ATLAS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA AND THE CLASH OF CULTURES
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CHEYENNE AUTUMN The Northern Cheyenne under head chief Little Wolf and the aging Dull Knife vowed to bring their people back home up north. Two hundred and eighty-four people that included 87 men, counted from age thirteen, stole away their guarded camp on the reservation during the night of September 8, 1878, undetected and headed north. They included the old, the sick, and the new born. Their fifteen hundred mile, seventy day journey became known as the Cheyenne Autumn. A few of the Southern Cheyenne headed north with the cousins from the north, mostly young braves who soon turned back unaccustomed to Little Wolff's harsh regimen and his rule that the Cheyenne would only kill soldiers and only after the soldiers shot first. There was to be no wanton killing of civilian settlers, but civilians manning government way stations and the like, suffered if they resisted. The Cheyenne needed horses. The need became acute around the Arkansas as the army began to close in on all sides. Desperate measures drove the Cheyenne to extremes, and Little Wolf regrettably allowed his rule to be problem, but no women and children were to be harmed. But it was not the Cheyenne way, and soon the rule was reinstated. Across the Platte after about a month of pain, hunger and death with soldiers all around and with winter fast approaching, Dull Knife declared that it was foolish to attempt to make it all the way to the Yellowstone. He counseled for the Red Cloud Agency, not knowing that it had been closed and that the new reservation was at Pine Ridge, but that would be of little matter. Little Wolf stood for the country of the Yellowstone. With heavy hearts, the Cheyenne went their two ways. About half followed Dull Knife as he led out from camp: 46 men, 61 women, and 42 children—149 people in all with 131 horses, and nine mules. Dull Knife and those with him were captured in late October and interred at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. Told they were to be returned south, they broke free on the night of January 9, 1879. (Their food, water, and heat had been cut off for their refusal to accede to the move.) They were 130, including 44 men counting eleven year olds. The rest women and children—no horses, no mules, a few scraps of food, old blankets, and a couple of rifles and few revolvers that they had hidden, into the cloudless winter night through a broken window. Thirty died and 35 were captured, mostly wounded, that same night within hours of the break.
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Atlas of the Indian Tribes of the Continental United States
and the Clash of Cultures
The Atlas identifies of the Native American tribes of the United States and chronicles the conflict of cultures and Indians' fight for self-preservation in a changing and demanding new word. The Atlas is a compact resource on the identity, location, and history of each of the Native American tribes that have inhabited the land that we now call the continental United States and answers the three basic questions of who, where, and when. Regretfully, the information on too many tribes is extremely limited. For some, there is little more than a name.
The history of the American Indian is presented in the context of America's history—its westward expansion, official government policy and public attitudes. By seeing something of who we were, we are better prepared to define who we need to be.
The Atlas will be a convenient resource for the casual reader, the researcher, and the teacher and the student alike. A unique feature of this book is a master list of the varied names by which the tribes have been known throughout history.
About the Author
Nicholas J. Santoro was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated from Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, with a Bachelor of Science degree and attended graduate school at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Following service with the U.S. Army in Europe, Mr. Santoro spent a number of years in the financial services industry and is a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. In recent years he has devoted full time to the study of American history and work in historical research and the maintenance and preservation of historical archives. He is the author of Atlas of Slavery and Civil Rights (2006); Pivotal Events that Shaped a Nation 1789 - 2000 (2007); and American in the 1930s: The Building Years (2007, not available commercially). Other works include Bank Operations Management (1992). He lives with his wife in Kansas City.