Archive for the ‘Cheyenne’ Category
Little Wolf at Laramie by Alexander Gardner, 1868
Little Wolf was married to Quiet One and Feather on Head, and he had two sons, Pawnee and Woodenthigh, and a daughter, Pretty Walker.
— inkpaduta1981
Little Wolf and Others at Fort Laramie by Alexander Gardner, 1868
According to P. Powell, the man on the left is Short Hair, a Cheyenne council chief, who was obviously in mourning at the time and kind of feebleminded. I remember reading somewhere that the man in the center could be Dull Knife.
— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
Little Wolf and Dull Knife in Washington, 1873
Little Wolf and His Wife by George Bird Grinnell, 1898
Little Wolf by Grinnell (from the Roberts Article in Montana Magazine)
— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
There were two prominent Cheyenne named Little Hawk.
- The first one was a Southerner, a member of the Dog Soldier band, who was also called Young Bull Robe.
- The other Little Hawk was a Northern Cheyenne, who was a Elkhorn Scraper society member. He was fighting in the battles at the Rosebud and Little Bighorn when he was twenty-eight years old. He left his account to Grinnell in 1908 (see Jerome Greene: Lakota and Cheyenne and Peter Powell: People of the Sacred Mountain).
Here is a photo labeled Little Hawk, Northern Cheyenne, 1880s:
Little Hawk
Because there are several Indian individuals named Little Hawk, it is not definite that this is the Cheyenne. Instead this also could be a Brule of that name.
— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
LittleWolf and Dull Knife, 1873
Dull Knife (or Morning Star, as he was called by the Cheyennes) was not at the Little Bighorn. He was one of the few Northern Cheyenne Council Chiefs that had remained close to the White River Agency to show the whites that he wished to remain at peace. Other Chiefs who stayed at the agency were Turkey Leg, Standing Elk, Spotted Elk, Living Bear, and Black Bear.
The most important Cheyenne Chief Little Wolf only arrived shortly after the battle ended.
Most of the other 44 Council Chiefs of the Northern Cheyenne were at the Little Bighorn at the time of the battle. The two Old Man Chiefs Old Bear and Black Moccasin (a/k/a Limber Lance) were regarded as the principal Chiefs. (See Father Peter Powell: People of the Sacred Mountain.)
In some Indian accounts you can find the name Dull Knife. Often he is confused with Lame White Man. I guess the other reason is that Dull Knife’s son Bull Hump, often called Dull Knife himself, was in the battle.
— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
Apparently Dull Knife was either unlucky or did not have enough skill as a leader.
It was his village that was attacked in November 1876 by the military that broke the back of the Northern Cheyenne. This after several warriors insisted that the village stay put and celebrate all night over some minor victory over other Indians.
It was Dull Knife and Little Wolf that separated the band. Dull Knife’s people were eventually captured and sent to an army fort and imprisoned in barracks after they refused to go to another reservation. They broke out of barracks on a winter night after the military refused them food, water, and heat only to have most of them shot down. Little Wolf’s band hid out for the winter and eventually surrendered under better conditions.
— Crzhrs
Dull Knife was one of the most peace-loving chiefs of the Cheyenne. He was elected as a council chief in 1854 when he was some forty-six winters old. Although he was a brave warrior in his younger days, he by then already possessed the wisdom of years. He was a strong peace man, who believed that the Cheyenne and the Whites must get along together.
— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
I read in Joe Starita’s book about the Dull Knife family that Chief Dull Knife (or Morning Star by his Cheyenne name) had one son (Bull Hump, his eldest) and four daughters with Pawnee Woman, his first wife, who he had stolen once from the Pawnee.
He had a second wife named Short One (or Slow Woman) who bore him three sons and three daughters.
So altogether he had four sons and seven daughters, who were called the “Beautiful People” by the army troops.
His wife Short One, his son Little Hump, and two daughters were killed on the flight back north in 1879.
His youngest son was George Dull Knife, born in 1875. Because he was only about three years old in 1879 and too weak to travel the hard way, he was left behind at the Darlington agency in Oklahoma with some Cheyenne relatives. He came to Pine Ridge in 1883 with 300 other Cheyenne and settled down in Yellow Bear’s Oglala camp. Since then George Dull Knife and his family is rated as Lakota not Cheyenne.
— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
This is often said to be a photo of Dull Knife. Perhaps it’s Buffalo Hump, his son:
Dull Knife or perhaps his son Buffalo Hump
— Grahame Wood
Bear Who Walks on a Ridge or Ridge Bear was a little chief or headman of the Kit Fox Society among the Northern Cheyennes.
He was in the village at the Bighorn Mountains that Reynolds attacked in early 1876, fighting there together with Two Moons, another Kit Fox little chief. Like all the other warrior society headman of the Northern Cheyenne, Ridge Bear was present at the Little Bighorn in June 1876. In spring 1877, he was among those Cheyennes surrendering to General Miles at the Yellowstone.
Some other sources indicate that Ridge Walker was another name for Bear Who Walks on a Ridge.
Ridge Walker was known to be an army scout in the 1880s. Later he and Porcupine were the Cheyennes who visited the prophet Wovoka to learn something about the Ghost Dance.
Does anybody know if these men are one and the same?
Here are two photos of Ridge Walker:
Ridge Walker
— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
Elva Stands In Timber, Northern Cheyenne Tribe:
I believe myself to be a bearer of the Cheyenne sacred traditions. They were taught to me by my Grandfather Robert Ridge Walker and Grandmother Ethel Ridge Walker. Both were born close to the time of the Little Big Horn fighting. My Grandmother Ethel was born three days after the battle, as the victorious Cheyennes were moving South to hunt buffalo, where Sheridan, Wyoming is today.
Ridge Walker was a bit older, and later he joined the Cheyenne Scouts at Fort Keogh. A strong traditionalist, he was one of the Piercing People. He offered the sacrifice of his own flesh eight times, twice the sacred four times, to bring Maheo’s blessing to our people. Later, he was Stock Association Manager for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. Strong in the old holy ways, he and his Grandmother carried that strength through-out their lives of nearly a century each.
The name “Ridge Bear” was also known among the Arapaho at Darlington.