My Cheyenne Report!

Kristian B.
November 20, 1997
Writing
Indian Report

Clothing

The Cheyenne's clothing was made by deerskin, elk, and buffalo skins. The Cheyenne just like us wore robes and they were worn by both men and women. The head of the buffalo was on the left side and on the right side was the tail. The Cheyenne men wore leggings which are like pants. The leggings were made of deerskin and were decorated with beads, elk teeth, shells, and buffalo hooves on the fringe. The Cheyenne had special shorts called breechclout. Men wore them. They kept them up by tying a string around their waist. With the buffalo cloth in the front and the back. The men also wore shirts just like men today. The only difference is that goes to their knees. The Cheyenne decorations were silver coins hammered thin and tied to their clothes. Men took wire and braided their hair with otter hair, eagle feathers for older men. War bonnets were also made with eagle feathers. The women wore dresses of buffalo skin or deerskin which came to their ankles.

Food

Men did hunting and killed deer, elk, buffalo, mountain sheep, porcupines, antelope, fish, birds, reptiles, rabbits, and skunks. The women did all the harvesting. They found corn, squashes, beans, wild fruits, root, sugar, wild rice, eggs, tea, mint, nuts, berries, plums, and cherries. Here is how they made sap candy. Sap from trees boiled with shavings of meat. When cool it was a sweet treat.

Customs

When visiting a lodge, the visitor would go to the right and sit down. When the owner of the lodge welcomed you to come and sit down. It was bad manners to go between the fire and any people. You would have to walk behind the people.
When the owner of the lodge was smoking, no one could enter or leave the lodge. The owner would smoke and pass the pipe to the right, and each person would take a turn smoking. When it got to the person at the doorway, he could not pass it across. The pipe would go back to the owner, and then it would pass around to the left.

Games

Girls would sit across from each other and place a stick in front of them. They would use a round stone and roll it and if they hit the stick they would get a mark on the ground. After 10 turns each, the girl with the most marks would win the beads.
Girls and boys would pick a child who would go in the middle of the circle. They would all hold hands with their knuckles and fingers together. The child in the middle would try to break out and if they did all the children would chase after him. The child who tagged the other one would get to go in the middle and play again.

Chiefs

In the Cheyennes tribe the chiefs made all the decisions and were asked all the questions. The first duty of the chief was to take care of all the widows and orphans. The other chiefs duty was to be the peacemaker. He settled all the fights in the camp area. He could not argue with anyone. The chief gave all his heart and mind to helping his tribe. There were 44 chiefs in the Cheyenne nation. Four were the head chiefs, and there were 4 chiefs for each of the 10 tribes.

Homes

A winter house was built with willow twigs and clay mixed with stone. They put the clay over the twigs to make a house. They left a small hole in the top to let the smoke come out.
A summer and spring house was made from willow twigs covered with woven mats of woven grass.
Lodges were made with poles set into the ground and tied at the top. The holes between the poles were stuffed with grass. On the outside it was covered with sheets of bark. On the inside it was covered with dried hides.
When traveling, they would use the poles from dog loads and cover them with bundles of grass.

Location

The legend about where the Cheyenne came from. The Cheyenne used to live underground in a cave. They saw a light and traveled through the cave to the end. They came out and were on the land. The sun blinded their eyes. They saw rocks and made their houses from them. They saw rabbits and used them for food and clothing.
In the olden days, they crossed the Missouri river to the plains. Some stayed and some kept traveling west. Today the Northern Cheyenne live in Montana. The Southern Cheyenne live in Oklahoma.

Other stuff

The Cheyenne name means people of an alien speech in the Sioux language. The words for the tribes names means people who are alike. To show the name in sign language, put your right index finger across the left index finger several times. Which means striped arrows, because the tribe like to use turkey feathers on their arrows.

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page