerate the driving of the Cheyenne from their traditional lands to reservations in the south.

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