George Bird Grinnell On the Cheyenne Indians – 1915

George Bird Grinnell, The Fighting Cheyennes,

(1915; repr. Massachusetts: J G Press, [1995]), pp. v, vi.

‘When [the Cheyenne’s] struggles with the white man began, some of their older and wiser men strove earnestly to preserve peace, but their efforts failed.

In an Indian camp individual liberty is the law, and the Cheyennes were a proud, headstrong, and obstinate people.

‘During these first wars between the whites and the Cheyennes, the United States Government was struggling for its very life.

Its attention was concentrated on the war between the North and the South, and the movements of a few Indians on the thinly settled frontier attracted little notice.

The so-called Sand Creek Massacre took place toward the close of the Civil War, and the ensuing interference with trans-Missouri travel led to an inquiry by Congress.

The published results of this inquiry first made this tribe known to the general public. As more and more people pushed into the West, there was more and more fighting with Indians, until in 1878-9 it ceased so far as the Cheyennes were concerned.

‘For many years the government of the Indians by the United States, was carried on in haphazard and often dishonest fashion by officials alike ignorant and careless of the customs and ways of thought of the savages with whom they were dealing. The killing of a large number of [Cheyenne] men, women and children at Fort Robinson in January, 1879, was the direct result of such unfortunate ignorance.

‘Since the Indians could not write, the history of their wars has been set down by their enemies, and the story has been told always from the hostile point of view.

White writers have lauded white courage and claimed white successes.

If it has been necessary to confess defeat, they have abused those who overcame them, as the defeated always abuse the victors.’

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